Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame adds Dwane Casey

Dwane Casey (Detroit Pistons Photo)

The Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame named six new inductees Thursday and one was former University of Kentucky basketball player and assistant coach Dwane Casey. Casey — along with former UK baseball coach Keith Madison and former UK swimmer Rachel Komisarz Baugh — will be honored September 7 at the Galt House in Louisville.

There is no better comeback story in UK sports than Casey, a star at Union County High School who was on Kentucky’s 1978 national championship team and also team captain his senior season. To make money during the summers at UK, he worked in a coal mine and tobacco farm

Casey coached one year under his UK coach, Joe Hall, before joining the Western Kentucky staff for five seasons. He came back to UK in 1986 as an assistant coach and lead recruiter for Eddie Sutton and could not have been happier or prouder.

However, when the NCAA investigated Sutton, Casey became the scapegoat for NCAA issues when an envelope sent to the father of a UK recruit allegedly came open and contained $1,000. Kentucky said the evidence was inconclusive but the scandal resulted in Casey resigning as well as Sutton resigning. Casey was placed on probation for five years by the NCAA.

Eventually, the NCAA rescinded the penalty and Casey also won a huge out-of-court settlement in a defamation lawsuit against Emery Worldwide.

Rather than fade away, Casey coached in Japan and worked his way back to the NBA in 1994 with Seattle. Casey was an assistant coach for 12 years with Seattle, Minnesota, and Dallas. He was head coach at Minnesota from 2005-2007 and took over in Toronto in 2011 where he had three 50-win seasons, four division titles, and five straight playoff appearances in seven years.

Casey became head coach in Detroit in 2018 and continues to be highly regarded by NBA personnel.

Casey found his niche in the NBA and has never publicly been bitter about his UK experience and the way UK officials abandoned him during the scandal where many still believe he was simply turned into the fall guy by UK and the NCAA.

That’s why it is nice to see the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame reward his overall excellence and contributions to basketball.