Longtime Louisville SID KENNY KLEIN has died at 66, according to Holton & Kuzydym of the Louisville COURIER JOURNAL. Klein spent 39 years working for the Cardinals, arriving in 1983 as a sports information director and retiring in 2022 as a senior associate athletics director. Klein was best known as the primary spokesperson for Louisville men’s basketball -- logging 1,309 consecutive games. He worked alongside two HOFers in DENNY CRUM and RICK PITINO, then moved into a part-time position as a consultant when the program changed hands from men’s basketball coach CHRIS MACK to KENNY PAYNE. Klein spent the past two seasons as a special advisor to Pitino at St. John’s. Klein “coordinated the computerized statistics operation” at the Final Four for more than 35 years. He also assisted annually in media relations for the Kentucky Derby, serving as a liaison to “help journalists access interviews with VIP and celebrity guests.” He was inducted into the College Sports Information Dirs of America HOF in 2015, then earned a spot in the Kentucky Athletic HOF two years later (Louisville COURIER JOURNAL, 6/25).
TRUE LOUISVILLE MAN: Louisville-based WDRB-Fox’s Eric Crawford wrote Klein helped “shape the public face of Cardinals athletics through some of its greatest triumphs and most difficult crises.” He worked “just outside the spotlight, helping tell the stories of coaches, players and programs that became part of Louisville sports history.” Just a “few people would become more closely identified with Louisville athletics” like Klein has (WDRB.com, 6/25).
