Hopkinsville native Tommy Wade, who recently retired as a collegiate men’s basketball coach, has provided a major gift to the local Boys and Girls Club for a renovation of the organization’s gymnasium.
The gym will soon have a new wooden floor, bleachers, scoreboards, sideline chairs and video system. The improvements represent a $165,000 project, said Terrence Davis, executive director of the youth facility on Walnut Street.
“It’s amazing. People continue to pour into these kids and the work we are doing,” Davis told Hoptown Chronicle.
The project will be a memorial to Wade’s late parents, Tom and Wanda Wade.
“I chose this project as a testament to the values, sacrifices and unconditional love my parents instilled in me,” Wade said in a press release from the Boys and Girls Club.
The gym will become the Wade Family Gymnasium, and the new floor will be named Tom & Wanda Court.
Davis said he was as surprised as anyone when Wade told him he wanted to do something as large as a gym renovation for the Boys and Girls Club.
The idea for the gym project followed an impromptu visit. Wade was in town in January for his induction into the Planters Bank Athletic Hall of Fame at Hopkinsville High School, and he stopped by the Boys and Girls Club to have a look around. The facility stands on the grounds of the former Hopkinsville High School. When Wade was in high school, Hopkinsville still played its football games on Walnut Street.
On the day Wade stopped by the club, Davis gave him a tour and explained that the organization serves dozens of children with after-school and summer mentoring programs and tutoring, in addition to providing snacks and meals.
The renovated gym will also have a small memorial to Hopkinsville High School.
“We want to memorialize and preserve the rich history of Hopkinsville High School,” said Davis. “For the past 111 years, 1600 Walnut St. has served youth in Hopkinsville. The Wade Family Gymnasium will help the Boys and Girls Club continue this tradition for years to come.” As an All-State basketball player for Hopkinsville High School, Wade led the team in scoring his senior year, 1974, averaging 20.1 points a game. He played college ball at Murray State University and Southeast Missouri State. He played professionally overseas for several years.
Wade retired in November as assistant men’s basketball coach at Jacksonville State University in Alabama. He was an assistant for head coach Ray Harper and previously had worked with Harper at Kentucky Wesleyan and Oklahoma City.
Wade’s parents were downtown merchants. They owned Tom Wade’s Men’s Store, which operated at Ninth and Virginia streets for 38 years, and had a teen clothing store a few doors down Ninth Street for several years. It was called Union 1776.
His father served on Hopkinsville City Council and was president of the Western Kentucky State Fair Board for 20 years. He is remembered for bringing major music acts to the Hopkinsville fair, such as The Judds, Willie Nelson and Alabama.
Although Davis was surprised by Tommy Wade’s gift to the Boys and Girls Club, he was familiar with his family through their business.
Already standing 6-foot-5 as a teenager, Davis had few options in Hopkinsville when he shopped for clothes. But Tom Wade’s Men’s Store had shirts that fit him, so he occasionally walked to the store from his home on Fourth Street.
Davis remembered, “He treated me with the utmost respect.”
The project should be completed by mid-June, and a dedication ceremony is set for Aug. 4. The Boys and Girls Club will also celebrate its 20th anniversary in Hopkinsville this summer.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
