Ex-RB Wynn still ‘carrying the ball’

By John Inman
Mickey Wynn was an all-state running back at Heavener High School in the early 1960s  and he has been carrying the ball ever since, so to speak, as president and owner of his own insurance company in Mandeville, LA.

A broker for health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance with a securities license for 401(k) plans, Wynn has owned the company, Michael Wynn & Associates in Mandeville, LA , for almost 20 years, but he gives a great deal of the credit to his high school football coach, Bob Collins.

“I learned some life lessons from him. Life is not always easy. There are struggles, but I learned from him when you get knocked down, it doesn't do any good to moan and complain about ‘Why me’? You just have to get up and brush yourself off and start over or do it again and do it right this time,” explained Wynn. “Bob Collins was a super tough guy. He was hard on us and expected a lot, therefore I expect a lot from myself. I am so thankful for that experience and I told him that at a reunion we had of the football team several years ago.”

Photo courtesy MICKEY WYNN FISHING BUDDIES: Mickey Wynn (second from L) with brother-in-law Mark Strange, sons Kyle, Brett and Blake

But it wasn’t always easy.

Wynn, who turns 66 next month, remembers moving to Louisiana from Denver, where he worked with an oil company. “I had a great job. I loved it and they paid me well. When they made the decision to sell all of their oil and gas properties, they really didn't need a Chief Financial Officer for the Oil and Gas Division anymore, so they laid me off. Sure, I got a nice severance package, but I sat around for 48 hours thinking, well if I had done a better job, or if I had done this rather than that I would still have a job and then I woke up and said to myself, ‘You have done the best work of your entire carrier for this company.  It wasn't your fault.  You did nothing wrong, so buck-up and go find something else to do’.”

He had worked for Petro Lewis, an oil and gas investment company in Denver, although when oil prices dropped the company was bought out by McMoRan O & G which made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. So, it was off to New Orleans but, unfortunately, McMoRan sold its properties as well.

The President of McMoRan asked Wynn to go to the Chamber of Commerce for the nine parishes (counties) around New Orleans to help them all bring their financial  record-keeping up-to-date. After several months of “getting them into the 20^th century,” he was invited to stay on as President of the Chamber of Commerce until they could hire an executive with C of C training and experience. One and a half years later, he gave them a date that he would be leaving.

From there, he found new work in insurance for New England Life, a subsidiary of Met Life. “After a couple of years with them, I felt that I did not need their administrative assistance nor their haircut of my commissions so I started Michael Wynn & Associates.”

“I figured Mickey Wynn to be the fullback because he was the largest of the running backs,” said Collins, who took over as head coach of the Wolves in 1959. “He had the quick feet to run the 25 trap and he was a hitter on a team of hitters,” noted Collins.

“The fullback got the ball on one side of the center but his hole was on the other side, he had to make his cut off the pulling guards’ block. The play went right up the middle and if Mickey got by the linebackers it was a long run, even a touchdown was the result. In his senior year I moved Mickey to right wingback because he was a good blocker on defensive ends, he was an exceptional runner from the wingback position. Mickey did a wonderful job in all facets of his offense, he blocked well, ran the ball well, and was able to get open for passes from his wingback position.”

Wynn said he developed a strong work ethic from Collins in football, but from his father Mike beyond the gridiron.

“He was the hardest working person I ever knew.  He was up and checking his cattle before he opened his clothing store at eight a.m.  He went back out in the afternoon to check on the cattle and feed them, etc. until it got to be dark after six p.m. at night,” explained Wynn.

“Everyone thought I got breaks because my Grandmother Minnie V. Johnson was the Principal of West Side School and my mother, (Hilda Grae Wynn), taught the second grade,” he said. “I didn’t.”

A 1967 University of Oklahoma grad who majored in Finance, Wynn admits he still keeps up with the Sooners in football and basketball via television, but he has become a proclaimed New Orleans Saints fan, calling the Saints’ Super Bowl parade “the largest in Mardi Gras history.

“There would have been a parade regardless of whether they won or lost the Super Bowl, but when they did, they had a parade with 800,000 people there to witness it.

“The way they estimate the parade attendance is to take the space occupied by a person for the length of the parade route, multiply it by two, because they are on the other side of the street as well and then determine how many people deep the parade watchers are.”

Wynn is married to Sheila (Martin), whom he met when he was asked to be a guest speaker for the Ponca City (OK) High School FBLA while working for Ponca City Savings and Loan as Human Resources Manager. They’ve been married for 27 years and they have four children, Kristen (34), Kyle (30), Blake (25), and Brett (20), a sophomore at LSU. Kristen and Kyle are from a previous marriage.

He got involved with coaching youth baseball, leading a select baseball team, which included his sons, to three state championships. He then was asked by Mandeville High School, located about 25 miles north of New Orleans, to coach a spring/summer Metro League team of players between their 8^th and 9^th grade years in school. “I was honored to do that and had a blast,” he said.

In addition to running his own company, Wynn’s hobbies include golfing and making golf clubs for his family when he’s not salt-water fishing in the Gulf.