Sean Sutton previews Eddie Sutton documentary that airs Monday night on ESPN
It’s appointment viewing time. At 9 p.m. ET Monday, ESPN will air the Eddie Sutton documentary — entitled ‘Eddie” — on the former Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State basketball coach.
In advance of the two-hour documentary, ESPN’s Myron Medcalf caught up with Sean Sutton, who played for his father at both UK and Oklahoma State, then succeeded his father as coach at Oklahoma State.
Eddie Sutton died May 23, just after learning he would be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. The documentary deals with not only with Sutton’s success as a coach, but also his personal battles, including alcoholism.
An excerpt from Medcalf’s interview:
ESPN: What was it like growing up with a father who struggled with addiction, a subject the film tackles and something you later wrestled with in your own life?
Sean Sutton: There were lots of highs and lows throughout our relationship. When I was young, I put my dad on this huge pedestal. I idolized him. I wanted to be a coach and be like him. Certainly, things started to change when I was 13, 14 years old. It was probably in the midst of his alcoholism. There were things said during those times at home, especially to me and my mother, that weren’t easy to hear. He turned into a totally different person. He went from this person that was so happy and so giving to someone you didn’t recognize. He became so frustrated sometimes.”
Sean also talked about his own battle with addiction:
“I had a totally different type of relationship with my kids [when I was addicted to pain pills]. It’s unfortunate. Addiction is a family disease. I think it’s probably most important to me to break the addiction cycle in my family. The pain and the destruction and heartache of addiction is just a bad place to be. I hope it ends with me.”
Our Jerry Tipton has written about the documentary.
“In the ‘EDDIE’ documentary, Kansas Coach Bill Self says, ‘There’s no question he’s a Hall of Fame coach. There is no question.’ UK Coach John Calipari said of Sutton’s coaching accomplishments, ‘You kind of forget. ‘He did what? He won what?’”
I wrote about Sutton after his death: Remembering Eddie Sutton, in three not so easy pieces
Here’s the website with more information on the documentary.
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 12:00 PM.
