LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kenny Klein, the longtime University of Louisville sports information director whose career spanned Denny Crum and Howard Schnellenberger all the way through Rick Pitino and now Kenny Payne, announced Thursday morning that he'll retire at the end of June.

"I'd planned to do this for a while, but Kenny Payne coming in made it much tougher to walk away," Klein said in a text to media members this morning. "He wouldn't let me walk away completely."

Klein said he'll continue to work with the basketball program in some capacity after his retirement.

"Kenny Klein is invaluable," Payne said. "He can't be replaced. I'm so happy he's agreed to be with us for my first season. His love for the University of Louisville is off the charts. Kenny is the University of Louisville."

When Klein was appointed SID at Louisville in 1983, he was the youngest person to hold that position at a Division I football institution.

He set out to be a pre-med student at Austin Peay. Later he earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from Murray State, and had been an SID at Morehead State for two years when he got the opportunity to become an assistant SID at Louisville. A month after taking the job, he became the head SID when his boss left for LSU.

Over the next 39 years, Klein would distinguish himself with a reputation among his colleagues and reporters for honesty, professionalism and unflagging devotion to U of L.

All of the changes that transformed journalism in those years also transformed Klein's job. He has been on the leading edge of new technologies, developing approaches to photography, videography, publishing and web design.

In 2015, Klein was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2012, he received the Katha Quinn Award, presented by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association in recognition for providing outstanding service to media covering college basketball.

Through his role at U of L, Klein coordinated computerized statistics operations for 35 NCAA Final Fours.

But beyond all that, Klein has been a trusted friend and resource for reporters who have been a key part of spreading the story of U of L athletics for nearly four decades. He hands out beers at the end of basketball and football games. He picks up out-of-town reporters at the airports or drives them back there, takes them to dinner or helps them with logistics in Louisville.

His background as a journalism major and his keen knack for knowing a good story have made him particularly gifted at helping reporters cover the program.

If you ask Klein a question, you get the truth in response. If he can't answer it truthfully, he doesn't answer it.

And that has been through the good and the bad. Through the men's basketball NCAA issues of the 1990s, to the extortion scandal involving Rick Pitino in the 2000s, to the men's basketball stripper violations and the NCAA fallout in the early 2010s, to the program's role in the college basketball pay-for-play scandal unearthed in 2017, Klein provided level-headed leadership amid public relations disasters.

Pitino appreciated his work so much, he famously gifted Klein with a Lexus convertible in 2010.

"Kenny Klein is the finest person I've worked with in college athletics," Pitino said. "His dedication towards excellence is unparalleled."

Longtime Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich called him "indispensable." Denny Crum called him, "the ultimate SID. He does not major in minors -- he just gets the job done in a way all media people appreciate."

In writing Klein's biography for the CoSIDA Hall of Fame, U of L associate SID Nancy Allison Worley said, "Klein's insistence that U of L sports information not utilize any kind of automated phone system meant that when the media members call there is always a real, live human being to answer their questions or consider their requests. He worked deals with local restaurants to provide top-notch meals at events, arranged trade-outs with companies to provide his staff with state-of-the art-copiers, computers, and even transportation. . . . His hospitality with visiting media both national and local to the opponent has always gone a long way to foster a positive environment for coverage of the Cards, no matter how eccentric or disputatious some of those media members might be."

Through the excellence he displayed at U of L, Klein has also been a resource to various sporting events both inside and outside of Louisville. He was the media coordinator for the 1997 USA Pan American Games basketball team, and has served on the NCAA Final Four media coordination committee, in addition to his work with the stat crew. For years, he has worked with media services for the Kentucky Derby. And he was the local media center committee chairman for the 1996, 2000 and 2014 PGA Championships in Louisville, and served in a similar role for the 2008 Ryder Cup, and 2004 and 2011 Senior PGA Championships.

If it's a major media event in Louisville, Klein's presence is a must.

For Klein's CoSIDA Hall of Fame induction, PGA Senior Director for Public Awareness and External Relations Julius Mason recalled meeting Klein in 2005.

"He was then, as he is today -- a calm, easy-going, soft-talking, professional with a huge, commanding presence," Mason said. "We soon learned just how lucky we were. At the beginning of PGA Championship week as media from around the world began checking in and collecting their credentials, we watched in amazement how many local and regional -- and many national media -- knew Kenny -- and knew him well. We joked about how we needed to build a special reception area where Kenny could take photographs and sign autographs for all that were excited to see him. To this day, we still use the same efficient, smooth operating quote-quote system that Kenny perfected. We consider ourselves fortunate to have had an 'institution,' and friend, by our side to successfully manage golf’s major events -- the PGA Championship, Senior PGA Championship and Ryder Cup.”

Louisville resident and Sports Illustrated columnist Pat Forde spoke for many media when he said of Klein, ahead of the CoSIDA induction, "If you polled the college basketball media, Kenny Klein would be on the short-list of all-time great SIDs -- and not just because he's been known to have a postgame Miller Lite or two stashed away for the writers. Kenny has never left the media work room before I have, or any writer has. He closes the room, every game, no matter how long it takes -- no delegating that duty to an assistant. While we work on stories, Kenny works on his peerless pregame notes. His attention to detail and work ethic are part of his high standard of professionalism. We have had some tense moments and disagreements, but Kenny always has been a complete pro."

The sports information office may have been the only office on campus that I didn't work in during my student days. I didn't really meet Kenny until I came back to Louisville to start covering U of L basketball for The Courier-Journal in 2001. For 5 years as the beat writer, then many more as columnist and at WDRB, I have leaned on Kenny professionally more than any other person outside of my own coworkers.

When Louisville needed an athletic director after the departure of Jurich, I thought the school could've done a lot worse than Kenny Klein, even on a temporary basis. I said something to him. He had no interest. He was happy right where he was.

There are a few people – I can count them on one hand – who, for me, are the University of Louisville. I hate to embarrass them by naming them. They aren't the coaches whose names everybody knows. They are people who lived for (and sometimes even at) the university for three and four decades, the people who were (and are) there regardless of what coaches or presidents or high-profile names come and go. They are the heartbeat of the institution.

Kenny is one of those. Thankfully, he'll be around the press room for a little longer. Hopefully, a lot longer. But maybe now he can head home before the last keyboard falls silent, content in the knowledge that he has done his job as well as anyone ever did it.

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