Former Bladen County high school basketball coach Ken F. Cross died Monday, April 13. He was 82 and living at White Lake.
A celebration of life service is scheduled for Tuesday, April 21 at 11 a.m. at Saint Francis De Sales Catholic Church, 2000 Elizabethtown Road in Lumberton.
Mr. Cross coached boys’ basketball for 11 years at the former Tar Heel High School, 10 years at West Bladen High School, leading the Knights to the 2008 N.C. High School Athletic Association 2A championship, and five years at East Bladen High School. He also coached at Paul R. Brown Leadership Academy and Tar Heel Middle School near the end of his 50-year career that began in New Jersey.
The gymnasium at West Bladen High School was named in Mr. Cross’ honor in October 2023.
“I hope I made life enjoyable for you because you guys made life enjoyable for me,” Mr. Cross told those gathered for the ceremony naming the facility Ken F. Cross Gymnasium. “God, family and basketball have been my life.”
Mr. Cross was an intense competitor and fiery coach. He was known for ripping off his sport coat during games and tossing his tie into the stands to get his team and the crowd excited. He wouldn’t hesitate to question an official.
Mr. Cross was tough and demanding of his players. As Rodd Baxley, a player on West Bladen’s state championship team and now a reporter for The Fayetteville Observer and USA Today, wrote in 2023, “He was never one to sugarcoat anything and the truth can be tough for some folks to handle. It didn’t matter who your parents were or who you knew.”
However, there was a softer side to Mr. Cross that few people saw.
Rev. Warren Hill, who served as team chaplain when Mr. Cross coached at West Bladen, posted a video on Facebook on Tuesday, April 14 showing Mr. Cross sitting at a table inside Giorgio’s restaurant in Elizabethtown playing with Hill’s young grandson Sawyer.
“(Mr. Cross) was there clapping with him and playing with him and all sorts of stuff,” Hill recalled. “There was a different side of coach that nobody saw.
“There’s no telling how many kids that he helped. He would buy them shoes, clothes, he’d feed them. There’s no telling how many he kept out of trouble. He had a good heart on him.”
Hill recalled prior to each game that Mr. Cross would have the team recite the Lord’s prayer, then Mr. Cross would pray, then he would look at Hill and say, “Alright, preacher, you pray for us.”
East Bladen girls’ basketball coach Patty Evers was with Mr. Cross at Tar Heel High School where she began her coaching career in the 1990s.
“Coach Cross was one of a kind,” Evers said. “He loved the game of basketball more than anyone I know of. He spent countless hours watching film and scouting his opponents. He loved the sidelines and he loved his players.
“I was very fortunate to have worked with him, especially my first year of coaching. He taught me the best ways to scout, he showed me defensive and offensive strategies, and his phone conversations about the game of basketball, let’s just say it gave him joy.”
Mr. Cross won more than 660 games coaching high school basketball. He had a 202-69 record at West Bladen.
Former player Nathan Priest and team manager Faith Inman approached the Bladen County Board of Education in 2022 about naming the West Bladen gym in Mr. Cross’ honor.
“He coached the 2008 state championship team, but his influence went so much further than just basketball,” Priest told the board at that time.
“Coach Cross, in addition to his basketball coaching, promoted honesty, faith, being held accountable, teamwork and so much more,” Inman said during that 2022 meeting.
The school board agreed. Today, as fans attend West Bladen High School basketball games, emblazoned near the entrance is “Ken F. Cross Gymnasium” in big purple letters.
“As we name this gym, we not only commemorate his outstanding coaching career but also his impact on our lives,” said former player Wayne McDonald during the 2023 opening remarks of the ceremony.
Mr. Cross was the son of the late Frederick Cross and Ruth Elizabeth Boyce. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his brother, Rick Cross, and his cousin, Ginger Goldstein, whom he considered a sister. He is survived by his sister, Ruth Higgins, and her husband, Rich, along with 11 nieces and nephews.
Mr. Cross grew up watching the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, sparking his love for basketball. He graduated from East Rutherford High School in New Jersey and Seton Hall University before becoming a coach in New Jersey.
Mr. Cross coached 17 years coaching in New Jersey, Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania before making his way to North Carolina in 1990.
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