He can still hear the encouragements — and the reprimands — as if it all happened yesterday.
Robert Adamski didn’t play basketball at Fort Hamilton — he served as the team’s manager in the early 1960s — but he can still hear coach Ken Kern’s voice with perfect clarity. It’s those memories that sparked Adamski’s determination to honor the long-time Tigers coach by renaming Fort Hamilton’s court for Kern.
“It started with his wife reaching it out to some of the players who had visited him to suggest that the court would be a nice honor and a rememberance for him,” Adamski said. “Those players reached out on Facebook, and we’ve been kind of pushing that this is something we should do.”
Kern paced the sidelines at Fort Hamilton from 1956 ro1985, amassing more than 300 wins and serving as a coach and a mentor to some of the most successful athletes to ever wear a Tigers uniform.
His two most famous players were the King brothers — Albert and Bernard — both of whom went on to play professionally. Bernard King was elected to the National Basketball Association Hall of Fame in 2013 after a career with the Knicks, while Albert played nine seasons in the league, including a stint with the Nets.
Kern, however, was more than a coach to the King brothers — and to every player who suited up for his teams, Adamski said.
“I think a lot of people feel that it was only because of him that players who played for Fort Hamilton, one, came to the school and, two, went on to college,” he said. “There were a lot of players out of district who wanted to come compete for him. They went on to college because of that and, likely, wouldn’t have without Coach Kern’s guidance.”
Kern and his wife Lillian moved to Florida after he retired from Fort Hamilton in 1988, and the former coach has struggled with health issues — he was recently confined to a wheelchair after breaking his hip last year.
His influence at Fort Hamilton, however, is just as strong as ever, and the basketball community there is determined to honor his accomplishments.
“If you played for or knew Coach Ken Kern, you were effected by him,” said former player Roger Canal. “In addition to recruiting players from night centers and convincing them to come to Fort Hamilton, Kenny was known to bring home players who were troubled.”
Adamski and several former players — including his brother — met with Fort Hamilton principal Kaye Houlihan earlier this year to get the ball rolling on renaming the court. Houlihan, however, surprised the group, suggesting that, in addition to the court, they also start a scholarship fund to be awarded to a graduating Fort Hamilton student each year.
Now, the group is working to raise money — starting a crowd-funding page to help fund both the scholarship and the court-naming, with the hope of having a Coach Kern emblem on the hardwood before the start of next season.
It’s been decades since Kern shouted instructions from the sidelines, but that voice will be ingrained in Adamski — and an entire generation of Fort Hamilton players — for the rest of their lives.
