After all these years, Gene Keady finally gets his Final Four moment

WEST LAFAYETTE — Gene Keady tried to sneak through the side door.

When the Purdue team plane arrived back to West Lafayette’s airport on the southwest side of campus at about 9:15 p.m. Sunday, the former Purdue coach walked through a nearby concourse exit with other support personnel rather than coming through the throng of hundreds and hundreds of onlookers nearer the tarmac who had gathered to cheer the Boilermakers. But he didn’t go unnoticed. A group of exuberant Purdue fans spotted him as he arrived to his car about 50 feet away, shouting out to him, “Gene! Coach! We love you!”

It was a small gesture, but a fitting one. Had Keady walked through the crowd or hopped a ride on the Boilermaker Special — Purdue’s “official” train mascot — as Purdue’s players did, then the crowd certainly would have given him equal treatment to Zach Edey as he rode by. The love between Purdue and Keady, the Hall of Fame coach would spent 25 years prowling the Boilermakers’ sideline, runs incredibly deep.

As it should. Keady, who took over the Purdue program a year after its Final Four appearance in 1980, built a culture that exists today as the Boilermakers prepare for their Final Four return. For nearly the last half century through the Keady and Matt Painter eras, Boilermaker teams have almost always performed better as a sum of their parts, because the parts were sometimes guys who were overlooked elsewhere. Edey, the likely 2-time national-player-of-the-year who has guided Purdue back to the Final Four after a 44-year absence, might be the embodiment of that, since he was ranked only the 436th-best prospect in his recruiting class. He’s proven better than that and has raised the level of his teammates, as well.

Keady had stars — Glenn Robinson, the NBA’s No. 1 overall pick in 1994, was the biggest of them all — but it was the pieces that made the difference. And the attitude, hard work, determination and character that emanated from the man at the top turned Purdue into a winner for his 2-and-a-half decades, when Keady led Purdue to 6 Big Ten titles, 18 NCAA appearances, 5 Sweet 16s and 2 Elite Eights.

Keady is 87 now and not the fireball that he once was, slowed by the passage of time, but the fire to win still burns within. He moved back to West Lafayette recently from Myrtle Beach, SC, to be closer to Purdue, to be able to watch the Boilermakers, and to be able to enjoy another opportunity at an NCAA Final Four run.

This time, the Boilermakers made it, vanquishing the demons of the past few years — all those double-digit seed losses and the injuries — but also extinguishing the old haunts, as well. Keady’s teams couldn’t get over the hump, even the ones that seemed destined to make a championship run. The Three Amigo’s of the late-80s — Todd Mitchell, Everette Stephens and Troy Lewis — couldn’t get there. The “Big Dog’s” 1994 Purdue squad was undone by Grant Hill’s Duke Blue Devils in the Elite Eight, after Robinson’s back injury limited him to only 13 points. The Boilermakers overachieved during the next 2 regular seasons, after Robinson had taken off for the Milwaukee Bucks, but flamed out to lower seeds in the tournament’s 2nd-round. The 1999-2000 squad, led by Brian Cardinal, Carson Cunningham and Jaraan Cornell, who had suffered an ankle injury earlier in the season that he’d never quite recover from, came within a possession or 2 of beating Wisconsin for a trip to the Final Four, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Now, Keady will be there in Phoenix when Purdue takes on NC State on Saturday evening, not on the Boilermakers’ bench but in the stands right behind it.

That’s where Edey found him on Sunday, when the All-American, understanding the gravity of the moment, cut a piece off his net, then handed it to the legendary coach.

Zach Edey cuts down piece of net (with no ladder) and hands piece of to Gene Keady who never made it to a Final Four. #Purdue pic.twitter.com/5mWb4I7gJk

— Matt Glenesk (@MattGlenesk) March 31, 2024

Afterward, Edey was asked about the gesture, why he felt the need to include Keady in the celebration.

“You always have to pay respects to the people that came first,” Edey said. “He built this. That doesn’t go over any of our heads. He helped set all of this up. … Giving him a little piece of the net was the least I could do.”

Keady was interviewed by various media outlets after the game, too, giving thanks to Purdue, Painter and the players for finally achieving what the school had long sought.

But Keady deserves a ton of thanks too, for setting the foundation for what Purdue has been able to accomplish, and in that moment outside the airport on Sunday night, a few dozen fans let him know that he is loved.