Butch Gardner was born in Mississippi, but his legacy will forever be tied to the community of Searcy, where he grew up and was a star athlete both at the high school and college level. Gardner will be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame on Friday, 47 years after his college basketball career ended at Harding University.
Growing up with 11 brothers and sisters, Gardner's family moved from Mississippi to Searcy when Butch was 5 years old. Gardner participated in basketball and track and field while in high school. He was also a skilled football player, but elected not to play in order to give one of his brothers a chance.
"Me and my brothers were my dad's employees," Gardner said. "He had a summer business where we did custom tractor work and farm work for local farmers. My brother Larry, who was two years younger than I was, he definitely had a future in football. He was really good. Larry always had to leave in August for two-a-days and it left my dad shorthanded with employees.
"I thought, 'Well I can't do that too.' Leave my father shorthanded by two guys. I knew my brother Larry had more of a future in football, so I just said I'll stick with basketball. That really worked out because after my ninth grade year I hit this growth spurt."
Between his freshman and senior seasons at Searcy High School, Gardner grew from 5-9 to 6-4 and became one of the premier basketball players in the state. He was recruited by virtually every school in the former Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference, but he eventually decided to stay home and commit to Harding.
"I had verbally committed to Ouachita Baptist before I committed to Harding at a later date," Gardner said. "I was looking more for a private school because of the environment and the education and things of that nature. Harding fit the bill and it worked out well."
The decision certainly did work out well for Gardner, who broke dozens of records during his four years at Harding. He is still the university's all-time leader in career points with 2,255. He also ranks first in career scoring average (21.1), field goals made (927), defensive rebounds (807) and total rebounds (983). Gardner is listed in the Harding record book 56 times to this date.
"It's hard to pinpoint one exact highlight," Gardner said. "I love the game. One of the reasons I went to Harding was I thought I would have an opportunity to play immediately. It worked out that I did. I started my freshman year and all four years. My sophomore, junior and senior years, I was the leading scorer in the conference all of those years. That was pretty sweet."
Gardner was named first-team All-AIC all four seasons he played at Harding from 1974-77. He was also selected third-team NAIA All-American in 1975 and second-team NAIA All-American in both 1976 and 1977. He had a brief tryout with the Atlanta Hawks, but transitioned into a career in coaching and administration shortly after realizing he would not become an NBA player.
"I started out coaching at Harding University as an assistant coach," Gardner said. "Coach [Jess] Bucy gave me my first job out of college and that was going to be my career. Obviously, things change and interests change. Later on, I decided to get into administration and Harding was the place that gave me the first opportunity for that.
"Since then I've served as dean of students, assistant vice president, president for student affairs, director of first-year experiences and my last job was director of career services. It was a great experience. Harding is a wonderful place to work, that's why I was there for 40 years. It was a good decision I made back in '73 to go to Harding."
After his decades working at Harding, Gardner retired for good in 2021. While he has countless good memories from his time playing basketball, Gardner said he is humbled that he is still receiving accolades to this day for what he accomplished on the court.
"Harding fans are the best," Gardner said. "I'm sure every school says that about their fans, but Harding is so much like a family. There is a good contingent of fans, friends and co-workers planning to attend the ceremony.
"There was a lot of work done behind the scenes by those guys. That's kind of the way the Harding family is. They really get behind their own. I just have a message of appreciation to all of those guys and for all the work that they did."