Joseph L. Kearney (April 28, 1927 – May 5, 2010) was an American coach and sports administrator in university athletics. He served as

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

at three major universities: the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

(1969–1976), Michigan State University (1976–1980), and Arizona State University (1980). He was commissioner of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to mos ...

(WAC) from 1980 until his retirement in 1994.

Career

After serving in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Kearney attended

Seattle Pacific University Seattle Pacific University (SPU) is a private Christian university in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1891 in conjunction with the Oregon and Washington Conference of the Free Methodist Church as the Seattle Seminary. It became the Seat ...

and attained his BA degree in

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

. He was also a member of the SPU basketball team. This was then followed by teaching and coaching stints in Paradise High School (

Paradise, California Paradise is a town in Butte County, California, United States in the Sierra Nevada foothills above the northeastern Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 4,764. On November 8, 2018, a major wildfire, the Camp F ...

); the

(as assistant basketball coach for

Tippy Dye William Henry Harrison "Tippy" Dye (April 1, 1915 – April 11, 2012) was an American college athlete, coach, and athletic director. As a basketball head coach, Dye led the University of Washington to its only NCAA Final Four appearance in 195 ...

) and Sunnyside High School (

Sunnyside, Washington Sunnyside is a city in Yakima County, Washington, United States. The population was 16,375 at the 2020 census. History Up through the early portion of the 19th century, the portion of the Yakima Valley where Sunnyside is now located was inhabit ...

). He then became a high school principal in the state of Washington when he was hired by Onalaska High School ( Onalaska, Washington), where he also taught and coached. In 1961, he was appointed as the inaugural principal at Tumwater High School in

Tumwater, Washington Tumwater is a town in Thurston County, Washington, United States. The population was 25,350 at the 2020 census. It is situated near where the Deschutes River enters Budd Inlet, the southernmost point of Puget Sound; it also borders the state c ...

. He concurrently pursued and completed a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in education at

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

and moved back to the University of Washington to finish his PhD, where he was also strongly linked to the UW Athletic Department and quickly rose to the rank of assistant athletic director under

Jim Owens James Donald Owens (March 6, 1927 – June 6, 2009) was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach at the University of Washington from 1957 to 1974, compiling a record of in 18 seasons. Owens played college football at the U ...

, who was Washington's football coach and athletic director when Kearney joined the Athletic Department. From this position, he was appointed athletic director for the University of Washington when Owens decided to focus solely on his job as football coach. In addition to the above roles, Kearney also served as the Assistant Executive Director of the

Washington Interscholastic Activities Association The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) is the governing body of athletics and activities for secondary education schools in the state of Washington. As of February 2011, the private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization consists ...

(WIAA). For 16 years he served the

United States Olympic Committee The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 as the United States Olympic Committee, and is headquartered in Col ...

(USOC) as a committee member and later as a USOC Committee Chairman. He was then named to the USOC Board of Directors and in 1996 he was awarded the USOC Olympic Torch Award. In the 1978–79 season at Michigan State University, his teams captured the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

titles in football,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

—the so-called triple crown. The 1978–79 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team, led by future NBA Hall of Fame forward Magic Johnson, defeated

Indiana State Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified among "D/PU: Doctor ...

(led by fellow future NBA Hall of Famer

Larry Bird Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded a ...

) in the title game of the

1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament The 1979 NCAA Division I basketball tournament involved 40 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 9 and ended with the championship game on M ...

. Kearney hired and worked with some of the most prominent coaches in university athletics, including Hall of Fame football player,

, college football coaching hall of famer Don James (football), and

Darryl Rogers Darryl Dale Rogers (May 28, 1934 – July 10, 2018) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at California State College at Hayward—now known as California State University, East Bay (1965), California State Univers ...

in football. In basketball, he worked with three Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees:

Marv Harshman Marvel Keith Harshman (October 4, 1917 – April 12, 2013) was a college basketball coach, a head coach for forty years in the state of Washington at Pacific Lutheran University, Washington State University, and the University of Washington. Ear ...

Jud Heathcote George Melvin "Jud" Heathcote (May 27, 1927 – August 28, 2017) was an American basketball player and coach. He was a college basketball head coach for 24 seasons: five at the University of Montana and nineteen at Michigan State University H ...

and

Tex Winter Morice Fredrick "Tex" Winter (February 25, 1922 – October 10, 2018) was an American basketball coach and innovator of the triangle offense. He was a head coach in college basketball for 30 years before becoming an assistant coach in the National ...

. In other sports he worked with such outstanding coaches as Dick Erickson and Bob Ernst in crew,

Earl Ellis Lieutenant Colonel Earl Hancock "Pete" Ellis (December 19, 1880 – May 12, 1923) was a United States Marine Corps Intelligence Officer, and author of , which became the basis for the American campaign of amphibious assault that defeated the Jap ...

in swimming, Dr. Eric Hughes in gymnastics, Ken Shannon in track and field, the legendary Danny Litwhiler in baseball,

Joe Baum Joseph Harold Baum (August 17, 1920 – October 5, 1998) was an American restaurateur and innovator responsible for creating the country's first themed restaurants, including The Four Seasons Restaurant, Windows on the World, and the restored Rai ...

in soccer, and

Amo Bessone Amos "Betts" Bessone (November 22, 1916 – January 9, 2010) was a collegiate ice hockey player and head coach. Bessone was born in Sagamore, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and raised in West Springfield, Massachusetts, where he learned to play ho ...

and

Ron Mason Ronald Herbert Mason (January 14, 1940 – June 13, 2016) was a Canadian ice hockey player, head coach, and university executive. A head coach of various American universities, most notably Michigan State University (MSU), he was the most success ...

in ice hockey. Bessone and Mason both won

NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship ''NCAA men's ice hockey championship'' refers to either of the two tournaments in men's ice hockey – one in Division I and one in Division III – contested by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) since 1971. The NCAA Divisio ...

s, with Mason retiring with the all-time highest number of wins in Division One ice hockey. Mason was the athletic director at Michigan State University until his retirement in early 2008, when he was succeeded by Mark Hollis, who was basketball team manager on

's staff at Michigan State and on Kearney's staff at the Western Athletic Conference.

Honors

In 1991, Joe Kearney was nominated by the

National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) is a professional organization for college and university athletic directors in the United States. NACDA boasts a membership of more than 6,100 individuals and more than 1,600 ins ...

(NACDA) to be its recipient of the

Corbett Award The James J. Corbett Memorial Award is a US award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). It is presented "to the collegiate administrator who through the years has most typified Corbett's devotion t ...

, which is the highest honor in university sports administration. The

presents the Joe Kearney Award to the top male and female athlete each year—an award that has been given annually since the 1991–92 academic year. In July 2014, Kearney was selected for induction into the

Husky Hall of Fame. Further, in May 2020, Kearney was inducted into the State of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Sports Hall of Fame for his long career in high-school and university athletics within the state.

Later life and family

Kearney retired to

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

and lived there for 16 years with his wife, Dorothea Kearney (born January 3, 1927 in

Shelton, Washington Shelton is a city in, and the county seat of, Mason County, Washington, United States. Shelton is the westernmost city on Puget Sound. The population was 10,371 at the 2020 census. Shelton has a council–manager form of government and was the ...

, deceased February 5, 2011 in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

). He was the father of five children (Jan Veile, Kevin Kearney, Erin Leary, Shawn Bassham and Robin Kearney) and had eleven grandchildren (Christopher Kearney; Katie Kearney; Nicholas Kearney; Emma Kearney; Ryan Kearney; Aaron Bassham; Seth Bassham; Graham Veile; Laurel Howard; Trey Howard and Adrianne Leary). Kearney died on May 5, 2010 in Tucson, after an eight-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kearney, Joseph 1927 births 2010 deaths Arizona State Sun Devils athletic directors Michigan State Spartans athletic directors Seattle Pacific Falcons men's basketball players Washington Huskies athletic directors Washington Huskies men's basketball coaches Western Athletic Conference commissioners San Jose State University alumni United States Navy personnel of World War II Sportspeople from Pittsburgh Basketball players from Tucson, Arizona Deaths from cancer in Arizona Deaths from pancreatic cancer American men's basketball players Basketball players from Pittsburgh