Washington State University Athletics

Nicknamed the “Jolly Green Giant” because of his personality and stature, Jim McKean was a three-time all-conference honoree under legendary coach Marv Harshman during his WSU basketball career from 1965-68. Over his three-year varsity career, McKean set Cougar career records for scoring, rebounding, scoring average, rebounding average,  along with single-season scoring average and single-game rebounding records. The Seattle native became the first sophomore to lead the conference in rebounding with 275 boards in 1966 and became the first Cougar to be invited to participate in the USA Olympic Team tryouts in 1968. In 2013, McKean became WSU’s 12th inductee in the Pac-12 Hall of Honor. An English major, McKean went on to receive his master’s in English and write nonfiction and poetry. His first book of poems, Headlong, won the Great Lakes Colleges New Writer Award in Poetry, and his second, Tree of Heaven, won an Iowa Poetry Prize. His memoir, Home Stand, was published by Michigan State University Press in 2005.