For thousands of hours Billy Key roamed the gym floor that now bears his name.
Indeed, if it is to have a name, it should be “Billy Key Court.” It’s a fitting honor for a man who has beaten back cancer as well as a slew of the finest teams to ever come out of the Miners’ former conference, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA).
On Saturday night Missouri Science & Technology officially dedicated the gym floor at the Gale Bullman Multi-Purpose Building in honor of the former Miner men’s basketball head coach and athletic director.
At halftime of the S&T men’s basketball game against Harding on Saturday current Miner Athletic Director Mark Mullin served as Master of Ceremonies for the dedication honoring the man who hired him at the then University of Missouri-Rolla Athletic Department.
Accepting the honor along with Billy Key was his wife, Naomi, and among those in attendance were several family members as well as several of his former Miner players.
“I think it’s wonderful that Mark Mullin and the athletic department would do this for me,” Billy Key said. “It’s really special.”
Key coached the Miner men’s basketball team from 1964-87 during one of the MIAA’s strongest runs of basketball dominance, finishing with a 278-277 record. In addition Key was Miner Athletic Director from 1969-90.
He served as president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) in 1986-87 -- one of only two NCAA Division II coaches to hold that title.
On the court the highlight of Key’s coaching career came when he led the Miners to back-to-back NCAA Division II National Tournament berths in 1974-75 and 1975-76, as well as winning the MIAA championship in 1975-76. He coached two players that earned All-America honors as UMR (Curtis Gibson and Duane Huddleston) as well as the first Miner player to be drafted by an National Basketball Association team (Ken Stalling).
A graduate of Central Missouri University, Key has been inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, the S&T/UMR/MSM Athletics Hall of Fame and the University of Central Missouri Athletics Hall of Fame.
Key, now age 83, says his most vivid memories from his stint as Miner basketball coach were the wild-and-crazy MIAA races of the 1970s, when the league turned out a handful of professional players. And his 1975-76 squad, which included all-time MIAA great Bob Stanley, was one of the best during that era.
“I’d say from 1972 through ‘76 we had some really outstanding teams,” Key said. “And, obviously, to have an outstanding team you have to have some outstanding players; and we did.”
Back then the “M” in MIAA stood for Missouri instead of Mid-America. The league consisted solely of Missouri schools, including UMR, Lincoln, Northeast Missouri State (now Truman), Northwest Missouri State, Central Missouri State, Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) and Southeast Missouri State. After SMS and SEMO moved up to the NCAA Division I level, Missouri-St. Louis was added.
That was before the league became more regional with its westward migration to add schools such as Missouri Southern, Missouri Western, Southwest Baptist, Pittsburg State and Emporia State.
Key said the Miner rivalries were much more intense within the MIAA when the boundaries stopped at the state lines. Intense enough one winter night in the mid-70s that a riot broke out in the Bullman Building and parking lot after a game against Lincoln.
“That was when all the MIAA teams were Missouri state schools and universities,” Key said. “We played rivals such as Springfield (Southwest Missouri), Cape Girardeau (Southeast Missouri), Warrensburg (Central Missouri) and Kirksville (Northeast Missouri). And then you had Lincoln.
“When we were in the MIAA, for years there were established rivalries. Our two big rivals, in my opinion, were SMS and Southeast; that’s who we really had our biggest battles with. It was not the same conference when Missouri Southern, Missouri Western and the others came in.”
There is one thing in particular about that era of the MIAA that Key does not miss.
“I don’t miss that Northern Swing,” Key laughed. The Northern Swing was a Miner road trip to Maryville and Kirksville -- which always seemed to come at the coldest time of winter.
Key, who beat back cancer during his early years of retirement, is still active with his golf game and can usually be found at Miner home football and basketball events.
He is forever a Miner. And now his name will forever be part of Miner basketball.