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March/April 2008 Joe McKeown Becomes GW’s Winningest Coach
By Jamie L. Freedman When Colonials women’s basketball coach Joe McKeown arrived at GW in 1989, he never dreamed he’d become the winningest coach in the University’s history. The much-loved skipper was honored Feb. 10 at the Charles E. Smith Center with a game ball and special halftime video tribute for securing his 500th career victory a week earlier. During his 19 years at the team’s helm, McKeown has transformed the women’s basketball program, leading the team to 18 winning seasons and 14 NCAA tournament berths. A five-time Atlantic 10 coach of the year, McKeown is the 34th Division I women’s basketball coach ever to win 500 games. While he’s thrilled to have reached the coveted milestone, he acknowledges that he’s been way too busy to dwell on it. “I think that at the end of the year, my wife Laura—who has been with me through this entire journey—and I will finally have the chance to sit back and think about all the great players and great moments we’ve had over the years that led us to this point,” he says. A native of Philadelphia, McKeown grew up entranced by basketball. “There were a lot of great coaches in Philadelphia at both the pro level and Big 5 colleges in the ’60s and ’70s. As a kid, I used to ride the subway down to the Palestra for all the games. It got me hooked on coaching.” After playing college basketball at Kent State, McKeown was appointed assistant coach of the university’s women’s basketball team. He coached there for one year, simultaneously earning a master’s degree in athletic administration. At the age of 23, he landed his first head-coaching job at Burlington County College in New Jersey. “I thought I knew everything and quickly realized that I didn’t know anything,” he confesses. “You learn the hard way.” He made his first two trips to the NCAA Tournament as coach of New Mexico State from 1986 to 1989, winning 68 games in three seasons and ranking in the top 25 nationally. GW then came calling, and McKeown still remembers the excitement he felt when interviewing with then-president Stephen Joel Trachtenberg and Robert A. Chernak, senior vice president for student and academic support services. “Their vision for GW to become a men’s and women’s basketball superpower was very compelling,” he states. “One of the reasons we’ve been so successful is that we’ve gotten great support from the administration.” McKeown proudly states that his family is a GW family through and through. “My wife is a GW alumna with a degree in special education and all three of our children were born at GW Hospital,” he says. Huge Colonials fans, the McKeown family have been a fixture at GW games, both home and away. “When our oldest daughter, Meghan, was two weeks old, we put her on a plane and took her with us to a Colonials game in Las Vegas, and she’s been coming with us ever since,” says McKeown. “We beat Vegas, so I knew she’d be good luck!” Meghan, now 16, plays high school basketball for Flint Hill in Virginia and still attends most GW home games, along with McKeown’s wife, son, Joey, 13, and daughter, Ally, 5. He reveals that it’s a bit trickier now for the family to travel with the team to away games, as Joey has autism. “It’s our greatest challenge,” says McKeown, who is active in raising money for autism research. Over the years, he has changed as a coach, but his love for the job has never faded. “When I was a younger coach, I was really into strategy and the technical part of the game and tried to be an innovator,” McKeown recalls. “I was going to change the game of basketball. As I got older, I became more involved with the players and with helping them improve and prepare for the real world. I take pride in helping my players be the best they can be.” He loves when Colonials alumni come back to campus to share their success stories. “We’ve been able to recruit some terrific student-athletes over the years, and seeing what they’ve done with their lives after GW is a bigger highlight for me than how many games we win,” he states. “Four have gone on to the WBNA, six or seven are doctors and lawyers, two are journalists. We have so many great alumni, and I feel extremely lucky to have coached them.” With his contract recently extended to June 2014, McKeown will have time ahead to enhance his legacy. “I’m fortunate to coach at one of the premier universities in America, and hopefully we’ll continue to turn out successful teams and graduate great players and make their lives better,” he says. “It’s been very special to be here for 19 years. I’m very lucky.”
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