Blakeney headed for ASHOF
Published 10:34 pm Saturday, May 2, 2009
BIRMINGHAM — Troy University head football coach Larry Blakeney will be one of ten individuals to be inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame on May 30.
A native of Birmingham, Blakeney grew up in Gordo.
He played collegiately at Auburn University, where he later was an assistant coach for fourteen years under Doug Barfield and Pat Dye.
He has been the head coach at Troy for 18 seasons (1991 to the present), becoming the the winningest football coach in Troy University history with 144 wins. He currently is fourth for most wins as a college football coach in the state (behind Paul “Bear” Bryant (Alabama), Cleve Abbott (Tuskegee) and Ralph “Shug Jordan (Auburn). He has led the Trojans to two undefeated regular seasons and participated in seven playoff appearances including two trips to the semifinals, while in the Southland Conference. His teams have won the Southland Conference three times, and he was named Southland Coach of the Year two consecutive years.
He was the recipient of the Johnny Vaught Lifetime Achievement Award by the All-American Football Foundation in 2000. Blakeney presently is one of only two coaches in NCAA history to lead a program from Division II to Division I-A. Since the move to Division 1-A, Blakeney has taken the Trojans to three Bowl Games – the 2004 Silicon Valley Football Classic, the 2006 and 2008 New Orleans Bowls.
To order tickets for the May 31 Induction Banquet at the Birmingham Sheraton Hotel call the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Museum toll free at 877-323-6665.