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 the next 50 days.
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 13th of the 50 sports icons is Kenney Shields, the legendary coach who is the all-time wins leader at two different programs and helped put Northern Kentucky University basketball on the map.
KENNEY SHIELDS
Shields impact goes far beyond wins and losses as a coach, he committed to kids since he was a teen working with the Covington Recreation Department and the Covington Turners.
The all-time winningest coach at Northern Kentucky University and Highlands, compiled a 766-427 record in his 39-year coaching career. Shields coached at Highlands from 1975-88 and NKU from 1988-2004.
One year after he graduated from college, Shields started his head coaching career at St. Thomas, a small parish high school. He spent 10 years there before becoming the boys’ head basketball coach at Highlands, where he won 261 games and five 9th Region championships in 13 seasons.
His record of success on the high school level led to him becoming the men’s head basketball coach at Northern Kentucky University. He took NKU teams to the NCAA Division II national championship game in 1996 and ’97. The Norse were still considered one of the top Division II teams in the country when Shields retired in 2004 with a 306-170 record in 16 seasons. Shields was named Division II National Coach of the Year in 1995. He was the GLVC Champion in 1996 and the NABC Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year in 1996.
In 2009, Shields was inducted to the KHSAA Hall of Fame, the 11th Hall of Fame he’d been inducted to. He published a book in 2017, Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else, about his life and coaching accomplishments.
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