Frank William "Menty" Keaney (June 5, 1886 – October 10, 1967) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

coach and college athletics administrator. As a college men's basketball coach, he was known as the architect of modern "run-and-shoot" basketball and the inventor of the

fast break Fast break is an offensive strategy in basketball and handball. In a fast break, a team attempts to move the ball up court and into scoring position as quickly as possible, so that the defense is outnumbered and does not have time to set up. The ...

. Keaney was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Cambridge Latin School, graduating in 1906. He graduated from

Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

, where he played several sports, in 1911. He was the head football coach at Everett High School in Massachusetts from 1917 to 1919. He coached at Rhode Island State College (now the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

) from 1920 to 1948 and taught a style of basketball using a fast-breaking offense and a full-court defense. In his 28 years at Rhode Island, Keaney's basketball Rams won eight conference championships and had only one losing season. In 1939, Keaney's Rams became the first college team to score more than 50 points per game, and in 1943 the team had an average of more than two points per minute (80.7 points per game), which led to the Rams being dubbed "The Firehouse Gang". During his tenure the URI team had four

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

appearances. Keaney's career record with the men's basketball team was 401–124 (.764). After retiring from coaching collegiate basketball, Keaney was offered the position of head coach of the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

. Keaney's doctor, however, refused to let him take the job. He remained at URI as athletic director until 1959. The university named the Frank W. Keaney Gymnasium-Armory in his honor in 1953. Keaney was inducted into the

Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...

in 1960.

Head coaching record

College football

References

External links

* * 1886 births 1967 deaths American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Massachusetts Basketball players from Boston Bates Bobcats baseball players Bates Bobcats football players Bates Bobcats men's basketball players Cambridge Rindge and Latin School alumni College men's basketball head coaches in the United States High school baseball coaches in the United States High school basketball coaches in Massachusetts High school football coaches in Massachusetts Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Rhode Island Rams athletic directors Rhode Island Rams baseball coaches Rhode Island Rams football coaches Rhode Island Rams men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Boston {{1880s-US-basketball-bio-stub