Former Newport High School football coach and Arkansas State football radio color analyst Bill Keedy died early Saturday morning in Little Rock.
He was 70 years old.
Keedy had open heart surgery earlier this month and had not worked in the Red Wolves' radio booth this season. David Hare, Keedy's friend and a former Newport High School teammate, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Saturday that Keedy died from a stomach ulcer.
Keedy checked into Baptist Health in Little Rock on Tuesday complaining of shortness of breath, which later turned out to be a bleeding ulcer, Hare said. Keedy had lost four units of blood during the week and wasn't doing well at 1 a.m. Saturday, Hare said. He died about two hours later.
Keedy, a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Arkansas High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame, is survived by his wife of 42 years Jennifer; a son, Billy; a daughter, Mary Kathryn and two grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are pending. In lieu of flowers, Keedy's family asked that donations be sent to the Red Wolves Foundation, the Newport Athletic Booster Club or the Jackson County Humane Society.
After two seasons at Paragould (1974-1975) and one season at Sylvan Hills (1976), Keedy was hired to coach at Newport, where he guided the Greyhounds for 19 seasons (1977-1995).
Keedy compiled a 175-48-3 record at the Jackson County school, leading the Greyhounds to state championships in 1981 and 1991, beating Alma and Lake Hamilton, respectively. The Greyhounds reached the playoffs 19 times under Keedy. He finished with an overall record of 199-55-4.
Hare, who graduated from Newport in 1963 with Keedy, said Keedy was an easy-going person but was as intense as any coach he had ever seen.
"There was nobody more competitive than Billy Keedy," Hare said. "He would get so focused and get so stressed out he would throw up before a game. If you said something to him before a game, he wouldn't say anything back. He would keep going.
"He was one of the most focused guys who had that great concentration."
Affectionately known as "Mr. Greyhound" throughout northeast Arkansas, Keedy fulfilled his main goal after graduating from Arkansas State in 1968.
"I never wanted to coach the Dallas Cowboys or the Green Bay Packers," Keedy said in a 2012 interview with the Democrat-Gazette. "I wanted to become the coach of the Newport Greyhounds."
Keedy began working as a color analyst for ASU football radio broadcasts in 2000 and spent 15 years in the booth. Along with play-by-play broadcaster Matt Stolz, Keedy called the 2005 New Orleans Bowl, the past four GoDaddy Bowls and the school's victory at Texas A&M in 2008.
In addition to his radio duties, Keedy also was a board member on the Red Wolves Foundation.
ASU Coach Blake Anderson said Keedy was a great ambassador for ASU and the game of football.
"He was a joy to be around, made the people who surrounded him better," Anderson said in a university release. "He will be deeply missed."
Sports on 09/27/2015