Whether you put a bat, a ball, a club or playing cards in his hands, Clint Keown’s talents were astonishing. He was the stuff of legend, perhaps the most well-rounded, versatile athlete in Evansville history.
Never mind that the curly-haired, colorful figure didn’t cast an imposing shadow. Although fleet of foot, Keown was a modest 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds and could not jump out of the gym.
“I believe Keown is arguably one of the best athletes to ever come out of the city of Evansville,” says Andre Thomas, who played on William Henry Harrison High School’s football and basketball teams in the late 1990s against Keown, who was two years older and attended Reitz Memorial High School. “He was all-City or all-Southern Indiana Athletic conference in football, basketball, and baseball.”
Currently Harrison’s athletics director, Thomas characterizes Keown as the ultimate competitor.
“He loved winning, but he hated losing more,” Thomas says. “God blessed him with amazing ability, but I think he worked as if he didn’t have any talent. That, with his love for competition, is what really set him apart from everyone else.”
Keown’s life tragically was cut short Sept. 22 in a single-vehicle car wreck coming back to Evansville from a golf tournament in Robinson, Illinois. Keown was driving a Tesla on Illinois 1 in Crawford County when his car struck a guardrail, rolled several times, and landed in a ditch. Matthew Redd, a passenger in the vehicle, suffered serious injuries.
Keown died at age 44, but his larger-than-life persona and accomplishments on and off the field will live forever.
“He will be extremely missed by a lot of people and most importantly, his family and his friends,” Thomas says.
Keown is survived by his wife, Hannah, their four-year-old son Colby, and two stepchildren, Liam and Leighton. Funeral visitations are planned for 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sept. 25 and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sept. 26 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, 1301 S. Green River Road. A private service is scheduled for Sept. 27, with burial at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery on the West Side.
Want To Meet Bob Knight? No Problem.
Keown’s confidence seemingly knew no bounds. There are endless stories of his antics, but one is well-documented. Jeff Anderson, who starred on Memorial’s basketball team a few years before Keown and who became a mentor and, later, a lifelong friend, was an eyewitness. Anderson was driving a group transport back from Indianapolis after Memorial defeated East Noble 21-3 in the Class 4A state championship football game on Nov. 30, 2019, at Lucas Oil Stadium. They stopped in Bloomington to get Mother Bear’s pizza for the ride home. Anderson casually mentioned that legendary former Indiana University coach Bob Knight had recently moved back to Bloomington and lived close to campus.
“With no hesitation, Clint said, ‘Let’s stop by and say hello.’ It was 9 p.m., and I told Clint we would drive by his house on the way out of town but could not cold call at such a late hour,” recalls Anderson, president and CEO of Anderson Capital Partners. “Needless to say, Clint jumps out of the van and knocks on the door. After a few moments of introduction with Mrs. Knight, who was in her robe, Clint, Drew Hart, and Frank Jung disappear into Knight’s home for 10 minutes.”
Inside, Keown reminisced about his recruiting visit to IU years earlier and welcomed Knight back to Indiana.
“The group all got a picture with Coach Knight and had a nice visit,” says Anderson, who was a nervous wreck waiting outside.
“But Clint got back in the van for the ride home and thought it was totally normal to make the late-night stop to say hello and give his regards,” Anderson says. “Clint was able to do things that would get most people arrested or beat up.”
Anderson was part of another story — Keown displaying his athletic prowess at a young age. Casey Keown, Clint’s younger brother, says Clint stole a key to Memorial’s gym as a kid and had an understanding with the school’s janitor. The Keowns lived right across the street from Memorial’s gym, at 517 Benninghof Ave., and Clint snuck in there often. Even at age eight, he was comfortable with the pressure.
On that day in 1988, the Tigers were practicing on the court, and Coach Rich Risemas was not happy that a child was interrupting them.
“He grabbed Clint from the corner of the gym and told him that if he hit two free throws, we could all go home,” Anderson says. “If he missed either of the two free throws, he was going to run our (butts) off for another 30 minutes. Clint, with his yellow, worn biddy basketball and big ears, calmly steps to the line and sinks two free throws.”
The Memorial basketball players put Keown on their shoulders and marched him into the locker room.
“We knew he was going to be clutch in life when he could do that as an 8-year-old gym rat,” says Anderson, who went on to play for Kent State University.
Switching Gears
Just like his confidence, Keown’s creativity on the court and the field were boundless. Naturally right-handed, he made a left-handed double-pump scoop shot in the lane in the waning seconds that helped seal a victory over Drake University in 1999 during his freshman season playing for the University of Evansville men’s basketball team. He successfully pulled off the “hidden ball trick” against Jasper, Indiana, in the Class 3A baseball regional at Bosse Field in his senior season at Memorial in 1998.
Quentin Merkel, Memorial’s old-school coach, says he didn’t mind Keown’s antics “as long as they helped us win.”
Keown didn’t play football until his junior year at Memorial. That didn’t stop him from quickly finding success. One year later, he was an all-state wide receiver, even drawing an assistant from the University of Michigan to a Memorial practice. Keown didn’t take up golf seriously until his 20s but still managed to play on minor league golf tours before regaining amateur status in 2020.
Not one for a “regular job,” Keown made his living as a professional poker player. In fact, he cited burnout after playing one season of Class A ball in the Cincinnati Reds’ organization. The real reason was Keown joked that he could make more money playing poker. Merkel wasn’t surprised.
“He was somewhat of a character,” says Merkel, an Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame coach who guided Memorial to three state championships. “He was an amazing athlete.”
Not many people would have the audacity to pull off the “hidden ball trick” in a postseason game. But Keown wasn’t most people. Playing center field in the 3A regional baseball game against Jasper in ’98, Keown twisted his body sideways, pretending he had missed catching a base hit. The Jasper runner attempted to stretch his hit into a double, but Keown quickly fired the ball to second. He also employed the “hidden ball trick” with Memorial shortstop Josh Todd to pick off a Jasper runner at second. Despite Keown’s daring, Jasper still won that game, 5-3.
Still the fifth-leading scorer in city basketball history with 1,766 points, Keown was a 1998 Indiana All-Star and runner-up to Tom Coverdale in Mr. Basketball voting. As a freshman at UE, Keown was a top reserve on the Aces’ 1998-99 NCAA tournament team — the last time the Aces made it to the Big Dance. However, he and UE coach Jim Crews were known to butt heads, and Keown left the program early in his sophomore season.
Over Christmas break, Keown called former Memorial teammate Sam Garau, who was playing baseball at NCAA Division II University of South Carolina Aiken.
“He told me that he had just met with Coach Crews and told him that he was done playing basketball at UE,” Garau says. “He told me that he was just not happy there and felt like he needed a fresh start. He said to me ‘Sammy, I want to play baseball. Do you think you can get me on your team?’ I told him I’d call the coach and see what he says. I remember calling (USC Aiken) coach (Kenny) Thomas and telling him, ‘Coach, I’ve got a really good friend that was playing DI basketball at the University of Evansville and has decided he wants to play baseball. Would you consider giving him a shot?”
Although Keown had not picked up a bat or baseball in a couple of years, Garau told Thomas that his friend was all-state in three sports in high school and would be the best athlete he had ever coached.
“Coach Thomas said he’d think about it and let me know the next day,” says Garau, who works alongside Anderson as vice president of Accelerated Growth Capital. “He must have made a few calls that corroborated what I told him, because he called me the next day and said he’d love to have him.”
Keown became a two-sport standout at USC Aiken, finishing second in the nation in scoring in 2002 with a 24.7-point average in basketball. In the spring of 2003, Keown set a Peach Belt baseball record with 52 stolen bases in 56 attempts in 53 games. He ran a 6.4 60-yard dash that season on scout day, and the Cincinnati Reds signed him to a Major League Baseball free-agent contract on the spot. His manager at Class A Dayton said he was a Triple-A center fielder the first day he reported to camp.
Keown stopped playing baseball after that one season, however. Saying he could make more money playing poker turned out to be true. Casey Keown says there wasn’t much else to do in those days with six ballplayers living together in a room. There were no cell phones, no internet, and no streaming services.
“Clint always had a knack for gambling,” says Casey, who shared his brother’s love of sports and opened baseball-centric pizza shop Casey’s Dugout in February. The elder Keown often sported a cap or shirt emblazoned with the logo of his brother’s restaurant.
He hung around Ellis Park at age 13 and had older people place his bets. Clint was so successful as a professional poker player that he traveled all over the world. But he traded in the poker table for real estate when his son Colby was born.
A meal train organized for Keown’s family quickly bested its $500 goal. At press time, the account had reached $15,550. Redd, the passenger in the car accident that claimed Keown’s life, remains hospitalized in Evansville. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up to support Redd and his family.
“Many people know of Clint’s escapades and hijinks, but not many really know how big of a heart he had,” Garau says. “He loved his family immensely. He was so proud of being a father to Colby. If you were a friend or family of Clint, you could always count on his help for anything. He would do anything for you without thinking twice. He was the life of the party and always found a way to make everyone laugh. He was truly one of a kind, and there will never be anyone like him. Life will just not be the same without him around.”
