|
By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Wednesday,
October 31, 2007
Gene Keady is one of the most recognizable
names in Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball history.
On Saturday night, during the final night of
the HCC Quarterback Classic, Keady will be inducted to the Quarterback Club
Hall of Fame.
Keady will join Gary Bargen, Terry Masterson,
Ruby Munzer, Bill Goldsmith, Sam Butterfield, Charles Sesher, John Matous
and Willie Adkins into the Quarterback Club Hall of Fame.
Keady retired from coaching in March 2005
after 25 seasons with the Purdue Boilermakers. He recently took a position
with the Big Ten Network as a game and studio analyst.
But some six years before starting what
turned out to be a stellar career at Purdue, Keady was wrapping up an
incredible eight-season run at Hutchinson Community College.
In eight seasons as Blue Dragon head coach,
Keady amassed a record of 187-48, including an astounding 90-10 Jayhawk
Conference record. Keady ranks third in HCC history in victories and fourth
in winning percentage (79.5 percent).
Keady's Blue Dragon teams won six league
championships, five Region VI championships and placed in each of his five
appearances in the NJCAA Tournament. The 1972-73 Blue Dragons went all the
way to the NJCAA Tournament championship game before falling to Mercer
County, N.J.
During Keady's time in Hutchinson, he coached
some of the best players to ever wear a Blue Dragon uniform. Keady mentored
six NJCAA All-Americans, six All-NJCAA Tournament players and numerous
All-Jayhawk Conference players. He was named the league's Coach of the Year
three times and still holds the school coaching record for winning
percentage in Jayhawk Conference games at 90 percent.
Three of Keady's players (Richard Morsden,
1,377; Ray Willis, 1,362; and Teko Wynder, 1,276) still rank in the Top 5 on
the Blue Dragon career scoring list. Morsden, Willis, Wynder, Stan Blackmon
and Charles Terry all still remain high in several Blue Dragon career
statistical lists. Morsden still owns Hutch's single-game scoring record of
45 points and Terry still holds the single-game rebounding record of 27.
Keady had big shoes to fill when he became
Hutchinson's head men's basketball coach, taking over for legendary Sam
Butterfield.
A native of Larned, Kan., Keady came to
Hutchinson after starting his head coaching career at Beloit High School. At
Beloit, Keady compiled a 102-47 record from 1959 to 1965. He served as
Butterfield's assistant for one season before taking over the program in
1967 only the fourth head coach in Blue Dragon history.
Keady's first victory came in a 90-52 victory
over York College on Nov. 29, 1966. Win No. 50 came in 1969, a 90-84 victory
over Burlington, Iowa. Victory No. 100 came in 1971, a 74-73 victory over
Butler County. Win No. 150 came in 1973, a 77-61 win over Garden City.
After Hutchinson, Keady took a Division I
assistant's position at Arkansas to work with head coach Eddie Sutton. He
was at Arkansas for four seasons before accepting the head coaching job at
Western Kentucky in 1979, where he compiled a two-year record of 38-19.
On April 11, 1980, Keady was named Purdue
University's 17th head coach. He retired in March 2005 as the Boilermakers’
all-time winningest coach after going 512-270 in 25 seasons.
Keady led Purdue to six Big Ten championships
(1984, 1987, 1988, 1994, 1995 and 1996), including three straight outright
titles from 1994 to 1996. That feat has been accomplished by only one other
team (Ohio State, 1960-62).
Under Keady, Purdue made 22 postseason
tournament appearances in 24 years (17 times in the NCAA Tournament) and has
averaged 21.2 wins per season. The Boilermakers' best performances in the
NCAA Tournament came in 1994 and 2000 with a pair of appearances in the
Elite Eight. Purdue advanced to the Sweet 16 in 1988, 1998 and 1999.
A member and former president of the National
Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), Keady is one of the leading
spokesmen on issues surrounding college basketball. Keady also is a
prominent figure in United States basketball. Most recently, he was a member
of Rudy Tomjanovich's coaching staff for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney,
Australia, helping Team USA to a gold medal. |
