Ken Trickey was especially remembered for ORU's high-scoring "run and gun" teams of the early 1970s, which helped the young, small school attain national attention and competitive success, including a spot in the Elite Eight in the 1974 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.
15 Facts About Ken Trickey
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Ken Trickey graduated from Cairo High School and then attended Middle Tennessee State University, where he became the school's all-time basketball scoring leader.
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Ken Trickey became head coach at Middle Tennessee State in 1965.
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Ken Trickey was the first MTSU coach to recruit black players, and in 1967 he had the first all-black starting team in Ohio Valley Conference history.
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Ken Trickey was inducted into MTSU's hall of fame in 1991.
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Ken Trickey took the head coaching job at ORU in 1969 and made an immediate impact with his high-offense approach.
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Ken Trickey quickly recruited several top prospects from Tennessee, most notably Richard Fuqua, a prep All-American who became one of the nation's leading scorers at ORU and was named a second team All-American in 1972.
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Ken Trickey's teams led the nation in scoring twice, and went to the National Invitational Tournament in 1972 and 1973.
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Ken Trickey did not meet the same level of success he had at ORU.
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Ken Trickey was the head coach at Oklahoma City University from 1979 to 1981.
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Ken Trickey's tenure was marked by an NCAA investigation of the athletic program, which resulted in sanctions against the school after he left.
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Ken Trickey subsequently became head coach and athletic director at Century High School in Ullin, Illinois, near Cairo.
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Ken Trickey supervised a move from the NCAA to the NAIA.
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In 2003, Ken Trickey became head coach at Muskogee High School in Muskogee, Oklahoma and coached one season.
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Ken Trickey died on December 4,2012, in Tulsa, at age 79.