Jewell Names Basketball Court in Honor of Coach Larry Holley

A special dedicatory celebration was held January 22 when William Jewell College named its new wood basketball court in honor of veteran men’s basketball coach Larry Holley. “We are pleased to provide this recognition for Coach Holley, who has played such a significant role in building and maintaining the winning tradition in basketball at William Jewell,” said Dr. James Redd, director of athletics at the college. The dedication ceremony occurred between the women’s and men’s basketball matches against Missouri Valley College. The ceremony included a prayer of thanks and celebration from college chaplain Dr. Andy Pratt and remarks from President David Sallee. Donor recognition events were also a part of the program. Holley has been the head men’s basketball coach at William Jewell College for the past 25 years. He has received 14 Coach of the Year Awards including the prestigious Sears/NABC NAIA National Coach of the Year Award in 1996. He has also been selected to four Basketball Halls of Fame. He has been named to the Greater Kansas City Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the William Jewell College Athletic Hall of Fame, and to the NAIA Hall of Fame.

He has guided ten Jewell squads to HAAC Conference Titles and nine Cardinal teams to the NAIA National Tournament, with four of them reaching the Final Four, and three reaching the Elite Eight. Holley’s teams have had two winning streaks that will be hard to top: a 43-game home court winning streak and a 45-game Heart of America Athletic Conference winning streak that included 21 road wins in a row. Coach Holley is the career leader in wins among HAAC basketball coaches. He’s had eighteen 20-win seasons (eleven teams have had 25 or more wins and three have won 30 or more). He ranks #2 among all NAIA II coaches (173 schools) with 657 wins (including 570 at William Jewell). He ranks #4 among all NAIA coaches (Division I & II – 276 schools) and #16 among four-year college coaches (NCAA I, II, III & NAIA I & II – 1261 schools). He is only the 47th NCAA or NAIA coach to win 600 or more games. He ranks #1 all-time in career wins among four-year college coaches coaching at Missouri colleges/universities only.