Keith Madison is a former head coach of the

Kentucky Wildcats baseball The Kentucky Wildcats baseball team represents the University of Kentucky in NCAA Division I college baseball and competes in the Eastern division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The current head coach of the Wildcats is Nick Mingione. Ke ...

team. He coached the Wildcats from 1979 to 2003, and remains the most winning baseball coach in the history of UK Baseball.

Playing career

Madison was born in

Brownsville, Kentucky Brownsville is a home rule-class city in Edmonson County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is the county seat and is a certified Kentucky Trail Town. The population was 836 at the time of the 2010 census, down from 921 at the 2000 census. I ...

and played high school baseball and basketball for Edmonson County High School. He signed a professional baseball contract with the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They p ...

Major League Baseball Club as a 17 year old in 1969, reaching AAA (Winnipeg Whips) by the age of 19. In 1972, Madison signed with the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

Major League Baseball Club, playing in

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough Co ...

and

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of ...

(Quebec) before being released in 1974. During the off-season, Madison attended college at

Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabet ...

where he graduated in 1975.

Coaching career

Madison began his coaching career at Lake Wales High School in

Lake Wales, Florida Lake Wales is a city in Polk County, Florida. The population was 14,225 at the 2010 census. , the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 16,759. It is part of the Lakeland– Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lake Wales ...

in 1976. The following year, he was offered the graduate assistant position at

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...

under the tutelage of legendary coach,

Ron Polk Ronald George Polk (born January 12, 1944) is an American professional coach in NCAA Division I college baseball. He was a long-time head baseball coach at Mississippi State and is considered to be the "Father of Southeastern Conference Baseball ...

. Upon completing his master's degree at Mississippi State, Madison was hired as the head baseball coach at the University of Kentucky at age 26 in July 1978. At the time, he was the youngest head baseball coach in NCAA Division l. In his first season at Kentucky, the Wildcats broke the school record for wins. He remained at UK for 25 years, retiring from coaching in June 2003. Madison broke the record for most victories by a coach in Wildcat history with 737 wins. At the time, only Ron Polk and LSU's

Skip Bertman Stanley "Skip" Bertman (born May 23, 1938) is a former college baseball coach and athletic director at Louisiana State University (LSU). He led the LSU Tigers baseball team to five College World Series championships and seven Southeastern Confe ...

had more wins in the SEC. Madison coached 17 players who eventually played

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

, including 2006

Cy Young Award The Cy Young Award is given annually to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB), one each for the American League (AL) and National League (NL). The award was first introduced in 1956 by Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick in honor of Ha ...

winner,

Brandon Webb Brandon Tyler Webb (born May 9, 1979) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Webb pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2003 through 2009, and, after multiple shoulder surgeries, signed with but ...

. Madison is a member of three Halls of Fame: the Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the University of Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame and the

American Baseball Coaches Association The American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) is the world's largest amateur baseball coaching organization. It was founded in 1945 as the American Association of College Baseball Coaches. Now, the ABCA is composed of over 13,000 baseball coach ...

Hall of Fame. His jersey is retired at U.K. and in 2013 Madison was awarded the prestigious Lefty Gomez Award for his contributions to amateur baseball.

Life after coaching

Since 2006, Madison has served with Christian mission organization, SCORE International, and has helped to lead hundreds of baseball players and coaches on dozens of short term baseball mission trips to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

. Madison is also the publisher of baseball magazine, Inside Pitch. Inside Pitch is the official magazine of the

References

External links

CoachKeithMadison.com
Living people Kentucky Wildcats baseball coaches 1951 births People from Brownsville, Kentucky {{US-baseball-manager-stub