Welcome to “Jim’s Gym”: New Lexington Renames Gymnasium After Beloved Community Figure

NEW LEXINGTON, OH – Jim Leckrone was a beloved figure in the New Lexington community for many years. Whether as an educator, principal, athletic director, or as president of the Muskingum Valley League, Jim is well known in the community and beyond.

His name will be forever etched within the walls of the school’s gym.

Jim’s family gathered for the official unveiling, and to honor a man who wore many hats over his life, seemingly all within the halls over the school, whichever building that it might have occupied, as Leckrone was instrumental in the high school’s transition in 2002.

“He graduated many classes through this building, and the other one. He was just a pillar of the community even after he retired. He was just loved by most of his students” his son, Todd Thompson, said with a chuckle.

“The other ones that he tortured to death went on to great things. That’s the grip, that’s the mark of a great educator, and that’s what he was.”

Jim retired in 2004 after serving as the school’s principal for nearly two decades, and five years later, he was inducted into the New Lexington Athletic Hall of Fame.

Thompson added, “He meant a lot to everybody, not just to our family, but to the whole community.”

Now known as ‘Jim Leckrone Gymnasium’, his legacy lives on as he will forever look over New Lexington.