Randall honors Leslie Broadhurst with Gym Induction

With his 36 years of teaching and coaching basketball at Randall High, Leslie Broadhurst figures he has walked into the Randall High gymnasium more than 10,000 times.

Broadhurst’s next visit will be unlike any other he has made.

Monday afternoon in an emotional, entertaining and historic ceremony before a packed gym, the Randall High gym will forever be known as the Leslie Broadhurst Gymnasium.

In a unanimous vote on April 8 the Canyon ISD school board approved naming the Randall High gym after Broadhurst, the only boys basketball coach for Randall High since the doors opened in 1988.

“Never,” Broadhurst said of thinking his name would be on the gym floor when he was hired. “I never dreamed my name would be on the floor. I was just wanting to stay here and hopefully they wouldn’t get rid of me.”

Stayed? Oh, the man known for his basketball passion, quick smile and always ready with a joke, has stayed.

And thrived.

Counting his one year as a head coach at Morton where he secured 19 wins, Broadhurst has won 701 games, he coached 90 all-district players at Randall, reached the playoffs 26 years, made 10 regional tournament appearances and the past two seasons led the Raiders to the Class 4A state semifinals.

Randall High seventh-year principal Steven Singleton, who started his teaching/coaching career at Randall High 19 years ago, said if it was only wins that mattered a lot of gyms would have names on them instead of the rare few.

“This isn’t just about wins,” Singleton said. “You could name a gym after a coach with just as many wins and nobody might not show up because the coach wasn’t liked or that’s all they were about. Leslie Broadhurst is as nice a man as you will ever meet. A mentor to so many players and a counselor to so many coaches, including myself, who have been at Randall. Wins are just a small part of the impact he has had on Randall High. Who stays 36 years at one school? Leslie Broadhurst does and we are better off for it.”

The ceremony was attended by family and friends, including Broadhurst’s son Blair, who played for his dad from 2004-06.

“I was sixth months old when he took this job, so I learned to walk in this gym,” Blair said. “We have so many basketball memories here, but obviously a lot of other memories here. This is such a big deal for our family to see him honored for what he’s done. … man, it’s just a big honor in so many ways to have our name associated with this place that he has given his life to.”

The ceremony was attended by several former players like 2001 graduate guard Garrett Pool, who flew in from Houston just for the ceremony.

The ceremony was attended by just about every assistant coach under Broadhurst, including Kyle Hewitt who drove the 11-hour round trip from Glen Rose just for the ceremony.

“Just awesome for him,” said Hewitt. “What a great guy. I learned so much from him and will forever be thankful.”

The ceremony was attended by a who’s who of Amarillo-area basketball coaches, including retired coaching legend and Broadhurst friend Joe Lombard.

“To me this is the greatest honor a coach can have bestowed on him,” said Lombard, who won 19 state girls basketball titles and won 1,317 games with Nazareth and Canyon and has the court at Canyon High named after him. “I don’t think there is anything greater than this. Hall of Fames are awesome but this, when it’s by your school, you have worked at, it’s just not that you did a good job coaching, I think they appreciate other things you bring to the table. Obviously, Leslie Broadhurst has brought a lot to the table in his career. .,, I mean who doesn’t like Leslie Broadhurst?”

Current Randall assistant coach Trevor Johnson, in his 10th year, joined others in introducing Broadhurst before the man of the hour himself spoke for about 20 minutes.

“Such an unbelievable event today to be able to honor Coach this way and have a long-lasting legacy,” Johnson said. “If anybody deserves this it’s him. Canyon High did it for Joe Lombard and there was one person here we needed to do it for and that’s Coach Leslie Broadhurst. I’m so thankful for what he has done for me and our players.”

When Broadhurst spoke he was funny, reflective and thanking everybody from his family, to administration, to assistant coaches to players to Randall girls basketball coaches to, well, just about everybody refusing to talk about himself much.

Typical of the humble Broadhurst.

Broadhurst told the story of how when Randall was being built the year prior to 1988 he would drive over from Borger or Morton some weekends and park his car and just look at the unfinished gym.

“This is the job I wanted,” said Broadhurst, who is currently fighting a brain tumor undergoing a 10-year hour surgery and now taking chemo and radiation treatments.  “This gym is special. This place has been it. I just love it. I can’t walk away from it.

“Hopefully, I have treated most people right and have been kind. Except when you are playing the game, you have to be a little tougher then. There are just good people here. “

Broadhurst said of his 10,000 times walking in the gym?

“When you are up at this gym that many times, you grow to love this place or you wouldn’t be coming up here,” Broadhurst said. “This place is special. This court is special. That little office back there which is about six-foot wide it’s like another home. This place has been it. I just love it. … God has blessed more than any person I know. And I love him for it.”