By FRED KRONER
I received an early-morning text from a friend on Friday; the kind that friends send one another during troubling, tumultuous, or tragic times.
It’s meant to be light-hearted and whimsical, a combination which can be hard to find when overcome by sorrow. But then again, if you look closely, there’s usually a kernel or two of truth as well.
“Saw that Lee Cabutti died,” my friend wrote. “I feel sorry for the Queen. This will push her off Page 1.”
In his world – the entire state of Illinois for basketball, and Champaign County as a long-time teacher, coach and administrator – Cabutti is deserving of the adulation.
He was an icon before the word became vogue. He was a role model and hero. He was a friend to many, a man of principles and values who also always had a story to tell.
“You knew a lot of the stories,” said Dike Stirrett, who kept the basketball scorebook for Central home games for 35 years, “but he never hesitated to refresh our memories.”
Cabutti, a Hall of Fame boys’ basketball coach, was 97 when he passed away on Thursday at 9:50 p.m. at Bridle Brook, in Mahomet. He was a year older than Queen Elizabeth, who also died on Sept. 8.
***
For many years, I have faithfully tried to attend the annual Illinois Basketball Coaches Association banquet, in Normal.
The inductees have started including many former athletes, coaches or teams that I covered during my nearly four decades on the sidelines while working for daily newspapers.
I saw Cabutti at the 2019 banquet. It was hardly surprising. When he attended the 50th IBCA banquet this year in May, he was the only person to have been in attendance each and every year since the Hall of Fame was created in 1973. He has been a Hall-of-Famer since 1974, and received a standing ovation.
When we spoke in 2019, Cabutti – naturally – asked about my family and talked about his.
He then made a request unlike any I have ever received, or even dreamed of receiving.
“When I pass,” he said, “would you write the story about me?”
What can you say but “yes,” and I added, “I hope I don’t have to any time soon.”
Three years later still seems too soon.
Cabutti is the reason that I had a cheer — make that a jeer – created in my honor (dishonor).
I used to go to Champaign Central basketball games early, moments after the junior varsity game tipped off, just to sit in the bleachers with Cabutti at Combes Gymnasium during the first half and talk. Usually, I listened.
I learned so much.
He willingly shared his philosophies on the game. Why would any coach not do everything in their power to win a game, he would ask rhetorically and repeatedly.
That led to discussions about holding the ball, slowing the game down.
Time and again, he told me that if you knew the other team had superior talent, you wouldn’t beat them by playing racehorse basketball up and down the court.
The way you beat the better teams, Cabutti insisted, was to keep the game close and then try to make more plays than the opposition down the stretch.
I’d seen enough games where one school would win by 60-plus points to become a believer.
At several early-season Central games in 1984, I routinely started counting the number of passes between shots. It wasn’t unusual for that total to reach 150 to 175.
Cabutti placed an emphasis on ball handling and teamwork – and shooting wide-open layups. His approach also required strict focus on each possession since there were far fewer in the games he coached. I saw his teams stay close and liked what I saw.
I wrote a column about it in The News-Gazette.
Later that same week, in January, 1984, Central had a home game on a Friday night (playing on what has been known as Cabutti Court since 2004).
The Maroons went into their slowdown tactics early and I was taken aback by what I heard from the Central student body.
“One, two, three, four. What the hell we stallin’ for? Hey Fred!”
It was only after the vociferous student section had repeated the chant a number of times did I realize all of what they were saying, and that I was included.
The funny thing is, I have no idea who Central was playing nor who won that game. But, I am confident that it was close heading into the final quarter.
That night also made me happy. I realized that young people were indeed reading The News-Gazette.
His delay tactics were organized and well-practiced. Other coaches marveled at how efficiently and effectively his players could run down the clock.
One story which I believe to be true – but have never confirmed – is that one particular coach asked Cabutti to teach him his delay game and the Champaign coach responded, ‘I will, but you’d better not use it against me.’
Fittingly, some of Cabutti’s milestone wins were low-scoring affairs. Career win No. 500 (which occurred on Jan. 23, 1983) was a 28-27 triumph over Rantoul.
Career win No. 400 (which took place on Jan. 26, 1974) was a 46-42 triumph over Lincoln.
***
The respect shown to Cabutti was immeasurable.
The last of his 34 years as a head coach (29 in Champaign and five in Herrin) was the 1984-85 school year.
At almost every away game that winter, the opposing coach or school administrators would present Cabutti with a going-away gift.
Rease Binger, then the coach at Stephen Decatur, gave Cabutti a rocking chair after his final visit to that school.
After his last season on the sidelines, Cabutti was the eighth winningest active boys’ basketball coach in the state.
His career record was 528-380.
His most successful team in Champaign was the 1968-69 squad, which went 30-4 and placed third in the IHSA state tournament. It was 39 more years before another Central team would match that achievement.
The ’68-’69 team was led by Clyde Turner, who passed away last month on Aug. 9.
Another of the starters on the state-placing team was Joe McNeil.
“He was fair and hard-nosed,” McNeil said. “He was from the old school.
“He taught me to have discipline. I was a great offensive player, but he wasn’t going to play me until I got the defense. He sat me down my junior year, and that was hard to take.
“I had to learn how to fit into his system.”
On McNeil’s part, there was no second-guessing or backtalk. The reason?
Cabutti.
“He was a jewel to be around,” McNeil said. “He was close to my heart. I loved the guy like a father figure.”
Cabutti took pride in being the first basketball coach in Champaign County to start an all-black team, even though he was criticized and eventually had to change his phone number.
McNeil said Cabutti had excellent rapport with the black athletes, perhaps because of his own background and upbringing.
“He talked about his Italian roots,” McNeil said. “They had a tough time when they came over (to America). He understood some of the struggles.
“He had a lot of racial issues (in the 1960s). He knew how to handle black players and get the most out of them and give us our dignity. I learned so much from him.”
Tony Harris was an assistant coach under Cabutti from 1977 through 1981. He echoed McNeil’s observations.
“He was so fair to black athletes, it was ridiculous,” Harris said. “He didn’t care what the standard was. He would do what he thought was best. That’s what I loved so much about him.
“He was so dedicated and cared about every player and coach. Other than my father, he was the second most important man who has ever been in my life.
“It wasn’t just about winning. He wanted the best, and to make you do your best. He was concerned about the well-being of anyone, and made me a better administrator.”
Harris spent his final 17 years in education as the principal at various schools in Memphis.
Harris didn’t just give his feelings lip service. For more than four decades after leaving the Central coaching staff, he kept in touch with Cabutti on a regular basis.
“I never had to say my name when I called,” Harris said. “He knew exactly who I was. The last time we talked, he was so alert.”
***
A Johnston City High School graduate (Class of 1944), Cabutti took his first job at Herrin High School for the 1948-49 school year. His salary for the year, including coaching three sports (football, basketball and track and field), was $1,800.
Cabutti earned his first head coaching win on Dec. 2, 1951 when Herrin defeated Harrisburg.
Last month, he had the opportunity to visit the school and the court where he made his coaching debut, accompanied by son Mark.
It was through connections with current Mahomet resident Chris Koerner – a Herrin native – that the Cabuttis were able to visit his old stomping grounds.
Cabutti left Herrin for Champaign following a 28-3 season in 1955-56. The following year, under the guidance of his former assistant coach, Herrin won the IHSA state championship.
The star of that team was John Tidwell, an All-American who was contacted by more than 100 universities before settling on Michigan, where he became a three-year starter.
“I thought very favorably of (Cabutti),” said Tidwell, 83, a retired doctor who lives in Charlotte, N.C. “He was a very good dresser, always wore a shirt and tie.
“He had portions of oranges for us to eat at halftime. I have fond memories.”
Tidwell doesn’t remember any animosity or difficulties with the coach.
“At that time,” he added, “you respected the coach. You didn’t think of talking back or disagreeing.”
When relocating from southern Illinois to Champaign, Cabutti received a $2,000 pay raise. He made $5,500 his first year with the Maroons for teaching and coaching.
As Lee Cabutti was graduating from high school, however, there was disagreement within the family about his future.
“He had an offer to play basketball at SIU,” Mark Cabutti related, “but his dad wanted him to work in the coal mines (with him). His mother begged his dad to let him go.”
When SIU won the NAIA national championship in 1946 – defeating a John Wooden-coached Indiana State team – Cabutti was a sophomore team member. The game was Wooden’s last one at Indiana State.
Tidwell wasn’t the only big-name athlete that Cabutti coached at Herrin. He had a point guard named Richard ‘Itch’ Jones, who went on to win 1,240 games as a collegiate baseball coach (including 474 as head coach at the University of Illinois). Jones retired in 2005 as the 15th winningest baseball coach in collegiate history.
Ironically, Jones never played high school baseball. During Cabutti’s time in the Herrin community, which then had about 10,000 residents, he thought there were not enough athletes to support two spring sports, so he lobbied to keep track and field, which he coached.
***
Though Cabutti was most known as a basketball coach (18 of his 29 teams in Champaign played for a regional championship with 13 winning) and his 20 years as the school’s athletic director, he also served as a camp counselor at the summer Interlochen (Mich.) Music Camp for 40 years, retiring in 1993.
“The first year he went, he and another guy hitchhiked the 520 miles from Carbondale,” Mark Cabutti said.
His pay for the summer? He made $50, but didn’t have to pay room and board during the summer.
Tidwell remembers Interlochen well.
He spent the summer before his senior year working at the camp. The job for him, and several other high school students, was arranged by Cabutti.
“He invited folks who would be seniors to go to Interlochen and work with the food staff,” Tidwell said. “There wasn’t a lot of work, mainly doing dishes.
“We’d practice basketball in the off times. That was an interesting summer.”
Cabutti had already arranged for Tidwell and three other Herrin students to work at Interlochen in the summer of 1956 before he accepted the job offer in Champaign.
He then added two Champaign athletes to the work roster that summer.
Cabutti was a devoted gardener who discovered his piece of paradise near White Heath while riding a yellow school bus along Rt. 10 on the way to Lincoln for a basketball game.
He wound up purchasing the approximate-4-acre plot in 1972 and grew apples, cherries, peaches, pears, strawberries and gooseberries before adding what Mark Cabutti said was, “rows and rows of tomatoes.”
When I wrote a 2012 feature story for The News-Gazette, Cabutti told me, “Now, I’m better known for selling tomatoes than I ever was as a coach.”
Added Mark Cabutti: “That (acreage) kept him young. He went out there every morning from the time he retired (in 1985) until he sold it around 2015.”
More than a decade after his retirement from Champaign Unit 4, Cabutti kept active by delivering ricks of wood to customers around the area.
There was a limited number he could deliver each day because the drop-offs always included a visit. When I had my dream house – the only one I’ve lived in with a fireplace – in 1992, Cabutti was my hookup for firewood. And conversation.
“He built a Morton Building (on the property) and would get trees people were having taken down,” Mark Cabutti said. “He’d pick them up. Then he had a splitter.”
For all of his accolades and achievements, however, Cabutti never lost track of what was important. He remained humble and thankful, and was always gracious.
He had a chance to sit courtside last month for the first alumni game between Central and Centennial, and he might have been the most photographed person in the Centennial gym that night.
One of the persons who took advantage of the photo op was Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons.
He was part of the first freshman class to enroll at Central after Cabutti retired, but his freshmen coach was Mark Cabutti.
“My senior year (1989), he (Lee Cabutti) spoke at our awards ceremony and gave me an award,” Ammons said.
Entering this school year, Cabutti stands No. 1 in the Champaign school district for career wins in any boys’ high school sport (434), though Central baseball coach John Staab could pass him next March.
***
In the early 1970s, two Cabutti-coached players from Central were playing in the Big Ten simultaneously.
Clyde Turner (1969 Central graduate) was at Minnesota and Doug Allen (1970 Central graduate) was at Indiana, arriving in the first year that Bob Knight took over as head coach following his departure from West Point.
It was Cabutti’s success as a coach – especially the groundbreaking 1969 state team – that led to increased opportunities for his players.
“He was known to be a great defensive coach,” McNeil said, “and was invited to speak at camps.
“He said defense is a ‘mental attitude.’ You’ve got to have character to play defense. If you play defense, you can be ‘on’ every night, even when your shot is not.”
During Cabutti’s first 14 years as a coach in Champaign, none of his teams allowed an average of more than 49.2 points per game. Of his final 10 teams, eight permitted no more than 48.6 points per game.
It was through the camps and clinics that Cabutti became friends with Knight – who reciprocated one year by agreeing to be the guest speaker at a function Cabutti was helping to organize in Champaign.
“Coach Cabutti was instrumental in connecting me with Coach Knight,” Allen said. “I’m grateful for his guidance and generosity.
“Knight had said he was looking to fill out his roster (at Indiana) and Coach Cabutti said, ‘I have just the kid for you.’”
Like many other teen-aged basketball players, Allen spent a summer working at the Interlochen Music Camp.
“He was a mainstay there,” Allen said. “Everyone thought the world of him as did anyone who was in contact with him.
“He was a great coach and a great motivator. When I look back, he was up there with the best coaches I had.”
If defense was No. 1 on Cabutti’s to-do list for his teams, then 1-A was conditioning.
“One of the greatest compliments came from Gene Keady (when he recruited athletes from Central while coaching at Hutchinson, Kan., Junior College from 1965-74) who said ‘When Cabutti sends you a player, he is in top-notch physical condition,’” McNeil related. “We’d run those bleachers. He got you in condition.”
Stirrett, meanwhile, had a perspective and viewpoint on Cabutti that was not available to many others. As the home team scorekeeper, he sat within a few feet of where Cabutti would be sitting or standing.
Stirrett began his scorebook duties in 1971 and continued for 35 years.
“I don’t remember if he asked me or told me,” said Stirrett, who taught in the business department at Central and coached cross-country, “but it was all because of Lee Cabutti.”
While the coach was often seen yelling or gesturing during games, Stirrett said there was often misinterpretation to whom the words were being directed.
“Fans, especially from the opposing teams, thought he was yelling at the officials,” Stirrett said, “but he was the easiest guy on officials that I can remember.
“I never heard him yell at an official. He respected the officials.”
Stirrett said he and veteran timer Rich Garcia would make predictions on how much time would elapse in a game before the players would draw Cabutti’s ire and he would call for a timeout.
“Usually it was within the first minute or two,” Stirrett said. “He was pretty demanding of his teams.”
His messages would get through. Eventually.
“Not many coaches could get teams to play defense like he did,” Stirrett said. “His teams played great defense.”
Stirrett said Cabutti was responsive to the requests of coaches during his tenure as athletic director.
“He would try to do whatever I wanted to do with our cross-country program,” Stirrett said. “He was receptive to what I wanted, and my second year, we started revamping the schedule.
“He was a good AD.”
***
Visitation for Lee Cabutti will be from 4-7 p.m. on Thursday (Sept. 22) at Morgan Funeral Home, in Savoy.
A funeral mass will be conducted on Friday (Sept. 23) at 10 a.m. at Holy Cross Church, in Champaign. Guests are invited back to the parish center for lunch following the burial.
Cabutti is survived by his wife, JoAnne; son Mark; and granddaughters Emma and Elise.
It is fitting – perhaps – that Cabutti passed away before the start of another high school basketball season. For the first time in history, the IHSA is permitting a shot clock on an experimental basis for some tournaments.
“I hope we deal with each other in the Kingdom of God and have eternal life,” McNeil, 72, said, “because we have something to talk about.
“We adored him. Coach was awesome.”
