Keaney, Frank W.
Basketball
b. June 5, 1886, Boston, MA
d. Oct. 10, 1967
As a coach at little Rhode Island College, now the University of Rhode Island, Keaney was a pioneer of modern basketball offense. His teams ran and ran and ran. To keep the running game going, Keaney introduced conditioning programs to keep his players in top shape. He was also the first to use a full-court press throughout a game to get quick turnovers and easy scores.
Keaney played four sports at Bates College in Maine, graduating in 1911, then coached at high schools in New England until 1920, when he and his wife Winifred went to Rhode Island. Keaney taught chemistry, coached five sports, and was athletic director; Winifred coached all the women's teams for thirteen years and was a physical education instructor.
Although Rhode Island scored 87 points in the first game Keaney coached, he didn't begin to refine his "run and shoot" offense until the late 1920s and it didn't reach fruition until the 1930s. His first "point a minute team" averaged 48.6 points a game in 1935. The average reached 70.7 in 1938/39 and 80.7 in 1942-43.
Keaney never won a major championships, but his teams went to four National Invitation Tournaments and barely lost, 46-45, to the University of Kentucky in the 1947 NIT. He retired in 1948 with a record of 403 wins and 124 losses.