Gene Rhodes

Eugene Stephen Rhodes


Born:
September 2, 1927
St. Louis, MO

Died:
March 10, 2018
Louisville, KY


Career
1943-44 Male High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School)
1944-45 Male High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School)
1945-46 Male High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School)
1948-49 Western Kentucky University (College)
1949-50 Western Kentucky University (College)
1950-51 Western Kentucky University (College)
1951-52 Western Kentucky University (College)
1952-53 Indianapolis Olympians (NBA)
1953-54 Trinity High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School) 
1954-55 St. Xavier High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School) Head coach
1955-56 St. Xavier High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School) Head coach
1956-57 St. Xavier High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School) Head coach
1957-58 St. Xavier High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School) Head coach
1958-59 St. Xavier High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School) Head coach
1959-60 St. Xavier High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School) Head coach
1960-61 St. Xavier High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School) Head coach
1962-63 Male High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School) Head coach
1963-64 Male High School - Louisville, Kentucky (High School) Head coach
1964-65 Western Kentucky University (College) - Head coach
1965-66 Western Kentucky University (College) - Head coach
1966-67 Western Kentucky University (College) - Head coach
1967-68 Western Kentucky University (College) - Head coach
1967-68 Kentucky Colonels (ABA) - Head coach
1968-69 Kentucky Colonels (ABA) - Head coach
1969-70 Kentucky Colonels (ABA) - Head coach
1970-71 Kentucky Colonels (ABA) - Head coach

Born to Leslie and Lorena Rhodes in St. Louis, Gene grew up in Louisville, Kenutcky, and was a natural athlete, playing multiple sports at Male HS. He entered the U.S. Army after graduating and served two years before returning home and enrolling at Western Kentucky.

Rhodes played basketball and baseball at WKU before being drafted by the Indianapolis Olympians of the NBA. After ones season with the Olympians where he played 65 games, he returned home to Louisville to coach basketball at Trinity High School. A year later, he saw an opening at St. Xavier HS and immediately jumped on that opportunity. In the 1958, his coached St. Xavier won the state basketball title. After a stint at his old high school, Male HS in Louisville, he took an assistant coaching job under John Oldham at WKU.

After the getting off to a slow 5-12 start in the 1967-68 ABA season, The Kenutcky Colonels fired head coach John Givens on November 22, 1967, and hired Rhodes away from WKU. Rhodes would save the Colonels season and get them into the playoffs, and the team improved over the next two seasons. In 1970, the Colonels were off to a 10-5 start when Rhodes was fired and replaced with former Celtic great Frank Ramsey. Mike Storen, the Colonel's GM, would be named in a lawsuit, along with the ownership of the team (Athletic Enterprises, Inc) in a defamation lawsuit filed by Rhodes in 1971. Rhodes claimed statements made by the organization with regards to his dismissal injured and defamed him maliciously. The two-million dollar lawsuit would be settled for an undisclosed sum in 1973. When Storen resigned a short-time after the settlement, Rhodes was hired to replace him as GM. Rhodes was named vice-president in 1975. With the ABA floundering through its 1975-76 season, the NBA agreed to take four ABA teams into its fold. The Kentucky Colonels were not one of those teams. The Colonels dissolved in the summer of 1976, and Rhodes took a job as special projects manager at Canada Dry Bottling in Louisville and left basketball behind.

Rhodes died in 2018 at the age of 90.


Source:
https://www.newcomerkentuckiana.com/Obituary/155126/Eugene-Rhodes/Louisville-Kentucky
https://www.wbko.com/content/sports/WKU-hall-of-famer-Rhodes-dead-at-90-476464533.html

Stats:
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/rhodege01.html
https://www.justsportsstats.com/basketballstatsindex.php?player_id=rhodege01