Joseph Kearney
Dr. Joseph L. “Joe” Kearney (born 28 April, 1927 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a renowned coach and sports administrator in university athletics. He served as athletic director at three major universities (University of Washington, from 1969 to 1976; Michigan State University, from 1976 to 1980; Arizona State University, 1980) and then was Commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) from 1980 until his retirement in 1994. The Joe Kearney Award goes to the WAC's top male and female athletes and has been awarded annually since the 1991-1992 academic year.
Biography
In the 1978-1979 season at Michigan State University, his teams captured the Big Ten titles in football, basketball and baseball (the so-called triple crown); and the basketball team, led by Magic Johnson, went on to win the NCAA championship with a victory over Indiana State (with Larry Bird) in the title game at the 1979 Final Four. In 1991, Joe Kearney was nominated by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) to be its recipient of the Corbett Award, which is the highest honor in university sports administration. He has hired and worked with some of the most prominent coaches in university athletics, including Don James (football), Jud Heathcote, Darryl Rogers, Marv Harshman and Tex Winter. Currently he resides in Tucson, Arizona, and is married to Dorothea Kearney (born 03 January, 1927 in Shelton, Washington). He has five children and eleven grandchildren. his grandkids names are Emma, Ryan, Gram, Laurel, Trey, Adrian, Seth, Aron, Katie, Chris, and Nick his childrens names are Robin, Erin, Kevin, Shawn, and Jan