Athlete of the Month Keith Oakley Basketball Senior Phenom

By Bob Monahan

Could you imagine being drafted by the professional NBA team the Denver Nuggets in the second round, playing several years as a pro, but never winning a game? That is the circuitous road that Keith Oakley took in his young basketball life.

Now, many years later, Keith is playing senior basketball for the South Shore Basketball Club with the intensity and accuracy that his college coach nicknamed him, Annie Oakley, in honor of the old west sharpshooter Annie Oakley. I have had the honor of playing senior basketball with Keith the last five years, and he is a deadly accurate shooter. He also is a humble gentleman and great sportsman.

Born and raised in Middletown, Ohio a steel workers blue-collar town, Keith excelled in baseball, football and basketball. His steel worker dad was transferred to Leesburg, Florida Keith’s junior year of high school. He attended Lake Sumter Community College and won a scholarship to the University of South Florida as a transfer student. After graduation he was drafted by the NBA Denver Nuggets with the 27th pick in the second round and graduated with a BA in sociology. While in the Denver area, his brother invited him to go on a road trip. On the road trip they were sideswiped by a camper that had slid on an icy road. The accident caused damage to three vertebrae in his neck and ended his NBA career before it started. As he slowly recovered, he played at the Fondren Recreation in Houston. For three years he played with noted NBA stars Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone, and a host of other stars. The Globetrotters happened to come to the game to possibly recruit new players for the Generals, the travel team that the Globetrotters played against. Keith scored 55 points in that game and when invited to play in a tryout game scored 60 in that game and won a place on the Generals team. The Generals are all good athletes but always lose to the Globetrotters as part of their entertainment. Thus, Keith was a professional athlete who never won a game.

Keith went back to college in Texas, earning a Master’s in teaching and taught junior high for three years and transferred to high school coaching baseball and basketball. One of the players he was assigned to was a young pitcher named Roger Clemens, who was born in Ohio close to where Keith was born. They bonded, and Roger moved in with Keith weekdays while Roger’s mother was away working, except on weekends when his mother returned home. Roger went on to become a seven-time CY Young award winning pitcher for the Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, and the New York Yankees.

Keith enrolled in law school, but quickly had to abandon that aspiration when his father took ill and he had to support the family. In this transition period, he got into the restaurant business and ended up in operations of several restaurant chains including Chili’s and Longhorn Steakhouses in Florida.

During his formative years he met his wife Colleen on a blind date, substituting for a friend who didn’t have enough money to take Colleen on a date. Within two weeks, he proposed marriage. They have two sons, one in Tampa and one in California.

He came to this area when his mom lived in Sun City Center. He moved nearby to retire at Valencia Lakes more than 15 years ago and loves the facilities they provide there, the security and peacefulness. He uses the gym three times per week to lift weights.

It is a privilege to play basketball with Keith Oakley as we will be playing on the same basketball team based on age at the Polk County Games in March. I will feed him the ball and will listen to that swishing sound tickle the nets.