Brian Patrick Heaney (born September 3, 1946) is a former

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professional basketball player and coach. He spent one season in the

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(NBA) as a member of the Baltimore Bullets during the 1969–70 season.

Career

Player

Heaney attended

Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School is a private, Roman Catholic, co-educational, college-preparatory high school located at 357 Clermont Avenue in the Ft. Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The school serves students in grades 9 throu ...

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, New York, before enrolling at

Acadia University Acadia University is a public, predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level. The enabling legislation consists of the Acadia ...

in Canada in 1964. He helped the Axemen win the 1965 Canadian University Men's Basketball National Championships. Heaney earned CIS Tournament All-Star Team honors in 1965 and 1966 and was a First Team All-Canadian in 1969. He set a single-game scoring record of 74 points. He was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets in the 19 round of the 1969 NBA draft from

. Heaney was the first CIAU player to play in the NBA and along with Jim Zoet, are the only two

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Ca ...

players to have played in an NBA game. He split the 1969-70 season between the Bullets, scoring a total of 30 points in the NBA, and the Sunbury Mercuries of the Eastern League.

Coach

In 1971, he was named head men's basketball coach at Saint Mary's University in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

. Under his guidance, the Huskies won national titles in 1973, 1978 and 1979. Heaney was the recipient of the Stuart W. Aberdeen Memorial Trophy as CIS Coach of the Year in 1973. In 1975, Heaney became the head coach of Canada's Women's National Team and took the squad to the 1976 Olympic Games, before returning to Saint Mary's in 1977. He served as head coach until 1979. During his seven-year tenure as the Huskies' head coach, Heaney had a record of 87 wins and 21 losses. After working as head coach of the University of Alberta men's basketball team from 1979 to 1983 and of the University of Toronto men's basketball team from 1983 to 1985, Heaney took a job in the financial services sector and became a CIS and NBA broadcaster. In 2002, he served as Honorary Chairman of the CIS Men's Championship. From 2007 to 2010, Heaney was the athletic director at Acadia University and then returned to his business job and broadcasting.

Sportscaster

During the 2000s, Heaney also served as a studio analyst for TSN on their

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games a ...

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

broadcasts.

Honours

Heaney is a member of the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame and the Acadia Sports Hall of Fame.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heaney, Brian 1946 births Living people Acadia Axemen basketball players Baltimore Bullets (1963–1973) draft picks Baltimore Bullets (1963–1973) players Guards (basketball) Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School alumni Basketball players from Brooklyn Toronto Raptors announcers U Sports coaches