SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts — The résumé, 550 Division I victories (and 879 in all between high school, junior college and NCAA Division I), part of a gold medal 2000 United States Olympic men's basketball team, bronze medals in the 1989 World University Games and 1991 Pan-American Games and five-time national coach of the year included, screamed hall of famer.
Now, so does the orange jacket.
Former Purdue basketball coach Gene Keady was enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Saturday night, officially taking his place in basketball history forever.
"It is icing on the cake," Keady said last week.
Before the success at Purdue, Keady began his basketball coaching career at Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas.
Keady is one of the most recognizable names in Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball history.
Keady retired from coaching in March 2005 after 25 seasons with the Purdue Boilermakers.
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 fourth in Blue dragon history in victories and fourth in winning percentage (79.5).
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 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 set a record for winning percentage in Jayhawk conference games at 90 percent.
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, Kansas, 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 hometown street in Larned was renamed "Gene Keady Way" in a ceremony held on June 8, 2013.
From 1966 to 1974, Keady coached at Hutchinson (Kansas) Junior College. He was an assistant the first season before taking over as head coach for the 1966-67 season.
Hutchinson won six league titles and qualified for six national tournaments under Keady, including a second-place showing and a 29-4 overall record in 1972-73. Keady was named junior college coach of the year in Region Six in 1971, 1972 and 1973. Before going to Hutchinson, Keady began his head coaching career in Beloit, Kan., at Beloit High School from 1959 to 1965, where he compiled a 102-47 record.
Keady attended Garden City (Kansas) Junior College, where he was a four-sport star, including an All-American as a football quarterback. He then went on to Kansas State, where he played baseball, football and ran track while earning a bachelor's degree in biological sciences and physical education. He played briefly for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1958 before joining the coaching ranks at Beloit High.
Keady earned his master's degree in education from Kansas State in 1964. He is enshrined in the National Junior College Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach, and in the Kansas Hall of Fame as a coach.
After Hutchinson, Keady took a Division I assistant’s position at Arkansas to work 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. Under Keady, Purdue made 22 postseason tournament appearances in 24 years (17 times in the NCAA Tournament) and made a pair of appearances in the Elite Eight.
Because for so long, it was an honor Keady never thought was going to come.
And he was OK with that.
Others, however, weren't or already assumed Keady took his rightful spot at the birthplace of basketball long ago.
Technically, to be fair, Keady was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001, four years before he retired as Purdue's men's basketball coach. He's been a member of the National Junior College Basketball Hall of Fame since 1990 and the Kansas State Athletics Hall of Fame since 2007.
"To be, the best thing you can say about a person is that they've achieved sustained excellence," former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a video package prior to Keady's enshrinement. "When you are always excellent and for a long period of time, it really sets you apart. I love that about him."
Now, though, there's no denying Keady's credentials.
To be among those in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, you have to be among the greatest to have had an impact on the game.
Gene Keady was.
Keady now lives in New York City and has been married to retired restaurateur Kathleen Petrie Keady since June, 2012. He and his late wife, Patricia, have one child, the late Lisa. Keady also has a daughter, Beverly, a son, Dan, a step daughter, Rachel Gould, and a granddaugther, Zenyn Skye.