The history of sports in Northern Kentucky goes back a long way. A very long way. Decades. Centuries.
We know you’ve seen these lists before, but this is a different and unique way of presenting our “50 sports icons in Northern Kentucky” as we’ll provide you one per day over a 50-day span.
Hall of Fames are everywhere in NKY, the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, High School Athletic Directors Hall of Fame, NKU, Thomas More and local high schools all have something to recognize their past.
We’ll preface this series by saying this, some of you may disagree with who should or shouldn’t be in the top 50 and that’s fine. Plenty are in the Hall of Very Good, but we feel these 50 are the one’s who stuck out to us.
Sports Editor Evan Dennison spoke and conferred with several local NKY sports history buffs to get their opinions and lists of their own and who should be “locks” for the 50 sports icons. We compiled each list and came up with the 50 of our own (maybe cheated a little by putting families in as one) to present over the next 50 days.
Hope you enjoy as summer time rolls on!
The 49th of the 50 sports icons is John Brannen. The Newport Central Catholic grad had both a successful playing and coaching career.
JOHN BRANNEN
John Brannen was a standout basketball player for Newport Central Catholic and went on to play in college. He began his collegiate career at Morehead State before transferring to Marshall, where he scored 1,008 points in two seasons. He led the Thundering Herd and the Southern Conference in scoring his senior season with 20.9 points per game in 1996-97 and was later named to the Marshall Hall of Fame in 2019.
Brannen was a Rhodes Scholar finalist and received postgraduate scholarships from both the NCAA and the Southern Conference. He played two professional seasons in Belgium where he was an all-star.
He then got into coaching, working his way up the ranks as an assistant for Charleston, Eastern Kentucky, St. Bonaventure, VCU and Alabama. He served as an interim at Alabama for two games before getting his first head coaching job with Northern Kentucky University in 2015.
Brannen was the first to lead NKU to the NCAA Tournament in 2017, making the Norse just the second team all-time to reach the NCAA tourney in its first year eligible. He was later named Coach of the Year in the Horizon League in 2017. He went 81-51 in four seasons with the Norse and reached the NCAA Tournament twice.
He went on to coach at University of Cincinnati for two seasons from 2019-21. He guided the Bearcats to a 20-10 record in his first season as they were tied for first in the American Athletic Conference and well on their way to the NCAA Tournament before COVID canceled the 2020 postseason. In his second season, he led Cincinnati to a 12-11 record and a trip to the conference championship. He was later relieved of his coaching duties and it was announced that Brannen and the University had reached an amicable resolution, later announced to be a $2.75 million settlement.
Brannen now owns a painting business and is married to his wife Lisa with twin daughters, Jaylee and Katelyn, who recently graduated from NewCath.
See the 50 sports icons on a day-to-day basis over the next 50 days
— Day 1: Dave Cowens
— Day 2: Shaun Alexander
— Day 3: Homer Rice
— Day 4: Dicky Beal
— Day 5: Jared Lorenzen
— Day 6: Jim Bunning
— Day 7: Tom Ellis
— Day 8: Nate Dusing
— Day 9: Jim Connor
— Day 10: Steve Cauthen
— Day 11: Irv Goode
— Day 12: Stan Steidel
— Day 13: Kenney Shields
— Day 14: David Justice
— Day 15: Morgan Hentz
— Day 16: Eddie Arcaro
— Day 17: Nancy Winstel
— Day 18: Steve Flesch
— Day 19: Donna Murphy
— Day 20: Randy Marsh
— Day 21: Mike Yeagle
— Day 22: Derrick Barnes
— Day 23: Dale Mueller
— Day 24: Dave Faust
— Day 25: Kirsten Allen
— Day 26: The Oldendick family
— Day 27: Martin “Mote” Hils
— Day 28: Nell Fookes
— Day 29: Owen Hauck
— Day 30: Becky Ruehl
— Day 31: Tom Thacker
— Day 32: Sydney Moss
— Day 33: Bob Schneider
— Day 34: The Walz family
— Day 35: John Toebben
— Day 36: Pat Scott
— Day 37: Bob Arnzen
— Day 38: Joan Mazzaro
— Day 39: Frank Jacobs
— Day 40: Adrienne Hundemer
— Day 41: The Draud family
— Day 42: Bill Krumpelbeck
— Day 43: The Molony family
— Day 44: Allen Feldhaus
— Day 45: The Maile family
— Day 46: Maureen Egan Corl
— Day 47: Bill Aker
— Day 48: Maureen Kaiser
— Day 49: John Brannen
— Day 50: Mike Bankemper