Passionate, role model, and true sportsman are just some of the characteristics former Rochelle Little League players described about their coach Eugene “Gene” Kessen, who died last Thursday at the age of 85.
In a fitting tribute eight of those players served as pallbearers, each wearing a baseball cap adorned with the Kiwanis “K,” the team Kessen coached for more than 30 years.
Paul Chadwick played on the Kiwanis team in the 1960s and considered Kessen as a father figure, having lost his own father at a young age. Chadwick recalls Kessen as “intensely competitive,” but the Little League players were his priority.
“I always remember he was passionate about every sport he coached,” Chadwick said. “He always put the kids first and not just kids on his team, he really cared in victory or defeat. He really taught us a lot about sportsmanship.”
Another former player, Mike McCullouch remembers growing up next to the Kessen family and playing catch with his coach. McCullouch fondly recalled one year during tryouts, Coach Kessen offered some advice.
“He told me, ‘you can’t do good or I won’t get you on my team,’ but during the tryouts I had a good day and was drafted by another team… the best team in the league,” McCullouch said. “He chewed me out, but next year he traded for me and that was really cool. I didn’t think you could do that then.”
McCullouch also reflected how his coach was always there for him throughout the years, even when McCullouch’s own son started in high school.

“He was always full of advice, recommending things and never shying away from giving that advice on athletics,” McCullouch said. “He always had the biggest heart.”
Kessen’s daughter, Kalah Williams said it has been comforting to hear from so many former Little League players who have shared their stories of the man they admired.
Williams also expressed gratitude for the players who served as pallbearers.
“I am sure my dad would be so proud of ‘his boys’. Those boys may have just played baseball for my dad over the years but it was more than that, they were forever connected to our family through my dad’s concern for them,” Williams said. “He didn’t just coach some kids a few years, he taught that kid to be skilled at a sport but most of all how to grow into a decent man.”

RYBA
Along with coaching Little League, Kessen coached basketball at St. Patrick’s Grade School. In 1978 he started a basketball program for local fourth and fifth grade youngsters that later became Rochelle Youth Basketball Association.

Williams said the family has given $1,000 to the RYBA and pledged money to pay the fees for the Kiwanis players in the Major League division next season.
“Any more donations we receive will go to offset other general expenses for Rochelle Little League. We are hoping to have an ongoing memorial to continue these programs,” Williams said.
“He’s been the best grandpa I could ask for,” said Jerry Kessen, who started working with his grandpa at the age of 12 in the family’s construction business. “He coached me all through Little League… I don’t think he missed any of my games.”
Along with all of Kessen’s sports accomplishments, the Korean War veteran was also awarded the Rochelle Community Leader of the Year in 1995.
“He was an iconic figure in Rochelle sports, especially Little League… an all around good guy,” Chadwick summed up.