Pat Kennedy is celebrating his 30^th anniversary as a Division I head basketball coach this season. In his sixth year at Towson, he has never served as a head coach at any level other than college basketball’s highest.

Each of Pat’s prior coaching assignments presented him with unique challenges. He cleared all the hurdles at Iona, Florida State, DePaul and Montana, leading his teams to eight NCAA Tournament appearances and five National Invitation Tournaments.

When Pat arrived at Towson for the 2004-05 year he assumed command of a program that was sitting on the bottom of the CAA. He is continuing the building process that is raising the Tigers to a competitive level and eventually will have Towson contesting for league championships.

This past year the Tigers were 12-22, losing seven games by nine points or less. Fourteen of the 17 opponents in 2008-09 with a victory over the Tigers had winning records. Nine of those earned post-season spots including Villanova’s NCAA Final Four team and Penn State’s NIT championship squad.

Pat had the Tigers playing their best at the end of the year when they became the lowest seeds (11^th) ever to advance to the CAA semifinals. Wins over Drexel and Northeastern put the Tigers into the conference semifinals for the first time.

Towson’s progress under Pat’s leadership has been gained at a steady pace. It hasn’t been the sprint Tiger basketball fans hoped for when Pat was first hired due mainly to the competitiveness of the league. Other Baltimore metropolitan schools have earned a ticket to the Big Dance in recent years. But they don’t compete in the CAA.

Towson slugs its way through the toughest league of any Division I school in town. The CAA’s Ratings Percentage Index is 13^th, ahead of the MEAC (Morgan State and Coppin State) at 32^nd, America East (UMBC) at 25^th, Northeast (Mt. St. Mary’s) at 29^th, the MAAC (Loyola) at 20^th and the Patriot (Navy) at 26^th. Towson’s former league, the Big South, is 28^th.

His first season at Towson was a bust in terms of the record - a career low 6 wins (one was a forfeit) against a career high 24 losses. Despite the dismal results, however, Pat and his staff scored big off the court.

Those behind-the-scene efforts paid huge dividends in year two. The Tigers rose from the ashes of the CAA’s last place to finish seventh in a league that expanded to 12 schools and sent four of its teams (two to the NCAA, two to the NIT) into post-season play. Towson was the most improved team in the CAA for the 2005-06 regular season with a plus seven.

In year three Pat directed the Tigers to 15 victories, the most in a single season for them in 11 years. The Tigers were 9-5 in the Towson Center, their best home record in seven years.

The following year Towson advanced to the CAA quarterfinals for a second straight year. Towson was the best in the league in turnover margin (+2.03) and in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.21).The Tigers finished 12^th nationally in turnovers per game.

Pat has been a Division I head coach practically his entire career. After three years as an assistant at Iona, he was hired to replace his mentor, the legendary Jim Valvano, as the Gaels head coach. Pat has never been anything but a Division I head coach since. He remains one of only five active college coaches to serve at least 29 consecutive years as a Division I head coach.

Kennedy stands 20th among all active Division I coaches with his 474 career victories. Those wins place him at the top of the CAA coaches’ list.

There isn’t a level of Division I college basketball he hasn’t coached on, from the MAAC while at Iona, to the Metro Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference at Florida State, through Conference USA at DePaul to the Big Sky at Montana.

Pat’s previous 29 years have been more kind to him than not, leaving him with much success and little disappointment to overcome.

His Florida State Seminoles advanced to the 1993 NCAA Elite Eight and the 1987 NIT championship game. Eleven of his former players went on to the NBA, including Sam Cassell, a local Baltimore product from the storied Dunbar High School program. Countless others have enjoyed successful careers overseas. A number of his former assistants are now head coaches themselves.

The 2004-05 season was Pat’s first at Towson. And, it was his most dismal ever. The Tigers struggled to a 5-24 record, their second worst in 25 seasons as a Division I school.

Because he wasn’t hired until the spring, Pat was able to bring in just two recruits, a junior college transfer point guard that started 23 of 28 games, and a freshman wing who averaged just 5.9 minutes in 22 games. Three of the returning veterans, with a combined 94 career starts, were sidelined with knee injuries. One of those vets was a 6-10 center who was a member of the CAA’s All-Defensive Team for leading the league in blocked shots the year before. That trio played a total of 205 minutes for the entire 2004-05 season.

Midway in the season a fourth player who was starting on the wing went down with a knee injury, missing eight games and forcing Kennedy to play a walk-on in his stead. The Tigers never recovered from that final blow, losing the last 13 games of the season.

But if one factor has loomed larger than any other in Pat’s career, it has been his ability to recruit. This year’s incoming group is a testimony to that fact.

Kennedy was introduced to coaching by Ed Donohue while he was an undergraduate attending King’s College of Pa. on a basketball scholarship. After two years on the Monarchs’ squad, Donohue coaxed Pat out of his uniform to coach King’s junior varsity, which he did to a 17-4 record. In his senior year Kennedy was elevated to the top assistant on the varsity. From that point on Pat knew what he wanted to do in his life - coach college basketball.

After graduating from King’s in 1975, Kennedy took a similar position at Lehigh for two years. Then the Keyport, N.J. native joined the late Jim Valvano’s staff at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. He served two years as Valvano’s assistant. After the 1979-80 season, Valvano moved on to North Carolina State. Kennedy moved up and became the Gaels’ head coach at the age of 28.

In six seasons at Iona, Pat led the Gaels to a 124-60 record, two trips to the NCAA Tournament and two NIT appearances. His very first career victory, an upset over South Carolina, was an indication of what was ahead.

Iona posted a 15-14 record in Kennedy’s first year. The next four were all 20 plus win seasons and included two NIT appearances plus two trips to the NCAA tournament. He became just the fourth coach in NCAA Division I history to win 100 games in his first five seasons as a head coach.

One of his finest teams was the 1983-84 squad that posted a 23-8 record. That performance put him into the NCAA Tournament for the first time as a head coach. It also earned him his first recognition; the New York Metro Area Coach of the Year. The following year his Gaels were 26-5 and made another trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Kennedy was a Heineken Award recipient, an honor symbolic of excellence in college coaching. He followed Valvano, St. John’s Lou Carnesseca and North Carolina’s Dean Smith as an honoree of the prestigious award.

Over 95 percent of his recruits at Iona graduated. USAToday cited Kennedy’s program at Iona as having one of the most outstanding graduation rates in college athletics.

While at Iona, Pat developed a penchant for administration, serving five years in the dual role of head basketball coach and associate athletics director. He was also president of the MAAC Coaches’ Association and a member of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee for the Eastern Region.

Kennedy resigned his position at Iona following the 1985-86 season to accept the head coach’s job at Florida State. Prior to his arrival, the Seminoles had made only four trips to the NCAA tournament in the previous 39 seasons. During Kennedy’s 11 years at the Tallahassee school, FSU appeared in the NCAA tournament five times, reaching the Sweet Sixteen in 1992 and the Elite Eight in 1993.

The NIT figured into FSU’s post-season history as well while Pat was at the helm. In his first season Florida State advanced to the NIT second round. In his last season the Seminoles were 20-12. They reached the NIT finals where they eventually bowed to Michigan.

Up until Kennedy’s arrival at Florida State, the Seminoles had never won a conference championship - regular season or postseason. In 1990-91, FSU’s last year in the Metro Conference, the Seminoles cleared that hurdle by winning the school’s first post-season tournament with a stunning comeback victory against Louisville.

During his tenure at FSU, Pat engineered the Seminoles’ transition from the Metro Conference to the Atlantic Coast Conference. In 1992 the Seminoles made their ACC debut, finishing with an impressive 22-10 record that included an 11-5 league mark, good enough for a second place finish behind eventual national champion Duke. FSU went to the NCAA tournament where it beat Montana and Georgetown before suffering a Sweet Sixteen loss to Indiana.

The following year, Kennedy’s seventh with the Seminoles, Florida State won a school record 25 games. The 11th-ranked Seminoles (they had been ranked as high as 6th) beat Evansville, Tulane and Western Kentucky to advance to the NCAA regional championship where the best season in Florida State history ended with a loss to Kentucky.

After achieving a 202-131 record at Florida State, Pat left the Tallahassee campus to accept the task of rebuilding the basketball program at DePaul in Chicago. The year before he arrived (1996-97) the Blue Demons were 3-23.

The 1997-98 season was dismal. The Blue Demons were 7-23. But they opened the campaign with a victory that stopped a 13-game DePaul losing streak. They also beat Memphis and UAB, which were the first and second place finishers in Conference USA’s National Division. Both were road wins.

The following year Kennedy rallied DePaul to the biggest one-season turnaround in its history. It finished with an 18-13 record and participated in the NIT, downing Northwestern before bowing to California in a one-point loss.

The turnaround continued in 1999-2000 when the Blue Demons posted a 21-12 record. They returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time in eight years where they were beaten in overtime by Kansas.

Over a two year period Pat was faced with a situation he had never experienced - players leaving early for the NBA. Five of his Blue Demons opted to end their college careers for the professional ranks, including first round picks Quentin Richardson and Steven Hunter. Additionally, high school star Eddy Curry, who had made a verbal commitment to DePaul, opted to enter the draft and was selected fourth overall.

In his final season at the Chicago school, he suspended three of his team’s top four scorers for academic reasons. They were eligible by DePaul and NCAA standards, but not by Kennedy’s.

After the 2001-02 season, Kennedy resigned from DePaul with a 67-85 record and moved to the Big Sky country, accepting the head coach’s job at Montana.

Kennedy coached the Grizzlies to a two-year record of 23-35. He picked up his 400th career victory when Montana downed Portland State 61-49 on January 11, 2003. Montana finished third in the Big Sky Conference in 2004-05 but won the league’s tournament title to earn its sixth appearance in the NCAA Tournament. That Montana team carried Kennedy’s brand. Four of the five starters for the Grizzlies were Pat’s recruits. The Grizzlies returned to the NCAA Tournament the following year too.

Pat has never restricted his work in college basketball to coaching. For over a decade he served on the National Association of Basketball Coaches board of directors. He served as the NABC’s president during the 2004-05 year. He continued his work in the NABC by serving on its committee for recruiting and access.

He was honored by the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association with its prestigious 2004 NIT-NABC Coaches Award, presented in conjunction with the National Invitation Tournament.

Kennedy served as president of the men’s basketball committees while coaching in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Conference USA and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

A passion of Pat’s continues to be his work with the Special Olympics. When he met his wife 31 years ago, Jeannie was the assistant executive director for the State of New York Special Olympics. They have maintained their affiliation with the organization and have served as hosts for Summer Games at every school Pat has coached. He has been recognized by the Special Olympics as its Volunteer Man of the Year. Additionally, Pat served as honorary chairman of the March of Dimes in northern Florida during his tenure with the Seminoles.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy is the son of an immigrant father, Joseph William Kennedy who came to this country from Tralee, Ireland. He has never forgotten those roots. He was one of several coaches who raised money for former NBA commissioner Walter Kennedy to build the first basketball arena in Dublin, Ireland. Pat has conducted several tours of basketball clinics and has lectured throughout Ireland during his coaching career. He was also one of the owners of the Burger Land Team of Cork, one of Ireland’s first professional teams.

After attending Red Bank (N.J.) Catholic High School, home of the Fighting Caseys, he completed his undergraduate education at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., a sister school to the University of Notre Dame.

Pat and Jeannie are the parents of a son, Joey, who is a graduate of Northwestern where he played guard for the Wildcats and was a team captain in his senior year, and two daughters, Kimberly and Kathryn.

CAA COACHES CAREER RECORDS