HENRY COUNTY, Va. – "Welcome to the house that Kenny Wade built," Patrick Henry Community College President Dr. Angeline Godwin said as she began a ceremony Thursday afternoon in the college's gym to honor head basketball coach Kenny Wade.
“I don’t know that we’ll ever feel closer to him than we do when we’re right here on this court,” Godwin said.
As people shared their memories of Wade, pictures of him were displayed on a projection screen.
For PHCC athletic director Brian Henderson, the pictures bring back a lot of memories.
“Everyone of those pictures, I know I can find myself somewhere around there because coach Kenny Wade and I spent a lot of time together," Henderson said. "Sometimes good, sometimes bad, a lot of times funny though. The whole drive here, all the way from Greensboro today, I was thinking about all the fun times I had with coach Wade.”
According to state police, Wade’s car had a mechanical failure as he was driving down Briarpatch Road in Franklin County Sept. 5.
The car went off the road and when it stopped Wade tried to get out, but the car shifted and rolled over on him.
A jersey bearing Wade’s name will now be hung in the gym.
Henderson presented Wade’s family with a basketball from Wade’s 100th win.
Just a few minutes later, however, the family presented it back to the college.
“We would like to present this back to the school in Kenny’s honor so that you can put it out there (in the trophy case) on display so that we can go for our next hundred and our next hundred and our next hundred,” one of Wade's nephews said as he handed the ball to Godwin.
A scholarship has been set up in Wade's honor.