Jack Bush

Wake up the echoes with a reference to some long ago battle and watch the lightening flash from those 94-year-old eyes.

An afternoon with a legend

Retired Kansas City Central hall of fame basketball Coach Jack Bush has railed against racial injustice his entire life.  For nearly a century he has always been consistent, exhibiting his displeasure with a comment here or a refusal to shuffle there, at a time being “uppity” could get a black man lynched. Bush never has compromised his pride or dignity as a man by passively accepting unfair behavior.

Bush began his coaching career under the cloud of Jim Crow. He graduated from all-black Kansas City Lincoln High School in 1944. He then attended and graduated in 1949 with his Bachelor of Science degree from the all-black Lincoln University in Jefferson City, MO He is a member of the Lincoln University’s Hall of Fame. In college, Bush was a record setter in track and field, throwing the javelin. Bush was also a member of the football team from 1946-1948. He never played college basketball.

The Bush clan has resided in the same house on South Benton Avenue for over 60 years. Bush and his wife, Marchieta, will soon celebrate 74 years of marriage. They meet at Lincoln University. “She comes from Sedalia (MO),” the coach recalled. “She was a professor of English, the youngest prof ever at LU. I always did need some extra help with the books,” he says with a winking nod to his long-ago role as teacher’s pet. “I been a coach’s wife for oh, like 100 years,” Marchieta, teases her husband.

In the late 1990’s, his son and namesake, Jack Jr., would fill the role of head football coach at Lincoln University, his father’s alma matter. Over a long career, the younger Bush worked as a football coach at several other colleges and high schools. Now retired and living next door to his parents, Jack Jr. is the oldest and only male of five siblings. His sister, Juanita, also lives next door.

Defending the Tradition

“What I am most proud off,” the coach states, “is that all my children and all of my grandchildren are college graduates. It is education that is important, and I think me and the wife did a good job with our kids and their educations. I grew up here in Kansas City, graduated from Lincoln High School. I was an only child and my mother was a stay at home mom. There was never a doubt I was getting an education. Back talk my mom and there was a whipping coming, “a go out and cut me a switch” old time type whipping. My dad was a fire starter with the railroad. He worked on the old steam engines that needed a fire. Working for the railroad meant his family could ride anywhere the railroad went for free, as long as we set in the colored section, and we went everywhere, me and my mom. Texas, California, all over. My friends did not have this (opportunity). It really made me realize what a big world and what was out there. It motivated me. Funny thing, I don’t remember my dad ever going with us, just me and mom.”

Bush, even today, has a sharp edge to him, more prone over the years  to push back when he felt unfairly treated. There have been few times anyone would have described the passionate Jack Bush as mild or soft-spoken. Early in life he was forged in adversity and tempered by the traumatic experiences of racism. Bush is a proud man, even now as his elderly age makes it hard for him to get out much, he stays engaged as much as possible with the local KC black community where he is today still held in the highest esteem.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Bush parlayed the power his  high-profile job gave him in the KC area to test the social boundaries in a decisive and defining time when American society was being turned upside down. Bush was not the devious type to stab a rival in the back; he would figuratively stab him in the front. Amongst the white KC educational establishment, Bush’s teams, and its followers, invoked menacing images of potential trouble. Over the year’s switchblades, broken-down rims, attack dogs, and street fighters were inaccurately used to describe the M.O. of his Central teams. Bush did little to dispel such talk, refusing to give such non-sequential racism any standing or wasted time. Today, while not claiming ownership, he admits he liked the fear his team’s reputation struck come playoff time when the white suburban teams - who refused to play Central in the regular season - had no choice but to square off with his high-flying Blue Eagles.

Bush relished in the academic achievements of his players. Over the years, when the topic of his 1979 state championship team would arise, Bush never failed to use the opportunity to inform listeners that all 12 team members had graduated from college.  The veteran coach stressed to his young men the importance of staying power and a tenacious fighting spirit. Don’t just show up and be present, he would advise; but participate, “confront your critics and those who stand in the way of your progress. Put their backs to the wall, not yours.”

Fifteen years before Martin Luther King's march had aroused the fury of Birmingham, in the fall of 1949, Bush began his 53-year high school coaching tenure at the small all-black segregated by law Washington High School in the small southeast Missouri community of Caruthersville. 

Bush’s experience in Caruthersville, he says is something, “I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. There was nowhere in that little town black people could go to socialize. Our students, their parents were cotton filed workers. We were given hardly any money for those kids to educate them. My wife and I both had college degrees. Made no difference, we were treated with no respect by local whites. We might as well been in Mississippi.”

Missouri high schools in 1956 began open racial competition in athletics with all schools belonging to the same Association. “They did give us a chance to play basketball with them and it was now open for us if we really want to do it,” remembers Bush. “But, it wasn’t like the white schools were to hug us and kiss us and welcome us with open arms. We got the opportunity to play, true; we just had a lot of catching up to do. Seems like I spent the next 50 years playing catch up."

After three seasons in the state’s “bootheel,” Bush moved back to his hometown, Kansas City, MO. He took over the team at R.T. Coles Vocational School. He later took the top position of the Kansas City Manual High School program. He had coaching success at every stop.

Bush moved to Central High School in 1968, where he stayed for 33 years. Overall, Bush led teams won 799 games. He guided the Central Blue Eagles to twelve final four appearances and the 1979 state championship. He retired in 2002, claiming his 1972 team that battled Raytown South in the quarterfinal round at Maryville, was the best team he ever coached. He continued to teach physical education classes at Central well into his 80’s.

Ed Benton was a 6’6” star on the 1972 Eagles. “Playing for legendary Coach Jack Bush was a life changer,” says Benton. “We called him Uncle Jack and we loved the guy. We played so hard for him, always wanted to have him satisfied with your effort.”

In the spring of 1972, the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) voted, due to a riot after Central had lost in overtime to Raytown South at Maryville in that March's quarterfinal round of the state tournament, to put Central on probation for one year. The Eagles were suspended from the 1973 post season state playoffs. Central loyalists were outraged. Coach Bush pointed to the exemplary behavior of his athletes before, during and after the contest. Bush pointed out that the school was being held accountable for the behavior of blacks who were not even students at Central. “Not one of our students has been accused of misbehavior,” Bush observed. “You can’t make us responsible for the behavior of every black person who attends the game.”

“We play 23 regular season games and have no problems,” Coach Bush stated. “What the state needed  to understand is that when the playoffs get here and a city school’s team gets beat, they then start following us, coming to our games. Many of these people (at Maryville) I had never seen before.” True, but according to MSHSAA, if they have black faces, then Bush and Central are responsible. “If they are breaking the law, no matter who they are, throw them in jail” Bush said, “but don’t punish our kids who have done nothing wrong. The way this was  done,  they are saying we all failed, student-wise, player-wise and school-wise. I don’t think that is true or fair.”

Bush felt many of the problems in Maryville were a long time in coming. “There were  no blacks on the state board (MSHSAA). There were no black officials when you get to state play. Our people felt we were  the outsiders. If a percentage of the state association is black, then why did  blacks have no say in the officiating and administration of the state playoffs?”

In 1974, due to a fight in a regional game with Paseo, Central was not allowed to start its season the following year until January 1. For their behavior in the Paseo game, the principal of Central High suspended from school the entire varsity team of 10, except one, for 5 days. The 10^th player was suspended for 10 days. In 1976 the Kansas City Officials Association, due to public criticism from Bush of the quality of their work, refused to officiate Central’s game.  To end their boycott, they demanded that Bush be fired. Eventually, a shaky true was reached between the two sides; Bush stayed in his job and the officials returned to theirs’.

Bush is passionate in his belief that as a society we should never forget the degrading barriers and disadvantages those of color endured to compete with whites on a court that was never really level.  

The coach is  still an active and enthusiastic supporter of the Central Eagles. Last winter, the old floor at Central’s gym was torn up and a new one laid down in its place. The school board voted to rename the court Jack Bush Court. A ceremony before a home game was held to christen the new hardwood, with the legendary Coach Bush in attendance for a celebration of a loyal man, a recognition of his unbending courage, and sentimental, full memories of a long life approaching a well lived end. Bush was touched.  “My, oh my,” the coach remembers, “That was a great night, to see so many people all come together who had been so important in my life.”

Don’t call Bush a “legend.” His son tells me his dad hates the word. After you've been around for so long, Bush, Sr. tells me, everyone speaks of you with reverence in low tones. “Legend makes one think of death,” Bush relates. “Most of my friends are dead. Some of my players are dead. I am, you know, an old man." 

True, by my what those tired old eyes have seen.