Richard Alan Coffey

March 11, 1950     ~     September 20, 2024

Richard “Rich” Alan Coffey, 74, passed away unexpectedly of sudden cardiac arrest on September 20, 2024 in Fishers, Indiana.

He was born in New Orleans on March 11, 1950, to Jean (McArthur) and Richard Elwin Coffey.

Rich attended South Bend Riley High School, was appointed to West Point and graduated from DePauw University.

He started his coaching career at South Bend Adams with his long-time friend, Kevin Lennon. He later transitioned to coaching high school basketball at Hamilton High School, in Hamilton, Indiana. To this day he talked about his time there and how memorable it was interacting with the students and players.

After coaching Rich, was hired with the Fort Wayne Fury (CBA) as their General Manager. Rich was the executive of the year two times in the CBA, now the G league. He was instrumental in bringing arena football to Fort Wayne and helped turn that city into the minor league sports capital of the world in the 1990s-2000s.

Upon moving down to Indianapolis, to follow his son, he taught social studies and coached basketball at Irvington Prep Academy. Declaring he will forever be a Raven! He loved deeply and enjoyed his time with his nephew Adam, going to dinners and on many adventures. He was a huge follower of Notre Dame football having grown up in South Bend. He was a great man who loved his family immensely and will be missed every day.

He leaves behind to cherish his memory his son Rac Coffey (Mandy) and three amazing grandchildren who were the loves of his life. AJ, Aiden and Sloane. Rich made it a point to be at all their activities. Cheer for their school teams and support the programs any way he could.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Jean, (McArthur) and Richard Elwin Coffey, his sisters Emily Ann, and Jean Fairbanks (Mark) his daughter, Anna Rose, and his son Ryan Thomas.

A time of gathering to remember Rich will be held on Sunday, October 27, 2024, from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm at Seals Funeral Home 122 W. Staat Street Fortville, IN 46040.

In lieu of flowers please make memorial contributions to the Boys and Girls Basketball Program c/o Shenandoah High School 7354 US 36 Middletown, IN 47356.

Online condolences may be shared at www.sealsfuneralhome.com. 

Memorial Time of Gathering

Sunday
October 27, 2024
1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Seals Funeral Home
122 West Staat Street
Fortville, IN 46040

9/24/2024 djb

 

Rich Coffey, who was general manager of the Fort Wayne Fury and owner of the Fort Wayne Freedom, died Friday at 74. He is pictured in his office in 2006.

 

Richard Coffey

       Rich Coffey, who ran professional basketball and football teams in Fort Wayne, died Friday in Fishers from sudden cardiac arrest. He was 74.

       Coffey was general manager of the Fort Wayne Fury basketball team throughout its existence – 1991 to 2001 – before getting involved in indoor football.

       “He was a great man, a man ahead of his time, doing promotions and partnerships 30 years ago that you see every day in the NBA games now,” Coffey’s son, Rac, wrote in an email Saturday confirming his father’s death.

       “He had vision, he had a tenacity to do things right. He loved Fort Wayne and the people. All he wanted to do was make the city proud and help put Fort Wayne on the map for minor league sports. He was Executive of the Year twice in the CBA and his goal was to make sure Fort Wayne was recognized as the greatest minor league sports city in the nation.”

       The Fury, a member of the Continental Basketball Association, was one of Memorial Coliseum’s main tenants, along with the Komets hockey team.

       “You find out, when you do this long enough, that there’s a kind of CBA culture out there,” Rich Coffey said in 2001. “People tend to stick around for some reason. I’ve had other opportunities. We all have. But we really love this.”

       The CBA folded that year due to the fallout of former Detroit Pistons star Isiah Thomas buying it from local ownership groups for over $9 million in 1999. Thomas put the CBA into limbo when he accepted a head-coaching offer from the Indiana Pacers in 2000 and had to divest himself from the CBA. Thomas declined an offer from the NBA to buy the league, and the NBA instead began building its own minor league, today known as the G League, and the trustee who ran the CBA ceased its operations in 2001 after 55 years.

       “It didn’t have to be this way,” Coffey said then. “That’s the main disappointment I have. The CBA could have survived, it could have done things correctly. It didn’t have to end up this way.”

       But it put Coffey on a path toward indoor football. He was named the commissioner of the Indoor Professional Football League in 2001.

       “The owners called me and asked if I was interested in taking over. I kind of looked around and realized I wasn’t doing much and said, ‘Of course,’ ” Coffey said then.

       An IPFL team had been announced in 2000 that would play in Fort Wayne – the Safari, owned by the Fury’s former owners – but it never came to fruition.

      After a seven-month stint running the IPFL, and it being absorbed by the National Indoor Football League, the Freedom was announced as a new NIFL team in 2002 under Coffey’s ownership.

      “I think there is a demand for entertainment in this town, and particularly for minor-league professional sports,” Coffey said then. “I think there’s actually a need for it.”

·     While indoor football went on to have a tumultuous stay in Fort Wayne – multiple owners and leagues – the first two Freedom seasons under Coffey’s stewardship, 2003 and 2004, were the heydays as spectators packed the newly renovated Coliseum to watch an unfamiliar and exciting sport.

      Coffey sold the Freedom to Jeremy Golden, a Florida businessman, in 2006.

      Born in New Orleans, Coffey attended West Point for a year before graduating from DePauw University.

      He coached basketball, football and golf at South Bend Adams, where he coached an individual state champion in golf; basketball, football and soccer at Hamilton, where he coached basketball players who would go on to break a decadeslong sectional drought after his departure; and most recently basketball at Irvington Preparatory Academy in Indianapolis.

      Coffey is survived by Rac and three grandchildren, AJ, Aiden and Sloane. He was preceded in death by his mother, Jean; father, Richard Elwin; sisters, Emily Ann and Jean; son, Ryan; and daughter, Anna.

Article and picture from Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, September 21, 2024.

9/24/2024 djb with assist from Brian Ritter

 

 

Former Hamilton High coach Coffey dies

By Ken Fillmore kfillmore@kpcmedia.com   Sep 22, 2024 Updated 18 hrs ago

Former Hamilton High School coach Rich Coffey died on Friday in Fishers at the age of 74.

Mr. Coffey coached football, soccer and basketball for the Marines before running professional sports teams in Fort Wayne. He was the general manager of the Continental Basketball Association's Fort Wayne Fury from 1991 to 2001, was commissioner of the Indoor Professional Football League for seven months in 2001, and owned the National Indoor Football League's Fort Wayne Freedom from 2002 to 2006.

Coffey often brought Fury players to Hamilton to play teachers and other community members in an exhibition game.

"Games were always sold out, even when I played," Rich's son Rac Coffey said in an email to KPC Media Group Sunday evening. "The fan support in Hamilton was tremendous.

"Hamilton held an extremely important place in my father's heart," Rac Coffey added. "It was his first head coaching job as a high school basketball coach."

Rich Coffey was Hamilton's boys basketball coach from 1985 to 1990. He built the Marines back into a winning program, and implemented a feeder system behind it at the junior high and elementary schools.

Mr. Coffey handed the reins to Tim Sirk, who led the Marines to their first sectional championship in 24 years in 1991 in his first season at the helm.

"Coach Sirk on multiple occasions before his passing told my dad thank you for developing those players," Rac Coffey said. "Those two had a great relationship."

Rich Coffey had a lot of talent on the teams he coached, including Todd Haughey, Brad Boyer, Jason Birkenbeul, Josh Birkenbeul, Cam Haughey, Toby Cool, Terry Nichols, Brad Hennessey, Jeff Fee, Mike Poynter and Toby Bireley.

Hennessey has been a baseball and golf coach in recent years at Hamilton. Bireley was a longtime assistant baseball coach for head coach Jim Sanxter and the Marines. Fee has been an assistant girls basketball coach at Angola High School and has coached for many years in the Amateur Athletic Union travel circuit.

The first class in the feeder system Mr. Coffey started were a group of first graders, including his son Rac. Rac graduated from HHS in 1997.

That feeder system played an important role in developing players that won Class 1A sectional championships in 1999 and 2001 and a 1A regional title in 2001, including post standout and current Hamilton boys basketball coach Chase Holden, athletic forward Tyler Hill and guards Ryan Cline and Ryan Wolfe.

"The teams that followed, followed the lead he set," Rac Coffey said of his father.

Rich Coffey coached Hamilton football during the end of its existence. He coached with John Dutton in football and basketball. Dutton was the Marines' head football coach for the final five seasons from 1981 to 1985.

Mr. Coffey also coached basketball with Roy Charleswood and Randy Shoemaker.

Mr. Coffey started the soccer program at Hamilton with Tim Cook and others after football ended.

Rac said his father enjoyed coaching football at Hamilton. Rich Coffey made all-city football teams in South Bend during his high school years at Riley.

"Hamilton was an extremely special place for my father," Rac Coffey said. "He loved the people he worked with, Mr. Dutton, Mr. (Gus) Haughey, Mr. (Gary) Nordmann, Coach Charleswood and so many other individuals, including Steve Birkenbeul and many of the other teachers and staff at the school.

"He would even continue to talk about Hamilton during our lunches when we would talk on the phone about the old days and how special Hamilton was when I was growing up in the middle of the 80s and into the late 90s."

Nordmann was the Hamilton Community Schools superintendent and Haughey was Hamilton High School's principal during Rich Coffey's coaching tenure.

"He was so proud of the young men he coached and helped develop," Rac Coffey said of his father. "Many of them went on to amazing careers of their own and making their own mark on society. Part of me likes to think some of what my dad taught them lives on today.

"He touched many people's lives. He was larger than life. He was a man ahead of his time implementing offensive schemes NBA teams use today. High-scoring, fast-paced, run and trap, and so much more. He is the sole reason I was the player I was I will be forever grateful for him for that and for both his time and my time in Hamilton."

9/24/2024 djb

 

 

 

https://www.sealsfuneralhome.com/obituary/RichardRich-Coffey