SAN ANGELO – Former Hardin-Simmons football coach Jimmie Keeling was awarded with the Gordon Wood Legends Award at the annual San Angelo Football Clinic in a ceremony at the Junnell Center on Thursday afternoon.

The San Angelo Clinic, which draws many of the top football coaches in the state of Texas each summer, is meeting this week. Keeling was honored for his contributions to the game of football.

"This is a great award, but it is a reflection of all of the great players I have had the privilege to coach and the coaches that I have worked with," said Keeling. "I am honored to receive the award because it is named after my good friend Gordon Wood."

More than 130 former HSU players are now coaching and many were on hand for his award on Thursday afternoon.

Keeling retired after the 2010 season at HSU. He led the Cowboys to the national playoffs – either NAIA or NCAA Division III – 11 times in his 21 seasons as the HSU coach. His teams won TIAA titles in 1993, 1994 and 1995 and American Southwest Conference titles in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004. He posted a 172-53 record at HSU. 

Keeling graduated from Evant High School in 1953. He started his collegiate career at Tarleton State University, then a junior college, and finished his undergraduate work at Howard Payne in 1958. His first coaching job came soon after, taking the reins as head coach and athletic director at Dublin in 1959.

Later came stops in Tulia and Elgin. In 1968, Keeling enjoyed perhaps his finest hour as a high school coach when his Lubbock Estacado squad went 14-0 and claimed the Class 4A state championship. Two years later, he helped Andrews to the Class 4A quarterfinals. Later, in 1978, he led Lamar Consolidated to a regional championship.

That success continued when Keeling became head coach at San Angelo Central in 1979, and remained there for 10 seasons. His Bobcats advanced all the way to the Class 5A regional championships in 1982 and in 1988, reached the state quarterfinals. Keeling's last high school stop was at John Tyler High School in Tyler for one year.

In 1995, Keeling was rewarded for his 30 years of excellence in high-school coaching when he was inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor. Keeling posted a career high school record of 196-91-11.

In July of 2003, he received the Head Football Coaching Award by the All-American Football Foundation. In 2004, he was given the Grant Teaff Lifetime Achievement Award by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

When you add in his 196-91-11 record as a high school coach he completed his career with a record of 368-144-11.

-Courtesy Hardin-Simmons University Sports Information Department