Leaders in Education: Salute to Coach Benne

Salute to Coach Benne

Former Teacher & Coach David Benne Touched Many Lives

by Debbie Neece, Bartlesville Area History Museum

Fredrick David Benne, AKA Coach Benne, was Colorado Springs born and came to Bartlesville with his family at two years of age. His father worked at the Union Machine Shop near Highway 123 before securing a job at REDA Pump.

David attended first through fourth grades at Lincoln and Dewey Elementary Schools; then attended fifth through eighth grades at St. John Catholic School, graduating the eighth grade in 1958. Along his academic travels, he acquired some ornery memories. At St. John, Sister Gabriel caught him throwing paper airplanes out the window resulting in a 500 word story about why that act was inappropriate.

He attended Madison Junior High School the fall of 1958, the year the school opened, and graduated from College High School in 1962 before attending four years at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College. At that time, he married his wife Carolyn and two children, Scott and Shelley, joined their family.

Even in his youth, David was an avid sportsman…he played football at Madison and at the Y.M.C.A. In fact, he played football and basketball up to his sophomore year when climbing Custer Field’s wooden fence caused a sidelining leg injury.

He was a principal, teacher, coach and mentor for all. He said, “I had friends who retired as millionaires from Phillips Petroleum Company but for me, it was all about the kids.” For all the years Coach Benne invested in his students, he finds most rewarding the comments of grown students. “Teaching is not about the money, it’s about the memories and the kids.” — Coach David Benne

Although now retired, Coach Benne hasn’t slowed down much. He loves collecting license plates and hats…lots of hats, much to his wife’s growl. And he treasures the gems of memories with which he retired much richer than most. Thank you Coach!

Thank you Randy Standridge.

In the words of Randy Standridge, “In the 6th grade at Highland Park elementary school, Coach David Benne came into my life. He coached me in football and basketball that year and he also was a mentor to me. My parents both worked, my three older brothers were teenagers and somehow something was missing. Coach and his wife, Carolyn, took me under their wings. They didn’t have kids yet and we became close friends. They kinda adopted me that year. The next year, I was at Madison and lost touch with them. However, about 1984, I returned to Bartlesville, working for Phillips Petroleum, when Coach Benne asked me to coach the 7th grade offense at Madison with him as head coach. I agreed and the following year, I took over as head coach for the 8th grade team. Let me just say, we had athletes on those teams and Coach Benne had a hand in making them great. In their senior year, that class made it further than any other class in Bartlesville High School history, all the way to the state semi-finals. Names like Mark Gentry, Mark Nash, Mark

Miller, Ted Pugh and a host of other names made history their senior year thanks to

Coach Benne.”