McKendree University Athletics

Louis Butts lettered in basketball and baseball at McKendree and participated in, coached or followed sports throughout his life. He played a vital role in promoting athletics at the College as an alumnus and a professor.

After graduating from McKendree in 1916, Dr. Butts taught and coached all sports in Benton, Carterville, Farmer City and Des Plaines, Ill. He left teaching after World War I to play professional basketball for a team sponsored by the Ohio Cities Gas Company, later Phillips 66, in Tulsa, Okla. He also received an offer to play baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals but returned instead to education, earning an MS from Washington University in 1931. After having retired as principal of Belleville Junior High School, he came to McKendree to chair the Education Department from 1955-63. He received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from a grateful McKendree in 1964.

Dr. Butts attended high school, college and professional sporting events as long as health would allow. He passed along his love of sports to daughter Sarah Butts Eisenhauer and grandsons, Mark and Gary, and to countless students whose lives were influenced by his work and his example.