Former Purdue coach Gene Keady spent $600 a week on his combover

Former Purdue Boilermakers' college basketball coach Gene Keady spent $600 a week maintaining his combover Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Former Purdue Boilermakers' college basketball coach Gene Keady spent $600 a week maintaining his combover Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /
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Former Purdue Boilermakerscollege basketball coach Gene Keady spent $600 a week maintaining his combover

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Lloyd Eugene “Gene” Keady had a very successful tenure with the Purdue Boilermakers. He coached at Purdue from 1980-2005, tallying a record of 512-270 with 17 NCAA Tournament appearances. He reached the Elite Eight in both 1994 and 2000.

Despite all of his success, Keady has had one big issue throughout his career – his hair. Keady was famous for his combover and admitted to spending $600 a week to maintain that combover.

That’s just absolutely ridiculous because it looks terrible. However, it took Keady quite some time to come to that same revelation.

“It was ugly,” he says via Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star. “Everyone was always asking, ‘What is it? Why are you doing it?’ I did it because I was on TV. I did it because I was going bald. I thought I looked gorgeous with the combover. Of course, it was very ugly.”

“I had extensions,” Keady explains.

Doyel (and I along with a lot of you I’m sure) have never heard of hair extensions for men before but Keady doesn’t seem to think it is strange at all.

“Well sure,” he says. “Men were just starting to get extensions, so why not?”

Finally, his wife Kathleen made his wife get rid of the combover.

“But not at first,” Keady says. “She let it go almost a year. I think the final straw was the time I brought her to Lafayette, and it happened to be the day my barber came by. When that was finished, she said, ‘Let’s go.’ She sat me down, pulled out the electric razor, and zzzzzzt.”

Underneath, they found Squamous cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer.

Thank God for Kathleen, right?

Keady is currently an assistant coach with the St. John’s Red Storm. He was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.

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