PENDLETON —Pendleton Heights High School has lost one of its icons.

The school’s former longtime football coach and athletic director, John Broughton, passed away Tuesday morning. He was 74.

Prior to his retirement in 2016, Broughton had been the school’s head football coach for 40 years. He was the athletic director for 30 years. In all, he spent 44 years coaching football, 42 at Pendleton Heights.

In 2019, he was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.

Pendleton Heights athletic director Chad Smith posted a statement on the school’s athletics website:

“The Arabians family is completely devastated to hear the news of Coach Broughton’s death. I will never be able to explain the impact that he had on my life and the countless other student-athletes that he coached and served as a mentor. His heart was huge and he always had a soft spot for a kid that was struggling and needed help.

“He was proud to be an Arabian every day and was proud to have served his country in the US Navy. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his wife, Connie, and the rest of his family that he loved so much.”

According to the website post, funeral arrangements are pending.

Smith said Broughton had had some health issues after his retirement, but his death was unexpected. He said, according to family, the longtime coach died of cardiac arrest.

After Broughton’s retirement, Smith took over as athletic director. He played football for Broughton and graduated from Penleton Heights in 1999. He spent 13 years as an assistant coach on the legendary coach’s staff.

“He was family to me. Our relationship was far beyond (player-coach),” Smith said.

“There are so many peoples’ lives he impacted. Everybody, I think, meant something to him. He’d have a former player come up and have a conversation with him. I’d ask, ‘Who was that?’ He would know who it was, what year they graduated, and what number they wore and what position he played for him. Every time. It didn’t matter if he played one second for him or was a four-year starter. They were important to him.”

Smith said another great quality Broughton had was how he wouldn’t give up on kids that may have gotten on the wrong path. He always thought kids deserved a second chance.

“We live in a society that quickly gives up on people,” Smith added. “He’d have a kid on his football team or in the athletic department somewhere that ran into trouble, or maybe didn’t make the smartest decision, messed up, and got in trouble. (Coach Broughton) never gave up on that kid. He always worked to make sure they had the opportunity to get themselves right. I think that went a long way.

“We are quick to turn our back on somebody when they’ve done something wrong. It was important to him that he never gave up on a kid. It would come back and bite him sometimes, but he’d tell you he’d do it all over again every time.”

As the school’s football coach, Broughton led the Arabians to their only two football sectional championships and won 226 games as the school’s coach. His victory total placed him 37th on the all-time wins list among Indiana high school football coaches. He led the Arabians to 10 conference titles and two undefeated regular seasons (1989, 1998). He was the Indiana Football All-Star head coach in 1990.

In 2016, South Madison Community School Corp. Board of Trustees voted to rename the Pendleton Heights High School football field in honor of its former coach.

To honor the coach on the day of his passing, Pendleton Heights High School announced it was lighting up Broughton Field, turning on the lights from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. Wednesday morning. The school also invited other schools to do the same at their football facilities.

In a Times-Post story on his retirement, Broughton said, “We talk about three things with our kids: We want them to be outstanding students in the classroom, we want them to be outstanding citizens in the community and we want them to be good football players.”

South Madison Superintendent Mark Hall said Broughton was one of the first people he met at Pendleton Heights when hired in 2002 to be the middle school’s athletic director and assistant principal.

“Everyone that came across him or anyone that knew him was a better person because of that,” Hall said. “He was a great role model for myself, when I was a first-year administrator, just watching the way he did things, approached his job and the way he interacted with the kids in the community.

“Those were all great examples for me.”

In a story on his induction into the hall of fame, the veteran coach expressed how much the sport and working with kids meant to him.

“It’s been a fun ride,” Broughton said of his time as a football coach. “I’ve always said I never worked a day in my life. I loved coaching football and I loved working with young people and to see them develop as people as well as on the football field.”