Spec Keene

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Roy Servais "Spec" Keene (July 1, 1894 – August 24, 1977) was a prominent American coach and administrator who shaped athletics at Willamette University and Oregon State University.

Early life and playing career
Keene was born in Hopewell, Oregon. He attended Oregon State University, where he pitched for the baseball team and served as captain in his junior year. He graduated in 1921.

Willamette years
Keene joined Willamette University’s athletic department, where he coached football for about 17 years, basketball for about 11 years, and baseball for about 16 years. His teams won a total of 19 Northwest Conference championships. In the 1929–30 academic year, his football, basketball, and baseball teams all won or shared conference titles, with undefeated records in that stretch. He is often called the “father of Willamette athletics” and was a charter member of Willamette’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991.

Pearl Harbor and the Willamette team
On December 6, 1941, Keene’s Willamette football team played in Honolulu, losing to Hawaii 20–6. The next day, the attack on Pearl Harbor changed their plans. The players helped defend Waikiki Beach, and Keene, with future Oregon governor Douglas McKay, helped arrange a way home for the team aboard the SS President Coolidge. They reached San Francisco on Christmas Day. In 1997, the entire team was inducted into Willamette’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

Oregon State athletic director
In 1947 Keene returned to Oregon State University as athletic director, a position he held for 26 years—the longest tenure in OSU history. He oversaw the construction of Gill Coliseum (1949) and Parker Stadium (1953). He also served as president of the Pacific Coast Conference Athletics Directors Association and sat on the NCAA executive committee.

Honors and legacy
Willamette University later named a new baseball stadium Roy S. "Spec" Keene Stadium in 1989. Keene was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1982 and the OSU Sports Hall of Fame in 1991 for his contributions to coaching and athletic administration. He died in Corvallis, Oregon, in 1977 at the age of 83.