Loyd Hayden Riley (September 14, 1921 – April 24, 1995) was an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach. He was the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

of the

Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a mem ...

for eight seasons during the 1960s, and the Tide's head

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 for ten seasons in the 1970s. Riley was also a recruiting coordinator for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

at Alabama under

Paul "Bear" Bryant Paul William "Bear" Bryant (September 11, 1913 – January 26, 1983) was an American college football player and coach. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and best known as the head coach of t ...

College and military

Born and raised in

Guin, Alabama Guin is a city in Marion County, Alabama, Marion County, Alabama, United States. It incorporated in December 1889. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 2,195. History Guin takes its name from a young country doctor, ...

, Riley was a four-sport athlete in high school and played

, basketball, and baseball at Howard College (now

Samford University Samford University is a private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama. In 1841, the university was founded as Howard College by Baptists. Samford University describes itself as the 87th oldest institution of higher learning in the United Sta ...

). He entered the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

in 1942 and was stationed at

NAS Pensacola Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola (formerly NAS/KNAS until changed circa 1970 to allow Nassau International Airport, now Lynden Pindling International Airport, to have IATA code NAS), "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United State ...

in the nearby

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

panhandle as a physical trainer. Following his discharge from the military, he returned to college at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...

, where he lettered in basketball and baseball. He earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in physical education in August 1948 and earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in 1953.

Coaching

Just days after earning his degree, Riley was the head coach of baseball and basketball at Coffee High School in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. He stayed for a decade, and his basketball team won the state championship in 1951, with high finishes in other years. One of his players at Coffee was

Wimp Sanderson Winfrey "Wimp" Sanderson (born August 8, 1937) is a retired American college basketball coach. He coached at the University of Alabama from 1981 to 1992 and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock from 1994 to 1999. Sanderson was born in Flore ...

, a future assistant under Riley at Alabama and later the Tide's head coach. Riley was also the head football coach at CHS for three seasons, beginning in 1955. He moved to the University of Alabama in 1958 as a football assistant to Bear Bryant (also Alabama's athletic director) Hayden was one of the Best recruiters and evaluation of talent. He had an unbelievable talent of remembering anybody's name and from his stent in the Navy knew people all over the nation which helped in the recruiting and assistant basketball coach under Eugene Lambert. When Lambert left in 1960, Riley was promoted to head basketball coach. After eight seasons, Riley suffered his first losing season and resigned in 1968, and continued as an assistant athletic director. In 1970, he succeeded

Joe Sewell Joseph Wheeler "Joe" Sewell (October 9, 1898 – March 6, 1990) was a Major League Baseball infielder for the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977. Sewell holds the record for the lowest ...

as head baseball coach for ten seasons and stepped down due to health reasons in 1979. Riley served in the athletic department at Alabama until 1982, then became commissioner of the

Gulf South Conference The Gulf South Conference (GSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the Southeastern United States. History Originally known as the Mid ...

from 1982 for two years. He suffered a stroke in 1987 and was confined to a wheelchair, and lived at the VA hospital in Tuscaloosa. Riley died of a heart attack in 1995 at age 73, and was buried in Tuscaloosa. A city park in his hometown of Guin is named for him.

Personal

Riley was married to the former Lauranne Kudrop of Greenville and they had three children, two sons and a daughter. Riley had five sisters and was the older brother of football coach

Bud Riley Edward Jones "Bud" Riley Jr. (November 25, 1925 – August 4, 2012) was an American college football coach who served as an assistant coach at the University of Idaho and Oregon State University. Riley also spent 14 seasons in the Canadian Footb ...

(1925–2012), who was the father of Mike Riley, the former head football coach at

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

and

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

. Nephew Mike (b.1953) played football at Alabama as a reserve defensive back in the early 1970s while Hayden was the head baseball coach. Another nephew, Major Ogilvie, was a running back in the Tide's

wishbone Wishbone commonly refers to: * Furcula, a fork-shaped bone in birds and some dinosaurs Wishbone may also refer to: * Wish-Bone, an American salad dressing and condiment company * Wishbone formation, a type of offense in American football * Wish ...

offense from

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

through

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

and won two

national championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

. Ogilvie is the son of Riley's sister Peggy.

References

External links

Lauderdale County Sports Hall of Fame profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Hayden 1921 births 1995 deaths Alabama Crimson Tide baseball coaches Alabama Crimson Tide football coaches Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball coaches Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball players American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Alabama Basketball players from Alabama College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Guards (basketball) Gulf South Conference commissioners Howard Hawks baseball players Howard Hawks men's basketball players People from Marion County, Alabama Samford Bulldogs baseball players Samford Bulldogs football players Samford Bulldogs men's basketball players United States Navy personnel of World War II