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James
F. Carey
(August 21, 1929 - February 4, 2006)
 James
F. ‘Jim’ Carey, age 76, died Saturday, Feb. 4, 2006, at the
Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, KS from
congestive heart failure. He was born August 21, 1929 @
St. Louis ,
MO the son of Joseph
& Justine Carey. He was a Garden City resident since 1981,
having moved from
Reno , NV
. Jim won the Golden Gloves Lightweight Boxing Championship
while attending St. Mary’s High School in
St. Louis . Following
graduation, he served in the Army in the Korean War,
receiving the Korean Service Medal and the United Nations
Service Medal. Following the war, he attended
Tokyo
University in
Tokyo ,
Japan . Jim
then went on to Moberly
Junior College in
Moberly , MO
in 1952, where he was a member of the college’s National
Championship Basketball team for 2 years. He was a 2 time
All-American in 1953-55. Graduating from
Drake
University in
Des Moines ,
Iowa , he was the
MVP of the Missouri Valley Conference 1956-57, the Drake
basketball team captain and was an AAU All-American. Jim
went on to obtain his Masters Degree in Education at
Norheast Missouri State College and his Education Specialist
degree in preparation for his Doctorate at the
University of
Nevada .
Jim
coached basketball at the high school in
Tama , Iowa
. He then moved on to coach 11 years at Ellsworth Jr.
College in
Iowa Falls ,
Iowa , where his
team won the National Jr. College Championship in 1971. He
is the only former player and coach to ever win the National
Championship. Jim then left to become Assistant Basketball
Coach at Arizona
State
University and then Division I Head
Coach at the
University of
Nevada . In
1981, he came to Garden City, where he coached and taught at
the Garden City Community College.
Over the 5 decades of
coaching, he won over 700 games, was a member of 6 Hall of
Fames: AAU, NJCAA,
Ellsworth
College ,
Drake
University ,
Moberly Jr.
College & Garden City
Community College
. He was awarded the Governor’s Award in the state of
Nevada for
recognition of his service. He was recently notified of
being honored on the All Decade Team from the 1950’s at
Drake
University .
A devoted husband, father and
coach to his former players, he enjoyed reading, gardening,
swimming, Bass fishing, Cardinal baseball, his constant
companion Cricket the cat, and spending time at their
Cottonwood
Lake home in
Sterling , KS
On June 7, 1959, he married
Felecia Fountain in
Clark ,
Missouri . She
survives. Other Survivors include: 1 Son (& wife), Tim &
Kathy Carey of Kinsley
, Kansas ,2
Daughters (& husbands): Quinn & Ty Walker of Garden City,
Kansas and Erin & Robert Kelley of
Dallas ,
Texas . 6
Grandchildren: Riley & Piper Kelley of Dallas, & Jaimie,
Riane, Kameron & Kobe Carey of Kinsley.
Memorial Services will be
held at 3:00pm on Sunday, February 26, 2006 @ the Price &
Sons Funeral Home in Garden City.
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