Ken Walker and the New Bloomfield Lady Wildcats created their own category of supremacy on the court.
Walker, who directed the New Bloomfield girls' basketball team to two state championships in the late 1980s and is a member of the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, died June 8 of complications from two strokes he had suffered in recent years. He was 75 years old.
"Ken's teams (at New Bloomfield) were unlike anything I'd seen before in covering high school sports, and something I haven't seen since," said Shawn Cockrum, who served as sports editor at the Fulton Sun from 1987-90. "I was fortunate enough to watch a lot of basketball, and going to one of their games was a different level.
"They would dismantle teams and make it look easy."
Walker amassed a dazzling 325-121 record in his 16 seasons at New Bloomfield, including a spectacular four-year stretch of success over the latter half of the '80s.
The Lady Wildcats secured a Class 1A state title with a 30-1 record in Walker's first season at the school in 1986. After going 29-2 but bowing in the state quarterfinals in 1987, New Bloomfield produced a perfect 31-0 stampede to another 1A state championship in 1988.
The Lady Wildcats then followed that up with another 29-2 mark and a third-place finish in 1A in 1989. Across that four-season span, Walker's squads compiled an extraordinary 119-5 record.
"Ken was able to get the most out of the talent he had, and take it to a place other coaches couldn't," Cockrum said. "He was a little more innovative in his thinking about the game - he was ahead of everybody else."
Kenna Walker played guard for her father over those four seasons, graduating from New Bloomfield in 1989. Her brother, Meritt Walker, also played basketball and baseball for their dad at Strafford, before graduating from New Bloomfield in 1987.
"To me, it was a lot of fun and a lot of work," Kenna Walker said. "He was a very disciplined coach, but he actually really made it fun. You either loved him or you hated him - there was no in-between."
Kara (Hopsecker) Shumate was a forward-center on the Lady Wildcats' two state title teams, graduating from New Blooomfield in 1988. Shumate noted that Ken Walker expected a complete commitment when you played for him.
"You would eat, breathe and drink it - it was all basketball," Shumate said. "When you stepped out on the floor, you were his all the time and your focus had to be on the game.
"You had to be very disciplined and dedicated to him and the game."
Kenna Walker explained that her father demanded unity from his players, even if they weren't close away from the sport.
"He told us one time, 'I don't care what goes on when you walk out of this gym, as soon as you hit this gym you all better be best friends, you're a family,'" Kenna Walker said. " He said that anything associated with the team, you're a family, you don't let somebody talk about your teammate.
"Everybody had to be in sync, everybody knew what to do. We had a great bond, even though we might not have liked each other off the court. We had this really good bond and took care of each other."
With 602 career wins to his credit, Ken Walker was inducted into the MBCA Hall of Fame in 2004. His 493 victories on the girls' side included coaching stops at New Bloomfield, Harrisburg and El Dorado Springs.
As a boys' basketball coach, Ken Walker tallied 109 wins at Stoutland, Bronaugh, Wheeling, Koshkonong and Strafford.
In addition to his litany of coaching achievements, Ken Walker was also a decorated military veteran. He served in the Vietnam War, reaching the rank of sergeant in the Army, and was awarded with two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star among other accomodations.
After his death, Ken Walker received military honors in his hometown of Bernie in the southeast part of the state.
"It was always pride, really," Meritt Walker said of his father's military service. "He was proud of his unit, loved his unit, loved the people that were in his unit."
"He was very pro-military, he loved his country," Kenna Walker added. "If you would have walked in his house before his strokes, there were eagles everywhere.
"Every day before he left his house, he had a flag up and he would say, 'Hello, beautiful,' and salute it."
While he had a tough exterior as a coach, Shumate stressed that Ken Walker could also reveal a tender side.
"He was a man that would do anything for you," Shumate said. "He was hardcore, but he also had a heart as big as himself."
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Ryan Boland can be reached at (573) 826-2422, or on Twitter @FultonSunSports.