Spec Keene

Keene in 1928
Biographical details
Born	(1894-07-01)July 1, 1894 Hopewell, Oregon, U.S.
Died	August 24, 1977(1977-08-24) (aged 83) Corvallis, Oregon, U.S.
Playing career
Baseball
c. 1920	Oregon State
Position(s)	Pitcher
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1926–1942	Willamette
Basketball
1926–1937	Willamette
1942–1943	Willamette
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1947–1964	Oregon State
Head coaching record
Overall	84–51–6 (football) 159–100 (basketball)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
Football 9 NWC (1929, 1934–1938, 1940–1942) Basketball 7 NWC (1927, 1929–1931, 1933, 1937, 1943)

Roy Servais "Spec" Keene (July 1, 1894 – August 24, 1977) was an American American football, baseball, and basketball coach at Willamette University and an athletic director at Oregon State University.

Keene graduated from Oregon State University in 1921, where he was a pitcher on the baseball team, and was chosen as team captain in his junior year.^[1]

After graduating from Oregon State, Keene signed on with Willamette University's athletic department, where he coached three sports: football for 17 years, baseball for 16 years, and basketball for 11 years.^[2] Combined, Keene's teams won or shared 19 Northwest Conference championships, and in the 1929–30 academic year, each of his three teams were undefeated and won conference championships.^[2] Keene is considered the "father of Willamette athletics" and was a charter member of the University's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991.^[2]

On December 6, 1941, Keene's Willamette football team was in Honolulu, Hawaii, where they lost a game to Hawaii, 20–6. The following day, the players and fans had intended to do some sightseeing around Hawaii, but instead, were witness to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.^[3] The players, now stranded in Hawaii, were enlisted to string barbed wire on Waikiki Beach and were given rifles and assigned to protect the beach and later the hills above Honolulu.^[3] Keene, along with future Oregon governor Douglas McKay, who had traveled with the football team, finally arranged passage home for the players on December 19 on an overloaded luxury liner, the SS President Coolidge.^[3] The team arrived in San Francisco on Christmas Day after taking a circuitous route to avoid Japanese submarines. In 1997, the entire team was inducted into Willamette's Athletic Hall of Fame.^[4]

Following World War II, in 1947, Keene returned to Oregon State to serve as athletic director. He served in that post for 26 years, the longest tenure of any Oregon State athletic director.^[5] During his term, he oversaw construction of the University's two major sports facilities: Gill Coliseum in 1949 and Parker Stadium (later renamed Reser Stadium) in 1953.^[5] Keene was President of the Pacific Coast Conference Athletics Directors Association and served on the executive committee of the NCAA.^[5]

In 1989, Willamette University built a new baseball stadium, which they named Roy S. "Spec" Keene Stadium. In addition to the Willamette University Athletic Hall of Fame, Keene was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1982 for his coaching,^[6] and the Oregon State University Sports Hall of Fame in 1991 for his service as athletic director. He died in Corvallis on August 24, 1977.

• Spec Keene at Find a Grave