Cincinnati State honors Coach John E. Hurley
February 25, 2009
Click here for more photos from the event.
On Feb. 18, John E. Hurley, a renowned basketball coach who for years was a pillar of the sports program at Cincinnati State, became the inaugural inductee in the Cincinnati State Athletic Hall of Fame.
Hurley has recorded more victories than almost any other active coach in college basketball. He helped launch the athletic program at Cincinnati State in 1977, when the institution was a technical college only. Through the years Coach Hurley became a regional legend, known both for his ability to develop basketball talent and his willingness to do whatever it took to run an athletic program on a shoestring budget.
Before his arrival at Cincinnati State Hurley played college basketball at Bowling Green State University, served as an assistant coach on the men’s basketball team at Ohio University (while earning a master’s degree in physical education and school administration), then established himself as a successful basketball coach at Milford High School.
During his 26 seasons at Cincinnati State from 1977-2003, Coach Hurley’s teams won 554 games. They won the Ohio Community College Athletic Conference men’s basketball championships nine times and the National Junior College Athletic Association regional championships four times. He sent more than 65 Cincinnati State graduates to four-year schools on athletic scholarships, including some who had been unable to make the cut for their high school teams.
Coach Hurley’s winning record, at Cincinnati State and elsewhere, has earned him multiple “Coach of the Year’’ honors from the OCCAC and the NJCAA, as well as induction in the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the NJCAA Coaches Hall of Fame. And in April, 2008, Coach Hurley received an Honor Award from the National Association of Basketball Coaches in recognition of his 800th career victory (his win total now tops 825). Among active coaches, only Bob Knight has more career victories.
Coach Hurley is now the men’s head basketball coach at the University of Cincinnati’s Clermont College, where his teams have won the Ohio Regional College Conference Championships five consecutive times (2004-2008).
