July 26, 2004
 Richard
T. “Bud” Venne, a star basketball player
and longtime insurance broker, died July 26, after an illness,
at 53.
During his career, Mr. Venne had worked for Deland Gibson
Insurance Associates Inc. in Wellesley Hills, Mass., and
for MacIntyre, Fay & Thayer in Newton, Mass. In 1976,
he received his master of arts degree in business administration
from Northeastern University in Boston.
Mr. Venne had been a co-captain of the basketball team
at Holy Cross. A graduate of Xavier High School in Concord,
Mass., he had been the state’s leading scorer in his
final year, averaging 35 points a game as a guard; in 1968,
Mr. Venne was named to The Boston Globe’s All-Scholastic
basketball team.
Following graduation from Holy Cross, he played professional
basketball for two years in Paris for the Racing Club de
France.
A member of the Weston ( Mass.) Golf Club, Mr. Venne won
numerous tennis championships there; he had also been an
active squash player.
Mr. Venne was a member of the Holy Cross Club of Boston
and a Holy Cross class agent.
He is survived by his wife, Kathryn; a son; his father;
a brother; two sisters; and eight nephews and nieces, including
Katherine G. Gormley ’90 and Philip F. Gibson ’95.
Bob Kissane ’71 submitted the following tribute
in honor of his former teammate at Holy Cross:
An artist died today. Buddy Venne
was a classic. The heir to a long line of great New England
gunners, Buddy could shoot with anybody. I loved to watch
him play as much as I loved playing with him and just
being around him. I’ve never known anyone who laughed
so easily.
Everyone who knew Buddy knew
that the best way to stop him was to not let him get
his hands on the ball. But Buddy had incredible stamina,
and, like John Havlicek, would run in figure-8’s,
running his man into picks until he could free himself
long enough to get the ball. One night, we on the varsity
were watching the freshmen team play the preliminary
game at Worcester Auditorium. Buddy had some guy in his
shirt as he tried to get free to receive the in-bounds
pass at half-court. The defender was tenacious. So Buddy
ran right up to his teammate who was trying to pass the
ball in. He ripped the ball right out of the guy’s hands and, without a dribble, turned
and fired a perfect swish from the sideline, just a step
inside half-court. That’s the kind of shooter Buddy
was.
Like many old-school basketball
greats, Buddy was a character. When not in the game,
he would move to the far end of the bench and cajole
the crowd behind him to chant, “We
want Venne! We want Venne! …”
Buddy Venne played basketball,
30 years ago, with joy and spontaneity, and with a style
that is no longer allowed. He played at a time when colleges
had teams, not programs, and the game was played in a
gym. And basketball players were not allowed to go near
a weight room. He was always laughing, even though our
coach never seemed to be able to find a role for him.
It was no secret that, for a Division 1 guard, Buddy
didn’t handle
the ball that well. I always felt that he would have been
an unstoppable small forward. He was an aggressive rebounder
who, unlike many great shooters, loved to follow his own
shots. Thank God we didn’t have to play against him.
In 1972, I played one year for
the Racing Club de France, in Paris. Our team was
terrible, having awful French players and only one American
player when all the other teams had two. After the season,
I accepted an offer to go to Belgium to
a more competitive international team. Before I left, the
club asked me to recommend someone to take my place. That
was easy. I told them, “You need a guy who can win
games all by himself. Here’s Buddy’s number.”
So Buddy went to Paris,
where he once again was able to go wild. I hope that he
rediscovered the joy of playing that he had not always
felt at Holy Cross.
As the years go by, college basketball seems
so far away. It feels as if it happened to someone else.
Images are frozen in time. Stories may be exaggerated.
And Buddy Venne is forever young.
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