Former Palmetto basketball coach Butch Hughes dies

PALMETTO -- Butch Hughes, the former head coach at Palmetto and one of the most accomplished boys basketball coaches in Manatee County history, died Wednesday of myleofibrosis, a rare bone marrow cancer. He was 69.

Hughes coached the Tigers for 29 years, arriving at PHS in 1971 and retiring in 2000. For nine more years he taught physical education at Palmetto High School in the gymnasium that now bears his name: The William "Butch" Hughes Gymnasium.

For the rest of his tenure at PHS, the Tigers were led by those most influenced by Hughes. His immediate successor as head coach was Ken Ansbro, who graduated from PHS in 1979. Now the athletic director, Ansbro also served as an assistant coach to Hughes prior to the legendary coach's retirement.

"He kept me out of trouble in many ways when I was a kid," Ansbro said. "A lot of us didn't have fathers growing up and he was one of those guys that was your mainstay, and someone that was a consistent to keep you in line and keep you on track."

In 2007, Ansbro stepped down as head coach and another Hughes acolyte took his turn at leading Palmetto. Wilmore Fowler, who played with Ansbro in the late '70s and was the 1979 Florida Player of the Year, spent four years as PHS' head coach and now holds the same position at Bayshore.

Both share similar stories about Hughes' influence on their careers. He is the largest reason both went into education and coaching after leaving Palmetto.

"That's the type of guy Butch was," said Brian Rench, Hughes' son-in-law. "He was a leader, whether it was on the field or off the field. He was a men

tor for everybody."

Hughes' funeral will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday at First Baptist Church of Bradenton. A burial will immediately follow at Skyway Memorial Funeral Home in Palmetto. Both are open to the public.

Success on the basketball is central to his reputation as a Tiger icon--he led PHS to a pair of state semifinal appearances--but it wasn't always his primary emphasis.

Fowler remembers it coming behind religion, family and education - "in that order," he says - and it made him effective as a mentor, father figure and educator, as well as a coach.

"He would go out into the community and talk to parents," Fowler said. "He was well-known in the entire community."

As an actual coach, he fit the stereotype of the hot-headed, notoriously strict high school basketball instructor. His methods, Ansbro said, might not fly today. For PHS in the '70s and '80s, though, it was necessary.

Ansbro remembers one particularly impassioned halftime blowup among his now famous intermission speeches. Palmetto was playing at Sarasota and Fowler was heated. In the locker room, he hurled a trash can, which somehow found its way through the gaps between players' heads and all the way into the showers.

"Just about any player that played for him they'll tell you that he was a disciplinarian more than anything," Ansbro said. "You overlooked some of the things that he did to you in terms of discipline because you knew that if you needed him for something he was going to be there for you.

"You don't appreciate it until you get older."

When Hughes retired from coaching in 2009, a former player named Rod Brooks, who is now the junior varsity head coach at Tampa Prep, recalled 11-of-12 players on one of his team's coming from households without a father.

For many, the way to describe Hughes was simple and the news of his death hit them appropriately.

"He was like my father," Fowler said. He needs a moment to pause and collect his thoughts. "He was more than just a coach. He kept us together as a team. He showed us how to build character."

This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 12:55 PM with the headline "Former Palmetto basketball coach Butch Hughes dies ."