Ex-baseball coach Kevin Cooney in FAU Hall of Fame
FAU has announced that former baseball coach Kevin Cooney will be inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame.
For newbies or those with short memories, Cooney is the guy who built the program into a mid-major power.
He compiled a record of 750-480-5 in his 21 seasons as skipper of the Owls. He slowly built up the program and it broke onto the national scene in 1999 when the Owls tied an NCAA record with 34-straight wins. That was the year FAU also went to its first NCAA regional, and Cooney would have them there five more times in the next six years, with the run ending in 2005.
-

-
Cooney wasn’t just a good coach. He was a great guy with an independent streak that sometimes got him in hot water.
I’ll always remember him as “Blue Wave” Cooney, and for the Bruce Springsteen songs that blared from the loudspeakers on game days. And then there were the green bases and socks for St. Patrick’s Day and, well, you get the idea.
Congrats to Cooney, who retired in 2008 and moved to a farm in Tennessee.
The ceremony, which includes women’s hoops player Shontavia Williams, is Feb. 24 at the Premiere Club at FAU Stadium (good use of that facility). Tickets are $35. For more info the contact is Brenda Husinka at 561-297-0069 or bcoto@fau.edu.
Cooney will hang around and throw out the first pitch of the Feb. 25 baseball game, with the Owls hosting Manhattan.
Later…





0-2, with losses at SoBama and then at home in front of a sellout against FIU, a team that most of the Owls, from juniors on down, had never lost to. 




TED HUTTON Born and raised in Ohio, I came to South Florida more than 25 years ago and never looked back. Loved raising three kids in a place where we never had to buy winter clothes or scrape the ice off your windshield before heading to work. When Florida Atlantic started football in 2001, I decided it was time to get back on the streets and volunteered to cover the team, leaving a job as assistant sports editor. Found that being on the sidelines beats being behind a desk.