LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — For four decades, Kenny Klein occupied one of the most visible jobs in Louisville athletics while somehow never making it about himself.
Fans knew the coaches.
They knew the players.
The media — and just about everyone else, it seemed — knew Kenny.
For generations of reporters, broadcasters, photographers and sports information directors, Klein was often the first face they saw when they arrived in Louisville and the last one they saw before they left.
If a reporter needed a statistic, Kenny found it.
If a visiting writer needed a ride from the airport, Kenny provided it.
If a deadline stretched long into the night, Kenny stayed until the final story was filed and the final laptop was closed.
And if there happened to be a cold Miller Lite waiting afterward, well, that wasn't entirely uncommon either.
Klein, the longtime University of Louisville sports information director whose career spanned nearly four decades and helped shape the public face of Cardinals athletics through some of its greatest triumphs and most difficult crises, died Thursday night, according to his family. He was 66.
Klein suffered a choking episode at a Louisville restaurant two weeks ago. Friends and family remained by his side throughout his hospitalization, but he never regained consciousness.
A large group of friends and family said their goodbyes during an Honor Walk at U of L Health, where Klein donated organs so that others might live.
"Even at his last he is helping others," his family said in a text to friends.
Klein never sought recognition.
Kenny Klein is being remembered around the world of sports. Read reaction to his passing here.
"I'm a behind-the-scenes guy," he told WDRB upon announcing his retirement in 2022. "I shouldn't be in the front."
He knew where he was most comfortable.
For four decades, he worked just outside the spotlight, helping tell the stories of coaches, players and programs that became part of Louisville sports history.
He spent most of his career helping tell everybody else's stories.
Now, reluctantly, the story is his.
Born outside Clarksville, Tennessee, Klein grew up on a farm where his family raised cattle and hogs and grew tobacco. Sports was not initially the plan. A strong science student, he enrolled at Austin Peay with hopes of becoming a doctor before discovering journalism and sports information work during college. That path eventually led him to Murray State, then Morehead State, and finally Louisville.
When Klein became Louisville's sports information director in 1983, he was the youngest person to hold that position at a Division I football institution.
He arrived in Louisville expecting to work football as an assistant sports information director.
Two weeks later, the school's SID left for LSU.
At 23 years old, Klein suddenly found himself helping run the operation alongside veteran staffer Kathy Tronzo and a student assistant.
Nearly four decades later, few people would become more closely identified with Louisville athletics.
His résumé was remarkable.
He coordinated computerized statistics operations for 35 NCAA Final Fours.
He was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame in 2015 and the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017.
He worked major sporting events across Louisville, including PGA Championships, the Ryder Cup, the Kentucky Derby and countless NCAA championships.
On the floor of the United States Senate, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell called Klein "an iconic Kentuckian," and offered a detail that those who covered Louisville sports would recognize. "He'd stash a cold beer in his desk for any reporters who spent the long nights with him."
Yet those who knew Klein best insist his greatest accomplishment wasn't the events he worked.
It was the people he helped.
"How can I help people?" he said in a University of Louisville Magazine profile. "That's really the way I view my job."
It was a philosophy that shaped nearly every relationship he built.
University of Louisville athletic director Josh Heird once called Klein "the best to ever do this job."
Then he added something even more revealing.
"That's not the most impressive thing I can say about this guy," Heird said. "He's arguably one of the best humans I've ever met in my life."
Through coaching changes, NCAA investigations, scandals, victories, championships and heartbreak, Klein built a reputation for honesty that stood out in the world of modern athletics.
In more than two decades covering Louisville sports, I never knew Kenny Klein to tell me something he knew was untrue.
Early in my tenure as Louisville beat writer, I found myself reporting a sensitive financial story. An editor asked whether I believed one particular fact I had been given.
I told him I had gotten it from Kenny Klein.
We ran with it.
If Klein couldn't answer a question honestly, he simply wouldn't answer it.
That reputation earned him the trust of coaches, administrators and reporters alike.
Former Louisville coach Rick Pitino called Klein "the finest person I've worked with in college athletics."
Others described him as indispensable.
Nancy Worley, the first person hired by Klein after taking over at Louisville, once said he treated "the smallest blog to the biggest national writer with the same respect."
That consistency became one of his defining traits.
Former Louisville basketball player and Jefferson Family Court Judge Derwin Webb said when he thinks of the University of Louisville, he thinks first of Kenny Klein, praising the kindness Klein showed him from the moment they met decades ago.
The affection people felt for Klein often revealed itself in small moments.
During the week of Klein's retirement celebration, Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum was hospitalized with pneumonia. Yet one of Crum's concerns was missing the chance to attend and honor his longtime friend. Klein treasured a raspy phone call from the coach, who called to apologize.
That was the effect Klein had on people.
Klein was so indispensable, in fact, that when St. John's sports information director fell ill, Pitino convinced him to come out of retirement and join him in New York.
That was two years ago.
The last time I saw him, at Churchill Downs, Klein described the experience as "a joy ride."
Few people worked harder than Klein.
Few enjoyed life more.
He loved his wife, Donna, sons Alex and Brady, their families and a circle of friends too large to count.
He attended 99 Jimmy Buffett concerts, met Buffett on multiple occasions and helped bring Buffett to Cardinal Stadium.
In his final days, Buffett's music played softly in his hospital room, courtesy of a playlist assembled by Brady.
I was struck when I heard, in the room, one lyric we both knew well. "Some of it's magic, some of it's tragic but I had a good life all the way."
For all the honors, awards and championship events attached to his name, Kenny Klein may be remembered most for something much simpler: He made people feel welcome.
For decades, long after games ended and arenas emptied, Klein remained.
He answered one more question.
Found one more statistic.
Helped one more reporter.
Waited for one more story to be filed.
Only then did he head home.
In a profession built on deadlines, Kenny Klein was often the last one left.
Which makes it tragically unsettling that he should be gone now.
For thousands of people whose lives he touched over four decades, who considered him a friend, he will be among the hardest to forget.
ARRANGEMENTS
Visitation: Sunday 2-8 at Highlands Funeral Home 3331 Taylorsville Road.
Mass: Monday at 10 am at Saint Raphael, 2142 Lancashire Ave.
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