UNK John Trivette

Obituary – Trivette dead at 75, Appalachian News Express

John W. Trivette died Sunday of cancer at Pikeville Methodist Hospital.

“He was one of the best basketball coaches ever, but he was demanding,” said Gene David, a co-worker of Trivette’s. “He redefined the meaning of 100 percent. He got more out of the kids than anybody.”

Trivette coached the Pikeville Panthers from 1944 to 1960, amassing a 427-126 record. But perhaps his biggest contribution to the game was his use of his so-called “diamond press.”

“That was new to basketball – period,” Brooks Downing, sports information director for the Kentucky High School Athletics Association, said Monday. “We’re under the impression that that was the first time that anyone did anything but a man-to-man. It was evolutionary.”

During his career, Trivette led his teams to seven regional championships and 14 district titles. The Louisville Courier-Journal named Trivette coach of the year in 1957, when his team finished third in the state tournament after being ranked No. 1 much of the season.

Howard Lockhart played for Pikeville that year and said Trivette was “way out ahead” of other coaches.

“Of all the coaches I had, I would have to rate him the best.”

Trivette was a member of the KHSAA Sweet 16 and Pikeville High School Hall of Fame.

He was also a charter inductee of the Dawahare’s KHSAA Hall of Fame in 1988.

Trivette was a graduate of the Pikeville College Academy and a letterman at the University of Kentucky. His son, Ken Trivette, is head basketball coach at George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester, Downing said.

A member of the First Presbyterian Church of Pikeville, Trivette leaves his wife, Justine Smith Trivette; another son, William Sidney Trivette, of Pikeville; two daughters, Marilyn May and Patti Rai Blair, both of Pikeville; a sister, Marjorie Trivette Self of Elkhorn City; nine grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

Funeral services are scheduled today at 2 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of Pikeville. Burial will follow at Johnson Memorial Park.

The J.W. Call and Son Funeral Home of Pikeville is in charge of arrangements.