'I was never married. The Boys Club is what gave me my out.' Reflections on Swifty Bennett

In addition to being optimistic and a hard worker, he was mononymous.

“If you said, ‘John,’ people would ask, ‘John, who?’ but if you said ‘Swifty,’ everyone in town knew who you were talking about,” John A. Hartnett, Jr. said in an interview with Saturday Shelby on Monday.

Sure enough, a David Craig online post in 2014 was simply captioned: “Swifty playing football with a group of boys at the old club on W. Broadway St.” No further explanation necessary.

Richard “Swifty” Bennett, 77, passed away Sunday, over 15 years after heart problems and a stroke forced him into retirement from the Shelbyville Boys and Girls Club. He was born October 3, 1940, in Shelbyville, the son of Francis E. and Henrietta (Small) Bennett. As a teenager, he formed a close relationship with new Club executive director Ken Self and volunteered his free time and worked part-time over the next 15 years. He became full-time program director in 1969.

“Sometimes people forget that he did a number of things outside of the Boys Club,” Hartnett said, citing Swifty’s years coaching the Frisch’s baseball team in the 1960s, working in the Knothole league, and Scout leadership. But most Shelby County citizens knew Swifty from the Club.

“He was totally invested in the Boys Club,” Hartnett said. “I think he benefitted a great deal from his relationship with Kenny Self.” In turn, Swifty served as a mentor to countless local kids in the decades that followed.

“I met Swifty the way most kids did...” Harnett recalled, “I was in second grade when Dad brought me to the Boys Club in 1966.”

Many remember him umpiring baseball games or supervising the Club’s gym or game room. Or maybe him in his famous shirt that read: “Rule #1: Swifty is always right / Rule #2: Refer to Rule #1.”

Swifty also was recipient of the Club’s Golden Boy Award in 1967 and won a lifetime achievement award in 2009. After Self passed away in 1983, Hartnett accepted the executive director position and built a close relationship with Swifty over the ensuing years.

“He’s a thread that goes back to the Club’s beginning,” Hartnett said. “People would stop by to ask how he’s doing.”

Swifty remained close to Hartnett even after retirement and Harnett transported him to medical appointments, as well as to the annual SCUFFY end-of-year drive and the Boys and Girls Club banquet.

In an interview with Saturday Shelby last year, Swifty, then 76, said, “I just miss the kids, seeing kids I’d known bring in their own kids, too. I still have friends there and enjoy going to annual Christmas parties and fundraisers.”

Although he hated retiring early, Swifty, in true form, found the bright side.

“I go to Walmart to visit two to three times a week,” Swifty said in the interview. “There’s always bound to be someone that knows my face.”

Indeed, most locals recognized Swifty. “I once got on a cruise and heard someone call out, ‘Hi Swifty!’” he said. Swifty also enjoyed visiting the Club in retirement.

“I was never married,” he said last year. “The Boys Club is what gave me my out.”

But over the past seven months, he lost mobility and couldn’t walk without assistance. Even when his doctor warned a week ago of existing complications, Swifty remained optimistic.

“That was his most endearing quality,” Hartnett said. “He always thought tomorrow would be better.”

While in an Indianapolis hospital last week, Swifty asked Hartnett over the phone to bring some items to his Ashford Place home in preparation for his soon return.

“He never made it back,” Hartnett said.

The man known simply as Swifty will be remembered for decades to come.

“His legacy is very secure,” Hartnett said.

Swifty was a long-time member of the Shelbyville First Baptist Church. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday, November 9, 2017 at Freeman Family Funeral Homes and Crematory, Carmony-Ewing Chapel, 819 S. Harrison St. in Shelbyville.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Friday, November 10, 2017 at the funeral home, with Rev. Randy Worland officiating. Interment will be at Forest Hill Cemetery in Shelbyville.