California University of Pennsylvania Athletics

To Jim Kennedy, athletics, and more specifically basketball, was an important part of his life from a very early age. Being a member of the fourth class of California University’s Athletic Hall of Fame is a fitting tribute to his lifelong basketball career.

As a child growing up in California, he played basketball for East Pike Run Township High School for three years before the school merged to form California Area High School, where he played his senior year.

Kennedy was named to the first team all-selection during both his junior and senior years and also received an all-state honorable mention during his senior year.

Basketball wasn’t the only sport that Kennedy played, though. He was also a four year letterman in baseball. For two years, he started in left field on the diamond and during his senior year, the team was a WPIAL runner-up.

After graduating from California Area High School, Kennedy moved on to the local college where he played basketball for his four undergraduate years. In fact, during his tenure as a Vulcan, Kennedy only missed two games, and that didn’t happen until his senior year when he had the flu.

He put his heart and soul into the game and into the team. He did whatever was necessary to make himself a better player.

“I lived at home while I went to school. I used to get my exercise every morning. I lived up on the hill, so I had a nice little walk in the morning. I would usually walk home for dinner and walk back down for practice then walk home again afterwards,” Kennedy said.

All of the walking paid off for the Vulcans. During Kennedy’s four year basketball career, two and a half years as a starter, he amassed many honors along with 970 career points.

For his incredible abilities, Kennedy was named the Pittsburgh Press All Small College Player of the Week three times. During his senior year, he scored 100 points in a span of three games with 34 coming against Clarion, 24 against Shippensburg and 42 against Millersville. Those game tallies added up to him being the leader of the PSAC in scoring with an average of 30 points per game.

Kennedy not only played basketball while in college, he also officiated it. From 1951 to 1963, he served as a PIAA (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) and IABO (International Association of Basketball Officials) basketball official. He would work the junior high games, which were played during the afternoon. That enabled him to officiate while still taking classes and playing basketball at California. In 1953, Kennedy graduated from California with a degree in education, but that didn’t end his basketball days. He moved on to coaching, which he did at California Area High School for eight years and at Edinboro University for ten years as an assistant women’s basketball coach.

At California during those years, he also served as a general science teacher then a guidance counselor. At Edinboro, Kennedy was a professor of psychology. Even when Kennedy wasn’t coaching basketball at Edinboro, he was still involved in the sport.

“When I first went to Edinboro, I was the official scorer for ten years or so. Then I helped coach the women’s team. When I was done coaching, I scored for a couple years after that, and now I just want to watch the game and be a fan,” Kennedy said.

As an inductee into the California Area High School Hall of Fame, Kennedy understands what an honor it is to be included among the best.

“I was very honored, excited and pleased when I found out that I was being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. Just thinking about it, I thought that it would probably happen someday, but this is fairly quick. I really appreciate it. It made me feel good,” Kennedy said.

Jim Kennedy was a dominating Vulcan basketball player who played in the early 1950's. He averaged 14.8 points as a sophomore for the 1950-51 team that went 11-8 overall. He scored 35 points in a 77-61 win over Edinboro which was a school record at the time. Kennedy was a starter for three seasons and finished with 970 career points. He averaged nearly 24 points his 1952-53 senior year (23.8 ppg) which was third in the district small college "Little 10" Conference. He also averaged 30 points during the conference season which led all PSAC scorers. Kennedy scored 36 and 42 points against Steubenville and Millersville respectively during his senior season.

A four-year letterman, Kennedy received all-conference honors three years and helped Cal go 11-9 as a senior. The Vulcans finished second to Bloomsburg for the PSAC title that year and Kennedy also received honorable-mention, all-state honors. He scored 35 points in his first collegiate start as a sophomore against Edinboro and scored 100 points in a three-game span as a senior.

Originally from California, PA, and a 1949 graduate of California High School, Kennedy earned his B.S. in education from Cal U in 1953. He was a science teacher, guidance counselor and basketball coach at California junior and senior high school for eight years before moving on to Edinboro University, where he was a professor of psychology from 1963 to his retirement in 1989. Kennedy and is an emeritus professor. Jim, who was also a PIAA official, still resides in Edinboro with his wife, Wanita Snyder Kennedy. The couple has three daughters-Terri Lynn, Lianne and Patricia.