January 13, 2026 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Ken Kendrick, owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, reflects on two profound college friendships that shaped his life long after graduation. In this deeply personal story, Kendrick recounts intimate conversations with two fraternity brothers before their deaths, moments that left a lasting imprint on his understanding of loyalty, mortality, and what it means to live with purpose. It’s a moving reflection on friendship, loss, and the words we carry with us long after goodbye.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Can we continue with our American stories and with a
story about college friendships and how they can impact the
rest of our lives. Today. Ken Kendrick is best known
as the principal owner of the Arizona Diamondback, but decades ago,
he was known by a smaller group of people as
a Sigma Nu fraternity member at West Virginia University. Here's
(00:32):
Ken on one of the most impactful periods of his
entire life.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
The Fratorney stories. I could go on for hours, because
it was the time when I met, you know, some
of the more important people in my life, both then,
of course, but for forever.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Really.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
The guy of all that was my most close colleague
roommate from that group was al Cally and he was
from New Jersey, and he spoke very rapidly, and his
nickname was Akak, like the machine gun. Sadly, for Al,
he had a genetic disease inherited from his father, a
(01:25):
deadly disease called amyloidosis. And it is a gene that
we all have in our body, and when it acts improperly,
as it did in his body, it attacks organs and
kills the other organs where that gene has attacked, and
he knew that he might get it because his dad
had died of it, and he came to visit us once.
(01:48):
Never forget this. Yeah, we're having our usual fun time
here visiting. He said, well, you know, I need to
visit with you privately, and so he gets me aside
and he says, well, Kenny says, I have to tell
you sadly, I've contracted my dad's disease. I said, oh, man,
(02:09):
that's really said, I says, yeah. He said, I I
think I only have about two years to live. And
I said, oh wow, isn't there anything at all you
know that can be done? He said, well, not really.
He said the only thing that could be done would
be an organ transplant. And he said, I'm not doing that.
(02:32):
And I said, you're not doing it if it could
save your life. He said, no, Look, I've lived a
very good life. He's in his late fifties at this point.
I've lived a very good life. I dodged all the
bullets in Vietnam. You know it's my time. And I said,
and you've shared this with your family? He says, well,
the only people who know are my wife and children.
(02:54):
And I've told him that I'm not going to undergo
this organ transplant. And I said, ow, you're a selfish
son of a and he just was shocked. I said,
you may not care that much about yourself, but a
(03:15):
lot of other people do, and you owe it to
those people who care about you to give everything you
can to keeping your life going. And he, you know,
kind of rumped. He was a real hard hitched guy,
and didn't respond, and you know, visit ended. They left.
(03:36):
A couple of weeks later, he called up and he said, well,
you were right, I'm going to have to do that.
And he did, and he was the first ever and
there was made national news, the first ever triple organ
transplant in the United States done at the Mayo Clinic
(03:56):
in Rochester and had it done, he lived ten more
so it extended his life. And you know, I played
a small role in it. Obviously I didn't suffer any
pain or hardship. But it was just one of those
memories of a lifetime with somebody you cared about. And
I'll remember he and I had invited him the first
(04:18):
Super Bowl that was ever played in Arizona. I invited
him to come and be my guest. And the second
Super Bowl that was played in Arizona was when the
Patriots and Giants played the famous game where the Patriots
were undefeated and the other game had been twenty some
years in the past. It was the Steelers in the
Cowboys game Super Bowl thirty and Al had been my guest.
(04:40):
And the day before the Giant Patriots Super Bowl, I
get a call from his wife and she said, look,
you know Alis in hospital care and he wants to
talk to you. And so we get on the phone,
and you know, we're sharing, you know, stories, and he
and I always had this can you talk, this, can
(05:04):
you get the other guy kind of relationship? And I said, boy, Al,
I wish you were here to go to the Super
Bowl tomorrow. The Super Bowl we went to was one
of those great times that we had together. And he said,
oh yeah, And he said do you remember who played?
And I said yeah, it was the Cowboys and the Steelers.
And I say, do you remember who won? And he said, yeah,
(05:24):
it was the Stealer. And so we went through these
back and forth questions. Now this guy is, as it
turns out, the end of the story will tell the story.
The ultimate story. We get down to each guy is
able to answer the other guy's questions, and we always
would get to somebody would win by stumping the other guy.
(05:44):
So the last question he asked me that I couldn't
answer was after I had asked him who the halftime
performer was. The answer he gave was Diana Ross, which
was correct, and he said what significant happened to her
during her performance? And I couldn't remember, And his last
(06:05):
words to me were, well, when you figure it out,
call me back and hung up. And I didn't figure
it out at the time. The next day I go
to the Super Bowl, and after the Super Bowl I
get a call from his wife that he had passed away.
And I later figured it out that Diana Ross had
(06:31):
been planned. She was going to land in a helicopter
in the middle of the football field and it was
too windy, so they had to land outside the stadium
and bring her in in a golf cart. And that
was the answer, and just so that I came out ahead.
When I was one of the speakers at his memorial service,
I gave the answer. So I got the last word
(06:52):
on my friend big Al and he was one of
those legendary figures in my life that I loved as
much as you can. Another guy. I lost another fraternity
brother recently. His name was Tom Longmire. He was referred
to as Lungs, as might be expected his last name
(07:13):
and Longs was a character. He was one of those.
He was a glue character, meaning he kept everybody together.
I have this ranch here called Bumblebee Ranch, and he
organized a group of guys to come out here and
spend time in baseball spring training and going to the
ranch and so on. But he was the guy that
put groups of guys together. And sadly he passed away,
(07:36):
unfortunately with brain cancer. And my very last conversation with
him turned out to be not unlike the one with al.
He was also in hospice care. I get a text
from him, and I remember it vividly, and it was
the last basketball game of the basketball season in West
(07:57):
Virginia was playing Baylor in basketball and we were all
lifetime Mountaineer fans and Baylor was top five team. West
Virginia was decent this past season, but not great. In
the morning of that game in March, I get a
text and it's from him, and it says bet fifty
(08:18):
on Baylor and bet fifty on Marquette and that's all
it said. And I saw it was from him, and
I thought, what the hell is this? So I call Well,
he's in hospice care. His sister answers the phone and
I said to her, I said, I got this text
(08:38):
from Tom. What the hell is this about? And she says, hero,
I'll put him on. And my nickname was and he
never didn't ever call me by my nickname from college days.
My nickname was keg Okay for a variety of reasons.
In any event, he says, hey, Keg boy, I didn't
(09:00):
mean to send that to you. That was meant for
my bookie. I said, well, Lungs, you know, I note
you're betting against the Mountaineers. I don't think your buddies
would want to know that. He says, oh, oh, you
don't understand. He says, I never win. He says it's
he says, if I bet against them, don't win the game.
(09:20):
I said, sure, I get it. And we talked a
little bit, and that was the last conversation we ever had.
I hang up the phone. The game is played in
West Virginia. Wins the game. So two of my life
long friends from those days, you know, with kind of
these unusual parting shots that occurred when these guys are
(09:42):
on their deathbeds. Basically, you know, engaging with me and
what turned out to be the lifelong banter that you
have with people that you shared those days with. You know,
when you're a young person and nobody had any money
to amount to anything, you just had a life had
you and a lot of things to learn and a
lot of things to enjoy together. And we really did.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
And great job as always to Alex and to Monty.
And you can hear more of Ken Kendrick. We have
his life story. Go to our American Stories and type
in Ken and Kendrick what memories he had back at
Sigma Nu fraternity at West Virginia University, which wasn't even
named as the best party school because they were ineligible
(10:26):
because they were pros. The story of Keg, big Al
and Tom three lifelong friends because they'd pledged together at
a fraternity and did what all young people do. Kill
some time, spend some time, and hopefully forge deep friendships.
Here on our American Story
Can we continue with our American stories and with a
story about college friendships and how they can impact the
rest of our lives. Today. Ken Kendrick is best known
as the principal owner of the Arizona Diamondback, but decades ago,
he was known by a smaller group of people as
a Sigma Nu fraternity member at West Virginia University. Here's
(00:32):
Ken on one of the most impactful periods of his
entire life.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
The Fratorney stories. I could go on for hours, because
it was the time when I met, you know, some
of the more important people in my life, both then,
of course, but for forever.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Really.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
The guy of all that was my most close colleague
roommate from that group was al Cally and he was
from New Jersey, and he spoke very rapidly, and his
nickname was Akak, like the machine gun. Sadly, for Al,
he had a genetic disease inherited from his father, a
(01:25):
deadly disease called amyloidosis. And it is a gene that
we all have in our body, and when it acts improperly,
as it did in his body, it attacks organs and
kills the other organs where that gene has attacked, and
he knew that he might get it because his dad
had died of it, and he came to visit us once.
(01:48):
Never forget this. Yeah, we're having our usual fun time
here visiting. He said, well, you know, I need to
visit with you privately, and so he gets me aside
and he says, well, Kenny says, I have to tell
you sadly, I've contracted my dad's disease. I said, oh, man,
(02:09):
that's really said, I says, yeah. He said, I I
think I only have about two years to live. And
I said, oh wow, isn't there anything at all you
know that can be done? He said, well, not really.
He said the only thing that could be done would
be an organ transplant. And he said, I'm not doing that.
(02:32):
And I said, you're not doing it if it could
save your life. He said, no, Look, I've lived a
very good life. He's in his late fifties at this point.
I've lived a very good life. I dodged all the
bullets in Vietnam. You know it's my time. And I said,
and you've shared this with your family? He says, well,
the only people who know are my wife and children.
(02:54):
And I've told him that I'm not going to undergo
this organ transplant. And I said, ow, you're a selfish
son of a and he just was shocked. I said,
you may not care that much about yourself, but a
(03:15):
lot of other people do, and you owe it to
those people who care about you to give everything you
can to keeping your life going. And he, you know,
kind of rumped. He was a real hard hitched guy,
and didn't respond, and you know, visit ended. They left.
(03:36):
A couple of weeks later, he called up and he said, well,
you were right, I'm going to have to do that.
And he did, and he was the first ever and
there was made national news, the first ever triple organ
transplant in the United States done at the Mayo Clinic
(03:56):
in Rochester and had it done, he lived ten more
so it extended his life. And you know, I played
a small role in it. Obviously I didn't suffer any
pain or hardship. But it was just one of those
memories of a lifetime with somebody you cared about. And
I'll remember he and I had invited him the first
(04:18):
Super Bowl that was ever played in Arizona. I invited
him to come and be my guest. And the second
Super Bowl that was played in Arizona was when the
Patriots and Giants played the famous game where the Patriots
were undefeated and the other game had been twenty some
years in the past. It was the Steelers in the
Cowboys game Super Bowl thirty and Al had been my guest.
(04:40):
And the day before the Giant Patriots Super Bowl, I
get a call from his wife and she said, look,
you know Alis in hospital care and he wants to
talk to you. And so we get on the phone,
and you know, we're sharing, you know, stories, and he
and I always had this can you talk, this, can
(05:04):
you get the other guy kind of relationship? And I said, boy, Al,
I wish you were here to go to the Super
Bowl tomorrow. The Super Bowl we went to was one
of those great times that we had together. And he said,
oh yeah, And he said do you remember who played?
And I said yeah, it was the Cowboys and the Steelers.
And I say, do you remember who won? And he said, yeah,
(05:24):
it was the Stealer. And so we went through these
back and forth questions. Now this guy is, as it
turns out, the end of the story will tell the story.
The ultimate story. We get down to each guy is
able to answer the other guy's questions, and we always
would get to somebody would win by stumping the other guy.
(05:44):
So the last question he asked me that I couldn't
answer was after I had asked him who the halftime
performer was. The answer he gave was Diana Ross, which
was correct, and he said what significant happened to her
during her performance? And I couldn't remember, And his last
(06:05):
words to me were, well, when you figure it out,
call me back and hung up. And I didn't figure
it out at the time. The next day I go
to the Super Bowl, and after the Super Bowl I
get a call from his wife that he had passed away.
And I later figured it out that Diana Ross had
(06:31):
been planned. She was going to land in a helicopter
in the middle of the football field and it was
too windy, so they had to land outside the stadium
and bring her in in a golf cart. And that
was the answer, and just so that I came out ahead.
When I was one of the speakers at his memorial service,
I gave the answer. So I got the last word
(06:52):
on my friend big Al and he was one of
those legendary figures in my life that I loved as
much as you can. Another guy. I lost another fraternity
brother recently. His name was Tom Longmire. He was referred
to as Lungs, as might be expected his last name
(07:13):
and Longs was a character. He was one of those.
He was a glue character, meaning he kept everybody together.
I have this ranch here called Bumblebee Ranch, and he
organized a group of guys to come out here and
spend time in baseball spring training and going to the
ranch and so on. But he was the guy that
put groups of guys together. And sadly he passed away,
(07:36):
unfortunately with brain cancer. And my very last conversation with
him turned out to be not unlike the one with al.
He was also in hospice care. I get a text
from him, and I remember it vividly, and it was
the last basketball game of the basketball season in West
(07:57):
Virginia was playing Baylor in basketball and we were all
lifetime Mountaineer fans and Baylor was top five team. West
Virginia was decent this past season, but not great. In
the morning of that game in March, I get a
text and it's from him, and it says bet fifty
(08:18):
on Baylor and bet fifty on Marquette and that's all
it said. And I saw it was from him, and
I thought, what the hell is this? So I call Well,
he's in hospice care. His sister answers the phone and
I said to her, I said, I got this text
(08:38):
from Tom. What the hell is this about? And she says, hero,
I'll put him on. And my nickname was and he
never didn't ever call me by my nickname from college days.
My nickname was keg Okay for a variety of reasons.
In any event, he says, hey, Keg boy, I didn't
(09:00):
mean to send that to you. That was meant for
my bookie. I said, well, Lungs, you know, I note
you're betting against the Mountaineers. I don't think your buddies
would want to know that. He says, oh, oh, you
don't understand. He says, I never win. He says it's
he says, if I bet against them, don't win the game.
(09:20):
I said, sure, I get it. And we talked a
little bit, and that was the last conversation we ever had.
I hang up the phone. The game is played in
West Virginia. Wins the game. So two of my life
long friends from those days, you know, with kind of
these unusual parting shots that occurred when these guys are
(09:42):
on their deathbeds. Basically, you know, engaging with me and
what turned out to be the lifelong banter that you
have with people that you shared those days with. You know,
when you're a young person and nobody had any money
to amount to anything, you just had a life had
you and a lot of things to learn and a
lot of things to enjoy together. And we really did.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
And great job as always to Alex and to Monty.
And you can hear more of Ken Kendrick. We have
his life story. Go to our American Stories and type
in Ken and Kendrick what memories he had back at
Sigma Nu fraternity at West Virginia University, which wasn't even
named as the best party school because they were ineligible
(10:26):
because they were pros. The story of Keg, big Al
and Tom three lifelong friends because they'd pledged together at
a fraternity and did what all young people do. Kill
some time, spend some time, and hopefully forge deep friendships.
Here on our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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