Two former Indiana high school basketball coaches were recognized among the honorees of the John Wooden Legacy Coaching Award presented by the National High School Basketball Coaches Association, it was announced Thursday (March 2).
Jack Butcher, former long-time boys’ coach at Loogootee, and Cinda Rice Brown, the former girls’ coach at Rushville, are the 2022-23 honorees from the Hoosier state as nominated by the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association. The two are among 61 winners from 31 states in an NHSBCA program coordinated with the Wooden family.
The award honors scholastic basketball coaches from around the country who are educators and have achieved excellence on the floor, in the classroom and in the community that further embody the characteristics and legacy of the late John Wooden. The criteria for the award are rooted in the ideals of education, longevity, character, service and excellence.
Butcher, with an 806-250 career record, was Indiana’s all-time boys’ basketball winningest coach when he retired from coaching in 2002. Brown, with a 448-109 record in IHSAA games, was Indiana’s all-time girls’ basketball winningest coach when she stepped down in 2000.
Butcher, 90, is a 1951 Loogootee graduate who helped his team to three sectional titles and earned all-sectional and all-regional honors as a senior. He was the Lions’ career leading scorer when he graduated and then went on to a four-season career over six years at Memphis State University as his time in college was interrupted by two years in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
Butcher was a three-year starter at Memphis State, being named an NCAA all-regional player in 1956 and to the all-NIT team as a senior in 1957 when his team was the NIT runner-up. The Boston Celtics selected Butcher in the 10th round of the 1957 NBA Draft, but he turned down that opportunity to instead return home to Loogootee as the school’s basketball coach – a position he held for 45 years while working for six superintendents and eight principals.
During Butcher’s tenure at Loogootee, his teams posted 43 winning seasons with 14 20-win seasons, four undefeated regular seasons (1962-63, 1974-75, 1981-82 and 1989-90) and three one-loss regular seasons (1966-67, 1976-77 and 1979-80). In the postseason, his Lions claimed championships in 20 sectionals, eight regionals and two semi-states with a state runner-up finish in 1975.
Butcher coached 11 players who scored 1,000 points or more during their careers and two Indiana All-Stars in Junior Gee (1963) and son Bill Butcher (1975). He was named Indiana’s state Coach of the Year in 1970 and 1975, was an IBCA district Coach of the Year in 1980 and 1989, and was Indiana’s nominee for NFHS national Coach of the Year in 1970, 1999, 2001 and 2002. In 2004, he authored a book entitled “Butcher Ball: It’s Not Just a Game.”
In 1986, he was among founding members of the Hoosier Basketball Coaches Association, a group that serves coaches in southern Indiana. He was the group’s first executive director and was inducted into the HBCA Hall of Excellence in 2013.
Butcher also received an IBCA Virgil Sweet Award in 2003 and has been awarded “Keys to the City” in Loogootee, Indianapolis and Memphis. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Memphis State (now University of Memphis) Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995. He was named a Sagamore of the Wabash by Gov. Frank O’Bannon in 2000. The current Loogootee High School gymnasium was named The Jack Butcher Sports Arena in 1983, and it is located on Butcher Boulevard, the roadway being renamed in his honor from Vincennes Street in 2000.
“I think my longevity had so do with the fact it was my hometown,” Butcher told the Bedford Times-Mail in 2002 after his retirement. “It was a dream of mine, before I was ever qualified to coach, before I realized I would be able to go to college. … I sometimes think it was destiny that I stayed here as long as I did.”
Since retiring, Butcher has helped create two scholarships that annually benefit Loogootee graduating seniors. The first was founded in 2004 and now is called the Butcher2-Gee-Brett Scholarship in honor of the four Loogootee players who have been inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame (Jack Butcher, Junior Gee, Steve Brett and Bill Butcher). The second was founded in 2011 through the Martin County Community Foundation and is called the Jack and Rita Butcher Loogootee Basketball Family Scholarship. Nearly 65 students have received scholarships from the two funds.
Butcher still attends Loogootee basketball games and plays golf when he can. He used to fish a lot and has enjoyed traveling with his wife to Alaska, Canada, the Bahamas and to Florida among other places over the years. He and his wife, Rita, have seven children, 15 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren with two more on the way.
Jack Butcher, former long-time boys’ coach at Loogootee, and Cinda Rice Brown, the former girls’ coach at Rushville, are the 2022-23 honorees from the Hoosier state as nominated by the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association. The two are among 61 winners from 31 states in an NHSBCA program coordinated with the Wooden family.
The award honors scholastic basketball coaches from around the country who are educators and have achieved excellence on the floor, in the classroom and in the community that further embody the characteristics and legacy of the late John Wooden. The criteria for the award are rooted in the ideals of education, longevity, character, service and excellence.
Butcher, with an 806-250 career record, was Indiana’s all-time boys’ basketball winningest coach when he retired from coaching in 2002. Brown, with a 448-109 record in IHSAA games, was Indiana’s all-time girls’ basketball winningest coach when she stepped down in 2000.
Butcher, 90, is a 1951 Loogootee graduate who helped his team to three sectional titles and earned all-sectional and all-regional honors as a senior. He was the Lions’ career leading scorer when he graduated and then went on to a four-season career over six years at Memphis State University as his time in college was interrupted by two years in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
Butcher was a three-year starter at Memphis State, being named an NCAA all-regional player in 1956 and to the all-NIT team as a senior in 1957 when his team was the NIT runner-up. The Boston Celtics selected Butcher in the 10th round of the 1957 NBA Draft, but he turned down that opportunity to instead return home to Loogootee as the school’s basketball coach – a position he held for 45 years while working for six superintendents and eight principals.
During Butcher’s tenure at Loogootee, his teams posted 43 winning seasons with 14 20-win seasons, four undefeated regular seasons (1962-63, 1974-75, 1981-82 and 1989-90) and three one-loss regular seasons (1966-67, 1976-77 and 1979-80). In the postseason, his Lions claimed championships in 20 sectionals, eight regionals and two semi-states with a state runner-up finish in 1975.
Butcher coached 11 players who scored 1,000 points or more during their careers and two Indiana All-Stars in Junior Gee (1963) and son Bill Butcher (1975). He was named Indiana’s state Coach of the Year in 1970 and 1975, was an IBCA district Coach of the Year in 1980 and 1989, and was Indiana’s nominee for NFHS national Coach of the Year in 1970, 1999, 2001 and 2002. In 2004, he authored a book entitled “Butcher Ball: It’s Not Just a Game.”
In 1986, he was among founding members of the Hoosier Basketball Coaches Association, a group that serves coaches in southern Indiana. He was the group’s first executive director and was inducted into the HBCA Hall of Excellence in 2013.
Butcher also received an IBCA Virgil Sweet Award in 2003 and has been awarded “Keys to the City” in Loogootee, Indianapolis and Memphis. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Memphis State (now University of Memphis) Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995. He was named a Sagamore of the Wabash by Gov. Frank O’Bannon in 2000. The current Loogootee High School gymnasium was named The Jack Butcher Sports Arena in 1983, and it is located on Butcher Boulevard, the roadway being renamed in his honor from Vincennes Street in 2000.
“I think my longevity had so do with the fact it was my hometown,” Butcher told the Bedford Times-Mail in 2002 after his retirement. “It was a dream of mine, before I was ever qualified to coach, before I realized I would be able to go to college. … I sometimes think it was destiny that I stayed here as long as I did.”
Since retiring, Butcher has helped create two scholarships that annually benefit Loogootee graduating seniors. The first was founded in 2004 and now is called the Butcher2-Gee-Brett Scholarship in honor of the four Loogootee players who have been inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame (Jack Butcher, Junior Gee, Steve Brett and Bill Butcher). The second was founded in 2011 through the Martin County Community Foundation and is called the Jack and Rita Butcher Loogootee Basketball Family Scholarship. Nearly 65 students have received scholarships from the two funds.
Butcher still attends Loogootee basketball games and plays golf when he can. He used to fish a lot and has enjoyed traveling with his wife to Alaska, Canada, the Bahamas and to Florida among other places over the years. He and his wife, Rita, have seven children, 15 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren with two more on the way.
