Inductees

Lee McKinney was a former basketball coach and athletics director at Fontbonne University.

“You can probably consider him the dean of coaches in St. Louis,” Washington University coach Mark Edwards said. “He was very entrenched with high school coaches and players in the area. He enjoyed the kids that he coached. He was very dedicated and sensitive to them.”

“That was his biggest contribution: the young men he developed as basketball players but more importantly that he helped mature off the court,” Edwards said.

McKinney began his coaching career in 1959 at Qulin High, near Poplar Bluff, then moved to Dupo and Worden high schools in Illinois. He earned his first college coaching job at Missouri Baptist in 1978, where he went 188-126. McKinney became Fontbonne’s first men’s basketball coach and athletics director in 1988.

His Griffins compiled a record of 330-281, making McKinney the winningest coach in the history of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. They won three regular-season league titles and five SLIAC tournaments and made four appearances in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

At the same time, McKinney guided Fontbonne in the transition from the NAIA to NCAA and expanded the athletic department from three sports to 19. When he needed a women’s basketball coach, he tabbed Keith Quigley, one of his former players, who held the job for 15 years.

Quigley said he left his family in Memphis to play for McKinney, and later accepted the women’s coaching job because “He had that charisma about him. After I met him, I said, ‘That’s the man I want to play for.’ He was so likable.”

McKinney also was the driving force behind a new athletics center and upgraded facilities at Fontbonne.

“He raised a lot of money for the athletic department,” Quigley said. “He took a program that was almost nothing and made it into something.”

During his first two bouts with cancer, McKinney became active in the NCAA’s Coaches vs. Cancer initiative. A third round with the disease proved too much, though, and McKinney retired as coach and athletics director in February to spend time with family.

He was honored this weekend at the Final Four in Houston, receiving the National Association of Basketball Coaches Outstanding Service Award. His three children — Dennis, Dino and Dena — accepted the award on his behalf. McKinney also is survived by his wife, June, and five grandchildren.

“He and June were regulars here,” Edwards said, speaking from Houston on Tuesday. “It was very nice, a touching tribute. They were given a standing ovation, and his children got back before he passed away.”