Football players at Airport High School have long known Lawrence Gardner, who seems to have always been there. Gardner, also known as LG, has been described as the unintentional uncle of Airport football.

Gardner has been working at Airport High School for about 50 years, and during his time there he’s seen some of the best and worst moments in Airport football’s history.

His time with the football team began when he was a student, and since then, he has worked as a student trainer, the director of football operations and field house manager.

When Gardner was in ninth grade, he suffered an injury that ended his football career.

His coach asked him to come back to the team as equipment manager. Gardner was only an equipment manager for a year before he became one of first student trainers in Airports history.

“After I graduated, I did what all normal people do, I left and after two years of working for the city I came out here one day to practice,” he recalled. “And I was talking with then head coach Don Richardson and he said, ‘We could use you,’ and I said, ‘what time do you need me here tomorrow?’”

Gardner said he came out to practice that day because he needed a distraction from his nine-to-five life at the time. Gardner found himself working as a part-time equipment manager while still working for Cayce.

“It’s just a hobby, and like any hobby it can be aggravating at times and it can be gratifying at times … and it can be boring at times,” Gardner said.

After 37 years, Gardner became a full-time employee of Airport athletics.
Gardners passion for keeping players safe has played a major role in why he does what he does.

Many coaches in the past thought Gardner was crazy for washing uniform padding, but he said he does it to test their strength.

“If a pad breaks in the machine, it’s gonna break on the field and letting a player get injured isn’t gonna happen,” Gardner said.

Despite the sarcastic comments Gardner gives when he’s asked why he does this job, his caring for the team is obvious.

Atop a shelf in the equipment storage room is a small Tennessee football helmet signed by Paxton Brooks. Brooks played as a punter for the Tennessee Vols before graduating in 2022. But, before he was a Volunteer, he played on Airport’s football team.

“He doesn’t always admit it but nothing makes him happier than when old players come back to see him,” Craig O’Dell, a former Airport employee, said of Gardener.

Gardner’s office holds several treasures, including hats worn by past coaches and helmets from as late as the 1970s.

Gardner’s seen many notable players play on Airport’s field. In addition to Brooks, Gamecock and NFL Coach, Duce Staley, graduated from Airport back in the early-1990s.

“He’s been a part of a lot of people’s lives,” O’Dell told the Chronicle as he sat on the sidelines of the Brookland-Cayce game in late-August. “Very successful people come through here and he’s been a part of each of their lives.”

O’Dell is one of many to have met Gardner as a high school student, and his relationship with the equipment manager has only grown since then.
Gardner and O’Dell meet weekly for lunch and frequently attend Newberry College football games together.

Gardner has seen more than 75% of Airport’s football history, earning him the unofficial title of team historian.

His favorite season was the 1981 campaign, when he saw the Eagles end their season at the University of South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium playing for a state championship. The Eagles started the season off with a loss and then proceeded to win 11 out of the 14 games they played.

He remembers watching as the Eagles lost the championship on the last play of the game.

“And you talk about a bad afternoon, oh man, that day went south in a heartbeat,” Gardner said.

The weeks can be long, but Fridays are Gardner’s favorite day by far. The best part of his job is the mayhem that occurs on gameday whether they win or lose.

“There’s still good times even when you lose,” he said.

From players who can’t find a sock to junior varsity players annoying their upperclassmen teammates, Gardner finds the chaos Friday nights amusing.
“The only thing going to schedule around here is kickoff, everything else … well it happens when it happens,” Gardner told the Chronicle.

And that’s exactly what happens on game days. Players arrive at the locker rooms at staggered times, some asking for socks, others asking for jerseys they failed to pick up the night before.

No one quite has a timeline for when and where they should be, the only thing they do know is that at 7:30 p.m., they’ll be under the Friday night lights playing against the rival Brookland-Cayce Bearcats.

Gardner has a system that has kept him in the locker room until 5 or 6 a.m., washing jerseys and getting them ready for the next day.

He always washes the uniforms the night of the game, mainly to prevent smells and stains, but also because he can’t sleep knowing that there are messy uniforms laying around the locker room.

“We could play another game on Saturday morning,” O’Dell said. “The team wouldn’t be ready but their uniforms sure would be.”

O’Dell recalled times when he saw coaches coming in early on Saturday mornings to rewatch and finding Gardner walking out of the fieldhouse on his way home.

“He’d get them washed and dried and would lay them out in order, he’d have them laid out by size too,” the former employee said. “That way, when we came in on Saturdays, all we had to do was go through things to see what needed to be repaired and what could be put up.”

Part of being an athlete at Airport High is knowing Gardner and the role he plays on the football team. Gardner said he doesn’t really see an end to his time at Airport, acknowledging the team as the reason he gets out of bed.

“This stadium is my home,” he concluded. “I’ll be here until I can’t be here anymore.”