McLaughry's coaching career at Dartmouth College was interrupted after two years due to World War II, where McLaughry served as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marine Corps.
Twenty years after graduating from high school, McLaughry attended night and summer classes to earn his law degree from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. While and after coaching at Dartmouth, McLaughry was also the chairman of the Physical Education Department there until 1960.
McLaughry was instrumental in developing the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) during his lifetime, even serving a one-year term as President in 1936, and then remaining active with the organization as a volunteer secretary-treasurer from 1940 to 1960. It was after 1960 that McLaughry earned compensation for this position, and retired from the organization in 1965.
Personal life
On August 21, 1911 in Detroit, McLaughry married Florence Marguerite Jackson (July 20, 1892 – June 1, 1985), daughter of John Llouington Jackson (1849-1924) and Ella Adele (nee Lovett) Jackson (1856-1911). Together, they had three children:[1]
Jeanne Marguerite McLaughry (1912-2007)
John Jackson McLaughry (1917-2007), who followed in his father's footsteps and played and coached football; he was the head football coach at Union College from 1947 to 1949, Amherst College from 1950 to 1958, and Brown University from 1959 to 1966. He also served with the Marines in World War II as a Major.
