By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Barry Binkley, a high school track and cross country coach for 55 years, passed away on Thursday, less than three months after his final season as an assistant track coach at Simon Kenton High School. He was 71.
Binkley was inducted into the LaRosa’s Hall of Fame in 2014 for his coaching career that began at Elder High School in Ohio. He spent most of his years teaching and coaching at four different high schools in Northern Kentucky.
Barry Binkley
He’s also a member of the Kentucky Track and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame and the Northern Kentucky Athletic Directors Hall of Fame.
“That he was able to share his passion for running and his gift of coaching with his athletes made him so happy,” said the online obituary posted by his family. “He touched many lives over his 55-year career and was proud of what ‘his kids’ accomplished either in athletics or in life. It didn’t matter if you were his best athlete or his worst as long as he saw that you were giving him all you had.”
Binkley became head coach at Holmes in 1974 and played a crucial role in establishing girls cross country as a sanctioned sport in Kentucky. He then spent 25 years at Dayton, where his girls track teams and boys cross country teams each won two KHSAA Class 1A state titles and numerous state runner-up trophies.
During one eight-year period, Dayton girls track teams were state champion twice and state runner-up six times under Binkley, who received two national awards. He was named Coach of the Year by the National Federation Interscholastic Coaches Association in 1984. Four years later, he was named Coach of the Year in cross country by Scholastic Coach Magazine.
As an assistant coach, Binkley shared in state titles won by the Lloyd girls track team in 2005 and the St. Henry boys cross country team in 2011.
Binkley attended Woodward High School in Ohio. He set a school record for the mile (4:36) and was district champion in the 880-yard run as a senior in 1959. He earned a scholarship to Bowling Green State University, where he set three school records and finished second in the mile at the 1963 Mid-American Conference Championships.
Funeral arrangements were not released, but a celebration of Binkley’s life will take place in the near future. He leaves behind his wife of 37 years, Janice; daughter, Dr. Molly Binkley Rimer; and son-in-law, Nick Rimer. He was preceded in death by his beloved sister, Barbara Bushman.
In his honor, a scholarship fund is being established for deserving senior track or cross country athletes at Dayton High School and Simon Kenton High School. Donations payable to “Barry Binkley Scholarship Fund” can be sent to Dayton High School, 200 Greendevil Lane, Dayton, Ky 41074.
