Prayers for Frank Kendrick
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Very saddened to hear of this. Prayers for Frank Kendrick and his family in his fight to overcome this.
A Boilermaker through and through….
when I was in H.S. , I watched Purdue's great NIT championship team w/ John Garrett and Kendrick. Hoping for the best for Frank, that's a tough diagnosis. When I hear of stomach cancer, I'm always reminded of Bob Welch guitarist for a time w/ Fleetwood Mac, Paris, solo career who had so much pain from that cancer he committed suicide by shooting himself in the stomach
That was a fun team to watch that included Bruce Parkinson, Jerry Nichols, and Bruce Rose. I was in Mackey for most of their games.
Since you brought it up I’ll share my initial post on Frank…
He improved recruiting by getting many players at Purdue and Big Dog was but one. I remember joking with him at some all star game where ND got Mr Basketball (guy shot low, but really hurt Purdue as he had a bigger player defending him while scoring on the move into the lane) and a player or two went to IU. This was a time where he didn't feel the love from Purdue and was telling me the players were cousins. I said you must have a lot of cousins and he laughed and said he did. I recall as a student "voting" on something for him relative to the Big that he won. I recall him being very fundamental, under control, and doing a lot of work in the high post. He is a couple of years older than I am, but was so humble that when he came back from Golden State to play one day in the Co-rec...he came up and introduced himself as though I might not know.
Every time he saw me or I saw him we would shake hands and talk a little ball. He knew my face if he didn't recall my name. I recall standing beside him in Lambert looking down at Gene's camp with Chris Thompson winning MVP of the camp...talking Willie Deane at a high school game. I recall asking about his daughter getting the Lilly scholarship before her going to ND and running into him many times when Kristof played for Central Catholic as well as seeing Kristoff getting out on the court and shooting as a little guy after games at Purdue. He referred to IU as having the devil's pitch fork and was about as personable as could be. If he had an enemy I don't know who it would be since he was as friendly as can be. This serves as another reminder of just how frail we become as we age...
Since you brought it up I’ll share my initial post on Frank…
He improved recruiting by getting many players at Purdue and Big Dog was but one. I remember joking with him at some all star game where ND got Mr Basketball (guy shot low, but really hurt Purdue as he (Zach Irvin)
had a bigger player defending him while scoring on the move into the lane) and a player or two went to IU. This was a time where he didn't feel the love from Purdue and was telling me the players were cousins. I said you must have a lot of cousins and he laughed and said he did. I recall as a student "voting" on something for him relative to the Big that he won. I recall him being very fundamental, under control, and doing a lot of work in the high post. He is a couple of years older than I am, but was so humble that when he came back from Golden State to play one day in the Co-rec...he came up and introduced himself as though I might not know.
Every time he saw me or I saw him we would shake hands and talk a little ball. He knew my face if he didn't recall my name. I recall standing beside him in Lambert looking down at Gene's camp with Chris Thompson winning MVP of the camp...talking Willie Deane at a high school game. I recall asking about his daughter getting the Lilly scholarship before her going to ND and running into him many times when Kristof played for Central Catholic as well as seeing Kristoff getting out on the court and shooting as a little guy after games at Purdue. He referred to IU as having the devil's pitch fork and was about as personable as could be. If he had an enemy I don't know who it would be since he was as friendly as can be. This serves as another reminder of just how frail we become as we age...
I have eaten many lunches with Frank. A genuine great guy who got thrown under the bus for being a NICE GUY.
I was holding practice with my 6th grade AAU team on the courts on N. Salisbury (back before gyms were made available). Frank was riding his bike with Kristof, he turned and came to us. He spent the next half hour showing my players his rings, working with my 6th graders and giving a great motivational speech.
Frank truly was a very nice guy that was engaging. That handshake and smile are hard to replicate. He will be missed by many...
Can't tell you how many stories like this I've heard from people. He's one of the good guys. May he rest in peace.
Keady tried to stick with him till the NCAA threatened to suspend Keady if Kendrick didnt get fired.
Honestly felt the Kendrick vs NCAA battle was exhibit number one on what was wrong with the NCAA. For example one of his 4 violations was giving a recruit a ride in the pouring rain when his ride forgot him after a game during a non contact period.
The horror of helping a kid out with a ride.
that was the incident I was referring to .. just being a nice guy .. and the kid had already committed to another school.
One of the other 4 violations was when Kendrick called a friend from high school days for his birthday and a Purdue recruit happened to be at the birthday party as the friend was the recruits uncle. Dont want to turn this into an anti NCAA thread, as Kendrick is truly an all time great Boiler and deserves every bit of the praise he is getting.
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