Friends counting on Hutchinson to ‘Rally for Rusty’

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (KSNW) — Tens of thousands of Americans live with it, yet there is no cure. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. As this area degenerates, it leads to scarring or hardening (“sclerosis”) in the region.

Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their demise.

When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. When voluntary muscle action is progressively affected, people may lose the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows an average of 5,000 people are diagnosed with ALS each year.

Rusty Hilst is one of them.

Hilst is a legend in the Hutchinson community. He taught all levels of math at Hutchinson High School for 54 years. He coached golf for 31 years. He was a radio announcer for the Hutch High Salthawks and Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons for 50 years.

KSN News featured Hilst on a Competitive Drive segment in 2019.

Hilst was also one of the best golfers from Hutchinson. He’s a seven-time club champion at Prairie Dunes, a five-time Hutchinson City Champion, and he still owns the Carey Park Golf Course record at -11 (a round of 60).

When Hilst recently shared the bad news of his ALS diagnosis with family and close friends, they were devastated. All they want to do now is help fund his treatment.

“Rusty probably has touched as many lives in Hutchinson, Kansas, for this community, as anybody else I can think of,” said Dan Naccarato. “He taught all the math classes in high school for 54 years. He also is very well known because of his radio broadcasting. He broadcasted football and basketball games for 50 years here as local radio stations. Then the third way a lot of people know him is Rusty was an outstanding golfer.”

Naccarato, or Coach Nac as he’s affectionately called by his students and friends, is a business professor at Hutch Community College. Hilst persuaded Coach Nac to become his radio play-by-play partner in 2014.

For most of a half-century, Hilst called games high above the court inside the Hutchinson Sports Arena. He called the Blue Dragon’s NJCAA national championship games in 1988, 1994 and 2017. He’s a member of the Hutchinson Community College Athletics Hall of Fame.

That makes his diagnosis of bulbar onset ALS seem even more cruel.

“I had known since last summer that something wasn’t quite right with Rusty when I saw him,” said longtime friend and former sports writer for ‘The Hutchinson News’ Brett Marshall.

“So, in Rusty’s case, ironically, the first muscle that it’s affecting is his tongue. He’s slurring his speech. It’s not to the point where you can’t understand what Rusty is saying,” said Coach Nac. “He can still communicate very well, and his mind will continue to stay sharp through the entire duration of the illness.”

Marshall says when Hilst told him the news, he nearly drove off the highway.

“When you get the diagnosis of this, you know what the 19th hole is going to look like when your golf round is done,” Marshall said.

ALS is a terrible disease with no cure.

“There are medications that can ease the journey, and in Rusty’s case, they’re tremendously expensive, unfortunately,” said Coach Nac.

The co-pay for one year of ALS medication will cost Hilst at least $50,000.

“When I found out how much the medications were going to be and all that stuff, I just said, we got to do something to raise some money,” said Marshall.

“And Brett was the one that actually came up with the idea for ‘Rally for Rusty.’ All of Rusty’s friends are grateful that Brett came up with that idea because we all want to help, but we don’t know how to help,” said Coach Nac.

“I have five or six really good friends in my entire life, and he’s the thumb on my hand,” said Marshall of Hilst.

The goal for Saturday’s ‘Rally for Rusty” is to raise awareness of ALS and to raise funds to go toward a GoFundMe page that has been set up for “Rally for Rusty.” Marshall is hoping for more than money.

“So Rusty is aware that he’s got a lot of friends that care. We want to make this last. We want it to go as long as we can because we want him around.”

The Blue Dragons men’s and women’s basketball teams host a double-header beginning Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Hutch plans to donate 50% of the gate to the “Rally for Rusty” GoFundMe fundraiser.

To view the GoFundMe, click here.