John McLendon Award
List of John McLendon Award winners
Every year since 2012, CollegeInsider.com has awarded the John McLendon Coach of the Year Award to recognize the nation’s top collegiate head coach at any level (Division I, II, III, NAIA or NJCAA). The award is named after late Hall of Fame coach John McLendon, a trailblazer in college basketball and an incredibly important figure in the integration of the game. McLendon was the first African-American head coach at a predominantly white school (Cleveland State), as well as the first African-American coach of any professional sports team (ABA’s Denver Rockets). Parenthesis indicate number of awards for that coach or school.
2012 — Horace Broadnax, Savannah State
2013 — John Thompson III, Georgetown
2014 — Gregg Marshall, Wichita State
2015 — Jim Engles, NJIT
2016 — King Rice, Monmouth
2017 — Chris Holtmann, Butler
2018 — Chris Beard, Texas Tech
2019 — Ben McCollum, Northwest Missouri State
2020 — Joe Gallo, Merrimack
2021 — Kelvin Sampson, Houston
2022 — Hubert Davis, North Carolina
2023 — Kenny Blakeney, Howard
2024 — Kelvin Sampson (2), Houston (2)
2025 — Jon Scheyer, Duke
2026 — Travis Steele, Miami (OH)
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