Basketball is passion, and that passion continues to be shown throughout the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. That passion continues as the board of directors of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame announced on Tuesday, Nov. 29, their 61st induction class, to be honored in ceremonies on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, and a Huntington native made the list.
Richard Butt, a Huntington High School graduate, along with 17 other basketball players from the Hoosier state at the ceremony.
Richard Butt graduated from Huntington High School in 1954, then later graduated from Manchester College in 1958 with a B.S. in Business, Ball State in 1963 with a Masters in Health and Physical Education, and St. Francis in 1966 with a Guidance License.
Beginning his coaching career in 1958, he spent one year as the Liberty Center Junior High coach before being promoted to head coach at Liberty Center from 1959 to 1964. He amassed a 70-40 record at Liberty Center, leading them to a county title and the 1964 sectional title with only 67 students. He later went on to lead Lakeland from 1964 to 1973 where he won three sectional titles.
In 1983, he was one of five Indiana coaches chosen by the International Sports Exchange to conduct basketball clinics in Africa – Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Niger.
Butt is one of 18 men who are part of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s 61st induction class. The class also includes Boston Celtics president of basketball operations and former Butler men’s basketball coach Brad Stevens, the late John DeVoe (the first president of the Indiana Pacers), Marion great and former Bishop Luers boys coach James Blackmon Sr., former Indiana University standout Brian Evans from Terre Haute South, former North Carolina standout and NBA player Eric Montross, Seymour High School athletic director and former Michigan State sharp-shooter from the late 1980s Kirk Manns, and former Bethel College men’s basketball coach Mike Lightfoot.
