Kennedy Named Southeastern Louisiana Alumnus of the Year

Southeastern Louisiana University’s most successful men’s basketball coach in history, Billy Kennedy, has been named the university’s 2016 Alumnus of the Year. He will be honored during Southeastern’s Homecoming celebrations in October.

Head basketball coach at Texas A&M for the past five seasons, Kennedy has been successful at all levels in his basketball coaching career, having earned Coach of the Year honors from multiple athletic conferences.

Most recently, Kennedy guided the Aggies to their first SEC Championship and a trip to the Sweet 16 during the 2015-16 campaign and was honored as SEC Coach of the Year by both the Associated Press and his fellow SEC coaches as well as earning District VII Coach of the Year recognition from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

Additionally, Texas A&M climbed to No. 5 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the USA Today/Coaches Poll to mark the school’s highest-ever national ranking.

Kennedy is a 1986 graduate of Southeastern, where he played basketball, earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies education, and served as the university’s winningest basketball coach. A native of Metairie, he attended Holy Cross High School in New Orleans before heading to Hammond to continue his education.

“Anyone who has ever met Billy Kennedy can attest to the fact that he is a class act in every way,” said Mayson Foster of Hammond, president of the Southeastern Alumni Association. “His focus, wherever he has worked, has been on the success of his student-athletes, both on the court and in the classroom. We’re proud that Billy will return to his alma mater this fall to accept this honor, and we know he looks forward to seeing his many friends in the Hammond and New Orleans communities.”

He will be honored at the Alumni Association’s annual Awards Evening, scheduled for Friday, Oct. 21.

Kennedy joined Southeastern as head coach in 1999 and served until 2005, leading the Lions to two Southland Conference regular season titles and the school’s first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament. He was named Coach of the Year by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches and the National Association of Basketball Coaches for District 8 in back-to-back years. The Southland Conference named him Coach of the Year in 2004.

Kennedy has also held assistant coaching positions at Northwestern State University, Tulane, Creighton University, and the University of Miami. In addition to his positions at Texas A&M and Southeastern, he has served as head coach at Centenary College and Murray State University.