Former Kentucky player, Colorado coaching legend Ceal Barry retiring

Former University of Kentucky player Ceal Barry, a longtime Colorado women’s basketball coach-turned-administrator, will retire in July after spending 37 years in Boulder, the school said Tuesday.

Barry, a Louisville native who was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018, helped put the Buffaloes on the women’s basketball map after taking over the program on April 12, 1983. She went 427-242 over 22 seasons in Boulder that included 12 appearances in the NCAA Tournament. Her squads had 13 20-win seasons and captured four conference titles. She stepped down April 2005 as Colorado’s winningest coach in all sports.

Her next career path: Administration.

Barry was named the school’s associate athletics director for student services. She added the title of senior woman’s administrator a year later. Barry has served as the department’s deputy athletics director since August 2018.

“It’s the right time. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time in intercollegiate athletics, and I couldn’t have picked a better place than the University of Colorado to spend the vast majority of my career,” Barry said. “It was a perfect fit — CU, Boulder, Colorado. Not everybody gets to stay at the same place for 37 years.”

The school said Barry retires as the fifth-longest tenured employee in Colorado athletics department history.

“I can’t express what Ceal has meant to this University, department and to me personally,” Athletics Director Rick George said. “Ceal has represented all of us in such a dignified way throughout her career. She has accomplished more than most as both a coach and then as an administrator and has had a career that will leave its mark on CU for years to come.

“She will be greatly missed but she will always have a home in our athletic department.”

Barry, who graduated from Assumption High School in 1973, was the first woman to receive a basketball scholarship at the University of Kentucky and was a four-year letter winner, playing three seasons under Sue Feamster and one for Debbie Yow.

She was then hired as an assistant coach at Cincinnati. At 24, she was named the head coach of the Bearcats, where she spent four seasons.

Her career coaching record was 510-284.

Ahead of her Hall of Fame induction in 2018, Barry told the Herald-Leader: “It’s been such a great ride. I’ve had a really long and really fulfilling career in basketball and this is such an honor. Anytime you’re recognized nationally by your peers it’s incredibly humbling.”

Barry remained involved in basketball after her coaching career. She worked as an analyst for men’s and women’s games along with being a member of the NCAA’s Division I Women’s Championship Committee for the last three years.

This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 5:51 PM.