Former coach named to Indiana Hall of Fame

NEW CASTLE, Ind. -- Tom McKinney, who coached Bloomington North to the last single-class boys tournament championship in 1997, has been named to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.\nHe and 13 others will be inducted in Indianapolis on March 22, three days before the 2006 four-class tourney finals.\nThe new group of Hall of Famers also includes 1964 Mr. Basketball Dennis Brady of Lafayette Jeff and Steve Hollenbeck, a high school teammate of McKinney in 1964 at No. 1-ranked Columbus.\nMcKinney was a sophomore reserve on that Columbus team, which was unbeaten until the state tourney semifinals.\nHe achieved greater success as a coach, compiling a 25-year record of 415-168. His final 17 years were at Bloomington North, where his team won the 1997 championship the season before the tournament was split into separate classes. His 2000 team, which lost to Marion in the 4A championship game, included current NBA players Jared Jeffries and Sean May, both Mr. Basketball winners.\nMcKinney retired as North coach in 2004 and still teaches there.\nBrady, who led Lafayette Jeff to the state championship in 1964, also played basketball and baseball at Purdue. He later played three seasons of minor-league baseball and coached basketball and baseball at Attica.\nOther inductees include Sylvester Coalmon, who played on South Bend Central's unbeaten state championship team in 1957; Mike Rolf of 1963 champion Muncie Central; and the late Mel Payton, who played at Martinsville and Tulane and later for Philadelphia and Indianapolis in the early years of the NBA.\nAlso, Don Thomas, who played and coached at Indianapolis Attucks and coached Indianapolis Shortridge to the state's No. 1 ranking in 1973; Bill Slayback, who played at Aurora and Franklin College and later coached at Aurora and North Dearborn; and Skip Collins, who played and coached at Valparaiso.\nThe other inductees are former Anderson coach Ray Estes, former Jasper and Purdue player Tom Hoffman, former Scottsburg and Vanderbilt player Hub Hoagland, former Southport and Wabash player Tom Bennett, and former Northfield and Indiana player Steve Ahlfeld.