Purdue basketball’s ‘Play hard’ style took Gene Keady to Hall of Fame

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UNCASVILLE, Connecticut — People used to pick Gene Keady out of a crowd by his classic combover.

That combover is now gone and where it once resided atop the legendary former Purdue basketball coach’s head is now covered by a black and gold hat with the signature ‘motion P’ logo.

But basketball fans can still pick Keady out in public.

As the 87-year-old Keady made his way through the Mohegan Sun casino on Friday afternoon, autograph seekers spotted him and halted him long enough to snag as many signatures as they could before Keady told them he had to go.

As recognizable as Keady still is, so to is Purdue’s brand of basketball, one built around a phrase he coined long ago.

“I had ‘Play hard’ on the seat of our pants to make them understand that you had to play hard in order to be successful in any endeavor of life,” Keady said during Friday’s 2023 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee press conference. “Just kind of a motto I had to make sure they understood when they see each other running away from them, they can see who was wearing play hard. That’s just kind of our motto that we wanted to play hard and be the best we were able to be.”

More: As Gene Keady enters Hall of Fame, former Purdue basketball coach’s impact remains on game

That phrase still resides in Mackey Arena.

On the walls.

And, yes, still on the backside of players’ practice shorts, including the pair Keady fittingly wore in Mackey Arena last Saturday for the Purdue basketball alumni game.

Some of the players who best symbolized that phrase — Purdue’s Three Amigos and Brian Cardinal, whose style of play earned him the nickname The Custodian — are among those who made the trip to Springfield, Massachusetts this weekend to see their former college coach receive basketball’s highest honor.

More: Tom Izzo wrote Gene Keady Hall of Fame endorsement: ‘One of the icons in our profession.’

Former Purdue men’s basketball coach Gene Keady answers questions about his induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of…

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Author : Journal & Courier

Publish date : 2023-08-12 02:59:53

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