Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter on passing of Frank Kendrick
Purdue basketball legend Frank Kendrick died. Hear Matt Painter on what Kendrick meant to the Boilermakers.
It was easy to summon Frank Kendrick’s charismatic charm.
Just mention basketball.
Specifically Purdue basketball.
Almost exactly one year ago, a phone call to Kendrick to ask a couple questions regarding the 50th anniversary of the Boilermakers winning the 1974 NIT tournament turned into more than an hour’s worth of laughs and trips down memory lane.
Kendrick rehashed not only his passion for his playing days with the Boilermakers, but also his time as an assistant coach for Hall of Famer Gene Keady.
Kendrick, 74, died after a battle with stomach cancer.
The seventh of nine children, Kendrick became the first in his family to go to college and graduate, a promise former Purdue coach Bob King made to Kendrick’s parents upon recruiting him to West Lafayette.
He remains one of Purdue basketball’s all-time greats and even in his later years was showered with cheers each time the Boilermakers put on an alumni game event where the old man always made it his mission to show the young guys he still had game.
Back in the 1970s, no one questioned Kendrick’s abilities.
He averaged a double-double for that 1973-74 NIT championship team. Kendrick, not only a scorer but a rebounding machine, had 28 double-doubles between 1972-74, eventually earning All-America honors and first-team All-Big Ten as a senior.
He scored 1,269 points, launching him into a short NBA career where he’d win an NBA championship ring with the Warriors in 1975 before a long stint as a professional basketball player in Europe.
Kendrick is a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, a tribute to his standout career at Arsenal Tech High School along with his college career. In 2016, Kendrick joined the Purdue athletics Hall of Fame.
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.
