McKinnis finds calling in gymnastics

By SAM TALLARICO Eagle Staff Writer

July 11, 2004 Last Updated: January 06, 2005 12:14 PM Amateur

Entering his senior year at Butler High School, Dave McKinnis couldn't quite find his athletic calling.

Then, a trip into the school's gymnasium changed everything.

"I tried every sport," said McKinnis, 60, of Butler. "I had some success in baseball, but there were always people better. I played basketball up through the 10th grade, then got cut in 11th grade. I tried every event in track and field.

"Then I walked into the gym and Coach (Paul) Uram was there. Out of futility, I wanted to see what I could do.

"It was the sport I'd been looking for - he found it for me," McKinnis added.

"It" was gymnastics and McKinnis would absorb everything Uram taught him that season. Not only did he learn about the sport, but also about the hard work, flexibility and training that would help McKinnis - and thousands of others along the way - improve their performances.

"It's the one sport that if you're not the fastest, the strongest or the best in any measurable way, you can still solve the problem by working hard," said McKinnis.

McKinnis believed the timeframe in which he grew up - the post World War II era - was helpful in his development.

"The Butler area had great athletics. All those great athletes built this community," said McKinnis. "There was a blue-collar ethic, you had the family ethic and a work ethic. That's the type of environment I grew up in."

And he benefited from learning under Uram.

"Coach Uram was a great teacher," said McKinnis. "You would go to work and just do what he told you.

"There's no such thing as a natural in gymnastics. You might be great in one event, but not all six. The bottom line is work, and that's what I've learned," McKinnis added.

After graduation in 1962, he moved on to the University of Pittsburgh.

"We were not a great team, like 5-5, maybe 6-5 if we had a good season," said McKinnis. "They had a lot of kids like me, kids that wanted to do good."

Between his summer job at Armco and money from his dad, "I was able to get a good education.

"And the coach I had at Pitt, Warren Neiger, he'd been a gymnast at Penn State. He provided me with great opportunities and he took me everywhere," McKinnis added.

In 1966, McKinnis graduated from Pitt with a bachelor's degree in physical education. He earned a master's in education the following year.

"Those avenues opened up for me because of gymnastics," he added.

McKinnis was weighing job offers from Darien, Conn., and Evansville, Ind., before he got a chance to stay home.

"I got a call from Butler athletic director Ray Miller and Coach Uram, and that was the time Coach Uram was going to give up being the gymnastics coach. He wanted to spend more time with football."

So, at the age of 22, McKinnis found himself coaching gymnastics and teaching health education and, later, physical education and English).

One thing McKinnis knew going in was he was going to replace a legend. One thing he didn't know was how.

"Coach Uram was something like 107-0 and I got my first loss in my first season," said McKinnis. "I lost only one meet that year, but that was one more than he had."

Still, McKinnis was instilling in his athletes what Uram had done for him.

"I didn't feel it as pressure, but an obligation. There's a difference," said McKinnis. "I came home to keep teaching what my teacher taught me."

McKinnis stayed for 10 years at Butler before he accepted a position as the conditioning coach with the St. Louis Cardinals football team under head coach Don Coryell.

"My main role was using flexibility in its many ways, how it builds skills and reduces injuries. We had some success with that," he said.

McKinnis had conducted some summer camps with Washington Redskins head coach George Allen and with Coryell. He worked with some other college teams, putting his program in place.

"I was at a Pirates game (June 29) and they showed things from spring training, certain exercises Coach Uram and I had put together, only a little different. They're still in use today.

"The fundamentals, the kinesiology, physiology - it's been there all along. When you find a safe way, it'll survive," McKinnis added.

After spending one season with the Cardinals, Coryell was fired, but McKinnis was asked to stay on with the team.

"I just wasn't happy with that type of turmoil," said McKinnis.

He then moved to Georgia Southern University to coach gymnastics, but that lasted just one season.

"Things were going well, then they developed a football program and took our facility away."

McKinnis headed back to Butler to coach both the boys and girls gymnastics teams and to teach at the school in 1980.

In the mid-1980s, however, gymnastics was no longer a varsity sport at Butler.

"The state made some bad decisions," said McKinnis. "In light of (gymnastic) clubs, they opened the door for private businesses. If you take a high school team of kids that didn't have the means, well …

"Private businesses spend money to win. When you get to affluent areas, there's a lot of money out there," he added.

McKinnis, who coached the Tornado boys and girls programs for almost 19 years, doesn't see the sport returning to Butler or most high schools any time soon.

"You can never bring it back. The rules and demands of the sport are so difficult. You couldn't bring kids in on Aug. 18, train, then have your first meet in September. It takes years of training," he said.

In the early 1990s, McKinnis, who was inducted into the Butler County Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1991, went on to earn a physical therapy degree at Pitt.

He moved to the elementary school level - Northwest and Emily Brittain - to teach gym class, but not as much as he would like.

"There's only one gym class a week," said McKinnis. "That's the way it is in our society."

McKinnis has gotten back to coaching gymnastics, however. He has been the boys coach at Steve Heasley's Butler Gymnastics Center since 2000. Heasley is the girls coach.

"What I've done at the Heasley club is go back and help out," said McKinnis. "I take a small group of kids and work with them three hours a night and give them a really intense practice.

"The kids I have now, because of all the work I do, it's year round. We've had four kids make nationals which is really something," he added.

The program, according to McKinnis, is akin to a high school program.

"These kids have responded. All of our kids are in the top 25 percent of the top 200 kids in the nation. To me, that's what I hope is part of the Butler sports community.

"I wanted to come back and hope that I pass some of what I learned along," he added.