About the Author

BRIAN D. STUCKY is retired from teaching art and photography in the Kansas schools in grades K-12. He started playing basketball at Liberty Rural Grade School, on league champion teams in 1966 and 1967. At Moundridge High School, he played on a third-place state team in 1970 and Moundridge’s first state champion team in 1971. He played three years at Bethel College in North Newton, including the tournament team of the 1973 KCAC champions, which was inducted into Bethel’s Hall of Fame.
        He has taught thirty-eight years, four at Buhler, thirty-four at 
Goessel. He has coached volleyball ten years, basketball sixteen years for junior high boys and high school girls, track twenty-eight years, having coached thirteen individual state champions and two AAU national champions. In 1984 he carried the Olympic Torch in the torch relay. His 1975 Bethel College track team was inducted into the Bethel College Athletic Hall of Fame. 
        As an artist, he has exhibited at professional art shows, including at 
the Mennonite World Conference. He is listed in the Mennonite 
Encyclopedia as a noteworthy Mennonite artist. In 1993 he founded the 
unique Emil Kym Memorial Art Gallery at Goessel High School. He is 
active in church and historical interests and has published articles and 
family genealogy books. He has had numerous photos published in area 
newspapers and small publications, and has also been published in Kansas! Magazine and national Mennonite Church publications.  One of his current interests is pioneer trail history, being involved in several organizations mapping and marking trails in central Kansas. 
        On August 5, 2010, the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association honored Stucky by awarding him the “Clint Hill Service Award” given for contributions to basketball and basketball history, for writing Hallowed Hardwood.