North Little Rock community honours Coach Floyd Beard after death
Floyd Beard, known as Coach Butter, died Wednesday at 56 in North Little Rock, Ark. Family, friends and former players gathered Friday in North Little Rock to honor the longtime basketball coach and youth mentor with a balloon release.
Beard’s son, Anton Beard, told the crowd his father’s reach went far beyond the court.
“He was a coach, a mentor, a father. Like I said, he raised a bunch of boys to men,” Anton Beard said.
The balloons released were black and gold, the colors of an organization called The Family that Coach Butter founded, according to his son.
“You’ll see around, people have on Family Elite t-shirts, and that’s one of the things that he was real big on is making sure kids got to college,” Anton Beard said.
Temeka Martin, director of the Sherman Park Community Center, said Coach Butter ran basketball programs at Glenview Community Center for more than 20 years.
“He was the athletic program director. So he did a lot of skill and drill, like I said basketball leagues, basketball tournaments,” Martin said.
His son spoke about how his father’s health changed suddenly.
“Yeah, a shock to everybody. He wasn’t just bad of health, but he wasn’t unhealthy at all,” Anton Beard said.
The North Little Rock community came together Friday to share memories and release balloons in his honor.
Anton Beard said his father’s impact would carry on through the young people he coached and the lives he shaped.
“He touched so many lives, touched so many different people. Like I said, one thing about him, he always made sure everybody around him was okay,” Anton Beard said.
Sherman Park Community Center is a neighborhood hub that runs youth sports and recreation programs. In Arkansas, a balloon release is a common way for a community to mark the loss of a beloved figure.
Coach Butter’s focus on sending kids to college, through The Family and his basketball work, defined his years at Glenview Community Center, according to those who spoke Friday.
