By Richard Shank
The Hutchinson Tribune
Fifty-two years after his departure from the Salt City, former Hutchinson Community College basketball coach Gene Keady is alive and well residing in West Lafayette, Ind., home of Purdue University where he coached for 25 years.
In a Feb. 26 telephone interview, the former Blue Dragons coach was almost counting the minutes awaiting tip off of the Purdue and Michigan State game that evening in West Lafayette. (Michigan State won 76-74.) Keady is a regular at Purdue’s home games and is often shown on television walking into the arena with the aid of a cane while visiting with fans.
Keady grew up in Larned, where he remembers working side by side with his father who was the town florist.
“I had a great dad who, among other things, taught me how to box,” Keady said.
Keady, who will turn 90 on May 21, was in great form during the 30-minute interview about his Hutchinson years and the people he knew and met, and the friends he made. As the story is told, in 1964, Keady was coaching at Beloit High School where in a six-year stint he amassed a 142-47 record. One day he took a call from HutchCC Coach Sam Butterfield. Butterfield needed an assistant coach and offered Keady the job. Keady accepted on the spot, starting a legendary college coaching career, earning him a spot in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
One year later, Butterfield left coaching to serve as HutchCC’s athletic director, and his first hire was Keady for head basketball coach. Already a proven winner, Keady continued his victorious ways at HutchCC during his nine-year tenure, producing an 187-48 record. Keady’s teams won six Jayhawk Conference titles, including four in a row (1971-74) and a second-place finish in the 1973 National Junior College Athletic Association tournament played in Hutchinson.
In those distant times, the basketball coach’s responsibilities stretched far beyond roundball. During weekdays, Keady was in the classroom teaching biology and physical education. Late in afternoons during the fall, Keady was in Gowans Stadium serving as an assistant football coach.
“In my playing days in high school and college, I was a better football player than a basketball player,” Keady said.
Then, Keady jokingly said, “I decided I liked to coach inside and chose basketball over football. And, I always wanted to be a better golfer.”
Keady was an All-America quarterback for Garden City Community College in 1955 before completing his eligibility at Kansas State University, where he lettered in football, baseball, and track.
One of his favorite stories was about his summer employment while living in Hutchinson, which was a temporary job he shared with Butterfield.
Most farmers purchased hail insurance during that era. Insurance companies put out a call each summer for hail adjustors. To supplement their incomes, Butterfield and Keady responded to the ad and were quickly hired. So, on any given day, Keady and Butterfield could be seen walking Reno County fields calculating the percentage of hail damage. One can assume some farmers were probably a little startled to see Keady crisscrossing a wheat field on foot, and may have inquired what the coach was up to.
When asked his favorite memories of the Hutchinson years, he seemed nostalgic.
“I remember walking into the Sports Arena to coach games before sold out and standing-room-only crowds,” Keady said. “Several years, Hutch Juco led the nation in attendance for juco basketball.”
“Hutchinson is a very loyal town, a great place to live and I enjoyed being a part of it,” Keady continued.
To stay in shape, Keady was often seen jogging the ramps in the Sports Arena, and was pleased to hear the ramps still exist.
At the end of the day, Keady said his greatest memory of Hutchinson was the special relationship he enjoyed with Sam Butterfield, his friend and mentor.
“Sam was like my father, a very outgoing honest person and was fun to be around,” Keady said. “I cherish the friendship and association we had.”
In the spring of 1974, Keady drove out of Hutchinson for his next job as an assistant to Arkansas Coach Eddie Sutton, who coincidentally grew up in Bucklin, approximately 60 miles from Keady’s hometown of Larned.
In 1978, Keady took the reins for a two-year stint as coach for Western Kentucky in Bowling Green, Ky. In 1980, Keady applied at Purdue where he was hired for a 25-year stint. Today, the floor where Purdue plays its home basketball games is named Keady Court in honor of his quarter century of coaching, where he averaged 21 wins per season.
It was apparent Keady’s sense of humor remains unbroken and intact. An interview with Gene Keady often produces the question how he and the volatile Coach Bobby Knight got along during their times coaching Indiana schools.
“We got along fine as I always agreed with him,” Keady jokingly said.
Then, Keady went on to say he had great respect for Knight, and they often visited over the years, and considered him a friend.
Following retirement from Purdue, Keady continued coaching for one year as an assistant for the Toronto Raptors, and in 2010 accepted a similar position for a five-year stint with St. John’s University, culminating more than a half century of coaching.
On Aug. 12, 2023, Keady was front and center for induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, the ultimate honor for anyone associated with the game of basketball. Keady spoke briefly and told the audience he had enjoyed a blessed life and called Michigan Coach Tom Izzo and Indiana Coach Bobby Knight worthy opponents and friends. And, he proudly pointed out that 92% of those who had played for him earned their college degrees while in school.
And, when this interviewer asks about his future plans, his response was “Attend the Final Four,” a practice started decades ago, which remains to this day.
Keady inquired about current goings-on in Hutchinson, and seemed especially pleased HutchCC had hired Dr. Tricia Paramore as the college’s first woman president. He was even more excited when told she is married to a basketball coach. For Coach Keady, he seemed happy his former employer is in capable hands and continues providing its students with what he called a “great education.”