Entering his 19th season as the coach of the Green Terror,Keating is the most successful coach in McDaniel’shistory.
The 23rd coach in the storied football tradition at McDaniel,Keating’s 108-75-3 mark at the College is 48 wins better thanthat of football legend and Hall of Fame Inductee Dick Harlow. Hepassed Harlow’s protege, Charlie Havens ’30, whofinished his career with 77 wins, in 2003. With more championshipsthan any coach in the College’s history, Keating has carvedhis place in one of small college football’s finesttraditions.
With a 14-10 home victory over Juniata in 2007, Keating usheredMcDaniel into the 500-win club, one of just 25 programs in DivisionIII history to achieve the feat. On Sept. 19, 2009, he recorded his100th win on the Green Terror sidelines with a 21-17 victory overCatholic.
Ninety-one of Keating’s 108 wins at McDaniel have comeover the past 13 seasons. The Green Terror ran off 33 straightconference wins en route to the handful of championships underKeating, who now has seven Centennial Conference crowns to hiscredit. He also led the squad to five straight appearances in theNCAA playoffs between 1997 and 2001 and saw his team invited toECAC postseason play in 2002 and 2004.
In 1997, Western Maryland leaped from 4-6 the prior year to amark of 10-1 and its first appearance in the NCAA tournament. Forhis efforts, Keating was named the Division III Coach of the Yearby American Football Quarterly magazine.
That was not the first time Keating had orchestrated theturnaround of a program. Taking over at Wesley in 1988, Keatinginherited a club with a two-year mark of 0-17, then steadilyimproved the program to a 9-2 powerhouse.
A native of Amherst, N.Y., Keating played football at BethanyCollege (W. Va.), where he picked up his 100th career win as a headcoach in 2002. He graduated in 1975 with a degree incommunications.
Keating broke into the collegiate coaching ranks with a pair oftwo-year stints as an assistant at Georgetown (1978-79) and DePauw(1980-81). Keating followed DePauw coach Jerry Berndt to theUniversity of Pennsylvania (1982-85), where he helped construct adynasty that dominated the Ivy League. He then moved to RiceUniversity for the 1986 and 1987 seasons.
Now firmly entrenched in the longest coaching stint in hiscareer, Keating has become a bit of a local celebrity inWestminster. Proof of that fact can be found on the menu atHarry’s Main Street Grill, which now features a “CoachKeating”-sized chili.
Keating resides in Westminster with his wife Claudia. TheCollege has become a home away from home for the Keatings. Claudiareceived her master’s degree here in 2001. Keating’sson, Matt, was a four-year attackman on the Green Terror lacrosseteam while his daughter, Hillary, also earned her bachelors fromMcDaniel in 2009.
