‘A community legend.’ Longtime coach and champion of education in Manatee dies at 80
Harry Kinnan, who served on the Manatee County School Board for 16 years, including five terms as chairman, and who was inducted into three basketball halls of fame for his legendary coaching career, died Monday at age 80.
Kinnan’s teams at Manatee Community College — which was later renamed State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota —averaged 19 wins a season between 1977 and 1996.
During that time, MCC teams went to the state tournament seven times, winning a state championship once, and finishing second twice. His best season was in 1992, when MCC finished with a 27-3 record.
Kinnan was a member of a distinguished education family. His mother, Marjorie Kinnan, who died at 95 in 2007, was a veteran teacher who also served 16 years, between 1996 and 2012, on the Manatee County School Board. Kinnan Elementary School is named after her. His younger bother, Joe Kinnan, also achieved legendary status as a coach, winning five state football titles at Manatee High School.
“He was a very good man. He was not only my brother, he was my best friend. He influenced a lot of people, including me. He will be sorely missed,” Joe Kinnan said this week. “He had a wonderful life, and helped a lot of people over the years.”
The brothers loved to talk sports, and discuss their philosophy of coaching. As recently as four weeks ago, they watched a Saturday afternoon college football game on TV together.
It was an aggressive form of cancer that took his brother’s life, Joe Kinnan said.
A roommate in heaven
Harry Kinnan spent most of his life in Manatee County. He was a graduate of Stetson University, where his roommate was Max Cleland.
Cleland, who also died this week, lost three limbs as an Army captain at Khe Sanh, Vietnam, in 1968. He later served as U.S. senator from Georgia, and as administrator for the Veterans Administration.
“God sent him a roommate in heaven,” Harry Kinnan’s wife of 54 years, Sue Kinnan, said Wednesday.
Harry Kinnan earned an Army commission as a second lieutenant through ROTC at Stetson and served at Fort Hood, Texas, and in the Army Reserve, eventually being promoted to captain, Sue Kinnan said.
Before becoming basketball coach at MCC, Kinnan coached at Palmetto High School and Lake Worth High School.
“He always wanted what was best for the children and the teachers. Whatever they needed, he was always putting them first,” Sue Kinnan said of her husband’s time in the classroom and on the school board.
The tributes flow for Harry Kinnan
Reggie Bellamy, who now serves as a Manatee County commissioner, remembered Harry Kinnan this week.
“We took a loss, as far as a community legend,” Bellamy said.
Kinnan was Bellamy’s basketball coach in junior college.
“He gave me an opportunity to play basketball on a collegiate level. ”When I graduated, I called Coach Kinnan for a letter to work in Martin County Schools and he said ‘I refuse to do that,’ because he wanted me to come back and help my own community. He made a powerful statement when he said no. Sometimes no is not a bad thing, especially if you look back to 1999 and (compare it to) where Reggie Bellamy is today,” he said.
Rev. James Golden opened Tuesday’s Manatee School Board meeting with an invocation that reflected on the work of Kinnan and other former board members.
“We enjoy the success that we enjoy today because of the sacrifices that the Harry Kinnans of the school board made. I just think it’s a humbling moment to remind us that one day we, too, will not be numbered among those who sit on this platform,” Golden said.
Charlie Kennedy, chair of the school board, said that despite all of Harry Kinnan’s accomplishments, he was just an everyday great person.
“Every single time I would see Harry Kinnan, the first thing he would ask me is, ‘how is your dad?’ And that always touched me quite a bit. That’s what I will always remember about Harry Kinnan: just the goodness, and he was so family centered,” Kennedy said.
Mary Glass, executive director of the Manatee Education Foundation, a nonprofit which provides indirect support to the Manatee County School District through a variety of programs, said Kinnan’s active support of local schools did not end when he left the school board.
“He was so dedicated to the foundation. He was one of a kind, and one of the legends of the town,” Glass said.
Funeral service announced
Harry Kinnan is survived by his wife, Sue, a daughter, Courtney Cherry, two sons, Chris Kinnan and Patrick Kinnan, eight grandchildren, a sister, Anne Kinnan, and his brother, Joe Kinnan.
The funeral service at Trinity Methodist Church, 3200 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton, is set for Monday, Nov. 15. Visitation begins at 10 a.m., with the service following at 11 a.m., and a reception immediately afterwards. Interment will be for family only Tuesday, Nov. 16, at Sarasota National Cemetery.
Brown & Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Ryan Callihan , Giuseppe Sabella and Jason Dill assisted with this story.
