| From left to right, Lee McKinney, Skip Molitor and Mike Neer. |
The National Association of Basketball Coaches will present its 15th annual Outstanding Service Awards at the Division III meeting of this year’s NABC Convention in Houston on April 2. The award has been presented annually since 1997 and is given to coaches whose actions “inside and outside the lines” of coaching have distinguished them as valuable members of their communities.
This year’s honorees are Lee McKinney, head basketball coach and athletic director at Fontbonne; Skip Molitor, retired head basketball coach and currently assistant athletic director at Whitman; and Mike Neer, recently retired head basketball coach at the University of Rochester.
“The NABC is extremely pleased to honor these gentlemen who, throughout their careers, have been outstanding coaches, great teachers, and significant leaders in their communities,” said Pat Cunningham, head coach at Trinity (Texas) and chair of the awards committee. “They have done a terrific job in communicating strategies and techniques to their respective teams, distinguished themselves as wonderful role models to their players and associates, and embody the spirit of coaching.”
McKinney has been the head men’s basketball coach at Fontbonne since 1988. He has more than 500 career collegiate coaching victories and has led Fontbonne to the Division III NCAA tournament on four occasions. McKinney was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1992, the Missouri Baptist University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003, the Fontbonne University Hall of Fame in 2000, and was honored at the 2002 NCAA Final Four ‘Guardians of the Game’ awards ceremony for his distinguished college career. He also was the first recipient of the Distinguished Service Award presented by the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. This award is presented annually to the individual that has served or competed in the SLIAC and best exemplifies the qualities of leadership, dedication, service and perseverance. During his years of service to the conference, McKinney chaired the SLIAC Administrative Council and represented the conference nationally, serving on the NCAA Management Council, Financial Aid Committee and Nominating Committee. McKinney is also a two-time cancer survivor. He has dedicated countless hours of service to local community organizations and to raising money for various charities, mainly for NABC’s Coaches vs. Cancer program.
Molitor finished his 33-year coaching career and 14 seasons as head coach of Whitman in 2008. He is one of only two coaches to win more than 100 games at Whitman. Prior to his tenure at Whitman, Molitor coached as an assistant at various colleges and at the high school level for 10 years. He has been actively involved in various basketball and community outreach programs since arriving in Walla Walla. He has been very involved in promoting basketball in Latin America, founded the Evergreen State Amateur Athletic Council, and has organized basketball camps and been involved in missionary work in the U.S. and abroad.
Neer completed his 34-year head coaching career with the most wins in Rochester men’s basketball history and a 563-326 record. His Rochester teams earned 12 NCAA tournament berths and advanced to the Final Four on four occasions, including the 1990 NCAA Division III national title. Neer’s Final Four teams reached the national championship game three times (1990, 1992, 2005). Neer was honored by the NABC as Division III Coach of the Year in 1990. His Rochester teams have been honored on four separate occasions with outstanding sportsmanship awards from upstate New York officials. In the spring of 2010, CBOA presented its national Sam Schoenfeld Award to the university. Actively involved in university and community projects, Neer also received the Elliot Cushing Award in 1992 for outstanding service by a Rochester citizen.