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 Larry Holley
Assistant Professor of Physical Education and Head Basketball Coach
E-mail: holleyl@william.jewell.edu
Larry Holley has been the head men's basketball coach at William Jewell College for 24 years. He has received 13 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.
Holley’s coaching background includes one year at Harrisburg, MO High School, six years at Central Methodist College and four years at Northwest Missouri State University (two as the top assistant and two as the head coach). He returned to his alma mater in the fall of 1979. He has guided nine Jewell squads to HAAC Conference Titles and eight Cardinal teams to the NAIA National Tournament with four of them reaching the Final Four. 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 seventeen 20-win seasons (ten teams have had 25 or more wins and 2 have won 30 or more). He ranks #2 among all NAIA II coaches (173 schools) with 624 wins (including 537 at William Jewell). He ranks #4 among all NAIA coaches (Division I & II – 276 schools) and #20 among four-year college coaches (NCAA I, II, III & NAIA I & II – 1261 schools). He is the 47th NCAA or NAIA coach to win 600 or more games. He ranks #2 all-time in career wins among four-year college coaches coaching at Missouri colleges/universities only. Only Norm Stewart (University of Missouri-Columbia) has more victories (634).
Holley has coached eleven NAIA All-Americans including one who was named NAIA II National Player of the Year (Brook Russell: 1996). Seven of his players have been named NAIA Academic All-Americans. While at Jewell ninety-five out of ninety-nine of his fourth year players have graduated!
Holley is a 1967 Jewell graduate. He lettered four times in each of three sports (cross country, basketball & track). He was captain of each sport and capped his career by being named Jewell’s Athlete of the Year (Cecil R. Martin Award) as a senior. He scored 1122 points in his basketball career at Jewell (#7 on the scoring chart at the time – currently #27) and was an All-Conference (2nd team) and All-District (2nd team) selection as a senior. Off the court he was: named ‘Mr. School Spirit’; president of his fraternity (Lambda Chi Alpha); president of the J Club (letter winner’s organization); vice-president of the senior class; a member of Aeons (senior men’s honorary fraternity); selected for Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities; the recipient of the Colonel Alexander Doniphan Award that goes to the senior man deemed most likely to succeed.
This Jameson, MO native made five trips to Columbia, MO during his senior year in high school to compete in state competition in basketball, indoor track, music, speech and outdoor track. As a senior he led the Huskies to a 33-1 record and a third place finish in the Class S State Tournament. He was Jameson’s first ever First Team All State selection and his jersey is now retired. He also won the Class S State Indoor Mile Run, placed 4th at the State Outdoor Meet and was Valedictorian of his graduating class. Some of his other activities included speech (he competed at the State Contest in Radio Speaking and Poetry Reading) and music (he received I ratings in both vocal and trumpet solos at the State Contest).
He is married to the former Ann Pearl, who is a real estate agent in Liberty. Larry and Ann have three daughters (Lindsay – a 1998 William Jewell graduate; Lauren, a 2002 William Jewell graduate; and Lacey, a 2003 Drake University graduate).
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