Touchdown Club challenge raises more than $20,000 in memory of Dan Fouts

Wife of the late Dan Fouts, Betsy (center), accepts a check to the North Putnam Dollars for Scholars Dan Fouts Scholarship Fund along with family members (from left) Emilee Henninger, Phoebe Fouts and Jack Kendall and Putnam County Community Foundation Community Development Director Dean Gambill.

Courtesy photo

BAINBRIDGE — After 30 years of teaching and coaching at North Putnam, the late Dan Fouts’ legacy was already assured within the school and community.

A growing, endowed scholarship in his name will now help North Putnam students build their own legacies.

To be sure, the scholarship fund is growing, as the North Putnam community spent homecoming week raising funds for the North Putnam Dollars for Scholars Dan Fouts Scholarship Fund. It culminated with a check presentation to the Putnam County Community Foundation at halftime of the Cougars’ homecoming game against Cloverdale last Friday.

The fundraising effort began with a challenge from the North Putnam Touchdown Club on the Sunday prior to the game. Via social media, the club announced a $500 donation to the fund coupled with a challenge to any local business or North Putnam alumni to match the donation.

And did it ever work.

By halftime Friday night, the Touchdown Club was able to present an $18,800 check to Fouts’ wife Betsy, son Jack Kendall and fiancée Emilee Henninger and daughter Phoebe Fouts, as well as Dean Gambill of the Community Foundation.

With a bucket passed after halftime and additional donors, the total donation in Fouts’ memory had grown to more than $20,000 by Monday.

Having taught at North Putnam Middle School and coached at the high school since 1992, Fouts died Feb. 9 at age 52.

A math teacher, Fouts was probably best known for his various coaching duties, most notably at the helm of the track program and as a longtime assistant coach for the Cougar football program, spending most of that time as defensive coordinator.

In all, Fouts served under six head football coaches, and his loyalty to the program is a big part of his legacy to the school.

“Dan’s a guy that loved kids. He loved relationships with the kids,” former Cougar head football coach Dave Pasch said shortly after Fouts’ passing. “Through the years, he’s been loyal. He’s had opportunities to go other places. He’s just always committed to the mission, and because of that commitment, he always carried a special level of accountability for everyone around him, including me.”

Another former Cougar head coach, Greg Barrett said Fouts was synonymous with the program and with the school.

“Coach Dan Fouts is Mr. North Putnam,” Barrett said. “Besides being the best defensive coordinator in the state, he was a better father, husband, teacher, mentor, friend. A very calm, collected man who never raised his voice or spoke out of turn. But when he did speak people listened.”

Likewise, NPMS Principal Bucky Kramer referred to Fouts as “a silent giant.”

Now the scholarship fund can truly carry on Fouts’ legacy — quietly and calmly serving North Putnam students for generations to come.

The community having rallied around the family of the late Dan Fouts to raise money for the scholarship fund that bears his name, the North Putnam football team huddles with the Fouts family at halftime of the Cougars’ game against Cloverdale last Friday.

Courtesy photo

The donors who met the Touchdown Club challenge, many of whom joined the Fouts family on the track, included Judy Automotive Center; Roachdale Building and Farm Supplies; 9 East Bar and Grill (Courtney Buser and John Storm); Greene Realty; Greene’s Rolloff Service; Neace Construction Services; Watchman Roofing–Matthew Gurney; Camryn’s Pet/Livestock Care (Camryn Gibson); Detro Trailers; Bakers Camp Deer Processing and Taxidermy; Kristie Kakes; Wired LLC; Michael and Angie Murphy and family; Summers Fencing (Mike and Debbie Summers and Colby and Rebecca Judy); Tri-County Bank and Trust; Bryan Family Farms; Gerrit and Julie Thompson family; Doug, Staci and Lyndi Parent and Kyle and Dakota Everts; Chris and Amy Davies and family; Crossroads Show Cattle–Daryn, Meredith, Skylar and Colton Clifford; Brian and Marissa Tefertiller and family; Owen’s Outdoor Maintenance and Rustique Boutique; Whitney and Sam Smith with Crossroads Care Pharmacy in Bainbridge; Randy, Katrina and Brett Asher; Littrell Contracting; Alpha Company Tumbling and Cheer; Devin and Tina Mitchell and family; Pat, Paula, Aidan and Paxton O’Brien; Linda Patrick and Jamie Patrick Jost; Hendricks Regional Health; Tiffany and Toby Braeger; Tiger Claw Hops; Judy Showpigs (Justin, Kristin and Brinley Judy); Greg Barrett family; Jason and Stacey Hartman; and three anonymous donors.