Jack Bush, Kansas City high school basketball coaching legend, dies at 96
Legendary Kansas City high school basketball coach Jack Bush used several methods to get his message across to his players during games. None involved raising his voice at the young men.
“He would never do anything to embarrass you or himself during games,” said Darryl Bush, no relation, who played for Jack Bush at Central High School in the late 1970s. “In games, he never got up and started hollering and screaming.”
The method helped Bush win 799 games in a high school coaching career that ended in 2001. The coach who held the admiration of those who played for him and many who did not, died on Friday. He was 96.
Jack Bush graduated from Lincoln High in 1944 and his career as a head coach started in 1949 at Washington High in Caruthersville, Missouri. Three years later, Jack Bush took over at R.T. Coles Vocational School in Kansas City, where he coached the track team to a Missouri Negro Interscholastic Athletic Association championship. After a stint at Manual High, Bush became Central High’s coach in 1968.
The Blue Eagles won the 1979 Missouri 3A championship and qualified for the state’s final four 12 times.
The most memorable game involving Central under Bush came in 1995, an 80-73 double-overtime victory over Raytown. The game, featuring future NBA players Derek Hood of Central and Raytown’s Tyronn Lue, was played before more than 9,000 at Municipal Auditorium with nearly 1,000 turned away at the gate.
Honors poured in during and after his 52-year career. Bush was a four-time winner of the Eddie Ryan Award, given to the Kansas City area’s top high school basketball coach. Bush was inducted into several halls of fame, including the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
In 2017, the Central High court was named for Bush.
But he was more than a coach. Jack Bush worked in programs that helped students shape their careers, learn about job applications, banking and other post-school needs.
“He cared about building character in young men,” Darryl Bush said. “Basketball was important to him, but teaching us to respect ourselves and to respect others was even more important.”
The Star’s Sam McDowell contributed to this story.