Gene Keady, special advisor to current St. John’s head coach Steve Lavin, was elected into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
“I am very humbled and happy to be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame,” Keady said in a press release.
“Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to have been surrounded by great student-athletes, outstanding coaches, a supportive family and so many individuals that I would like to thank and share this award with.”
Keady is a six-time recipient of the National Coach of the Year award and seven-time Big Ten Coach of the Year. He spent most of his coaching career at Purdue University, where he led the Boilermakers to six regular season conference titles.
Keady is the second winningest Big Ten coach of all time with 512 wins. He only trails Bob Knight, who recorded 661 victories while at Indiana.
The former Purdue University coach gave Steve Lavin his first opportunity to be a part of the college basketball spectrum when he gave Lavin an assistant coaching position in 1988. Lavin learned from Keady until he eventually moved on to another assistant coaching role at UCLA.
In 2010, Lavin teamed up with Keady again as he invited his mentor to take an advisory role at St. John’s. Lavin is just one of several coaches to be a part of the Gene Keady Coaching Tree, along with current Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber and Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings.
“From a personal perspective, Gene Keady gave me my coaching start 25 years ago when he hired me as a graduate assistant at Purdue, and other than my parents he has been the most influential person in my life,” Lavin said in a press release. “Working alongside Coach Keady at both Purdue and now St. John’s has been a true blessing. His induction into the College Basketball Hall Of Fame is a perfect exclamation point on a remarkable career.”
Although his role does not include on-court coaching, Keady brings in over 30 years of collegiate basketball knowledge and assists in developing strategy and analyzing game film.
Keady will be honoured during Saturday evening’s NCAA National Semifinal games and will be officially inducted on Nov. 24 at the Midland Theatre in Kansas City.
Keady will be joined by Tom McMillan, Marcques Johnson, Rollie Massimino, Bob Hopkins, George Raveling, Goerge Killian, and the 1963 Loyala University (Chicago) team.
