John Brannen, former basketball coach at the University of Cincinnati, will be the guest speaker at the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame 40th Summer Reunion Awards Night, Wednesday, August 17 at the Garden of Park Hills located at 1622 Dixie Highway.
In making the announcement, Hall of Fame President Joe Brennan said the evening will feature The Bill Cappel Award for Volunteerism, Pat Scott Lifetime Achievement Award, James Steffen Humanitarian Award, The Dr. James Claypool Pioneer Griffin Award and The Tom Fricke Service Award.
Brannen played high school basketball at Newport Central Catholic High School, followed by a college career at Morehead State before transferring to Marshall for his final two seasons.
John Brannen (Photo from NKSHOF)
As a senior, Brannen led the Southern Conference in scoring and was named the league tournament MVP. He played two seasons of professional basketball in Belgium’s First Division before returning to the states to begin his coaching career.
He held assistant coaching positions at Charleston, Eastern Kentucky and St. Bonaventure before being hired by former Marshall assistant Anthony Grant, who had just been named head coach at VCU. Brannen spent three seasons at VCU before following Grant to Alabama, where he was an assistant for six seasons – the last two as associate head coach.
When Grant was fired following the Tide’s 2015 SEC Tournament loss, Brannen was named interim head coach for the team’s NIT appearance. The Tide were knocked out of the tournament by Miami in the second round following a first-round home win over Illinois.
On April 7, 2015, Brannen was named the fifth head coach in program history at Northern Kentucky University. In 2017, Brannen led the Norse to the Horizon League championship and the NCAA tournament in the school’s first season of full Division I eligibility – the first team since 1970 to do so. He was also named the 2017 Coach of the Year in the Horizon League. In his four seasons with the Norse, Brannen earned two NCAA berths, two Horizon League regular season titles, and two Horizon League tournament championships.
On April 14, 2019 Brannen was named the new head coach at the University of Cincinnati.
In his first season, Brannen led the Bearcats to a 20-10 record earning a share of the regular season American Athletic Conference title and the first overall seed in the conference tournament. However, the season was abruptly ended due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
With a new roster and added struggles including a 25-day Covid-19 pause, the Bearcats ended Brannen’s second year fifth overall in the regular season with a 12-11 overall record. The team did make a surprise run to the conference tournament championship game before losing to an eventual Final Four team in Houston.
Within two days after the conference tournament championship, the Bearcats saw six players enter the transfer portal. On March 26, Athletic Director John Cunningham announced the university would begin investigating allegations against the program. On April 3, it was announced that Brannen was placed on indefinite leave. On April 9, Cincinnati announced Brannen had been relieved of his duties effective immediately.
The 40th Year Summer Reunion – open to the public – includes a cash bar, food, a split-the-pot and door prizes.
Admission is $10. and profits will support the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame Scholarship Fund.
In 2022, The Hall of Fame awarded seven $1,000 Jack Aynes Scholarships from this fund.
Tickets may be purchased at the door.
Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame
