Butch Beard

Alfred "Butch" Beard Jr. (born May 5, 1947) is an American former professional basketball player and coach who served as the starting point guard on the 1975 NBA champion Golden State Warriors. Born in Hardinsburg, Kentucky, a community of about 1,000 people, Beard attended Breckinridge County High School, where he played for the Bearcats. As a junior in 1964, he missed nine games with a broken wrist but still led the team to the state championship game, where Breckinridge lost 66–56 to a Louisville Seneca High School squad led by Wes Unseld. Beard averaged 14.8 points per game in that tournament and was named to its All-Tournament Team. Across the 1964 season he averaged 17.3 points and 19 rebounds per game with a .573 field goal percentage and earned All-State honors, capping a high school career in which he was named Kentucky Mr. Basketball. He went on to play college basketball for the Louisville Cardinals, where he was a three-time All-Missouri Valley Conference selection and roomed with Unseld, a future Naismith Hall of Fame center. After his playing career, Beard coached for more than 20 seasons at the collegiate and professional levels.