Kevin Cadle

Kevin Cadle was born and raised in Buffalo, NY, and would go on to become one of the most decorated basketball coaches of all-time in England and Scotland.

As a high school senior at Father Baker Victory High School in 1973, Cadle made first team All-WNY in basketball and received the Alpha Kappa Alpha award as the top Black Scholar Athlete in Western New York. He also won the Biggy Martin Award for the most outstanding high school player in Western New York — a remarkable achievement for a Black player at the time. He was offered a basketball scholarship to Penn State University.

In 1983, he became Head Coach of Falkirk in the professional basketball league in Scotland and, shortly after, was named Head Coach of the Scotland National team. In 1990, he led the Kingston Kings to the quarterfinals of the European Champions League – the first British team in history to do so. He repeated this feat in 1993. In 1991, Cadle was named the Team Coach of England’s National Basketball Team. A year later, he became coach of the Great Britain Olympic Basketball Team. He made history as the only person in any British sport to be named Head Coach of the Scottish National Team, the English National team and the Great Britain Olympic team.

In his time leading the Glasgow Rangers, Kingston Kings, Guildford Kings and London Towers, he was recognized as Coach of the Year in England or Scotland nine times and collected 17 British Basketball League trophies. He is in the Guinness Book of Records where he is listed for coaching the “Most successful team ever in British sports in 1989-90.”

After his coaching career, Kevin Cadle worked tirelessly to promote American sports in the United Kingdom, working as an NBA and NFL analyst and host for SkySports.

Kevin Cadle was also a successful motivational speaker and the author of The Cadle Will Rock, an autobiography charting his remarkable career. He passed away unexpectedly on October 16, 2017 at the age of 62.

Since his untimely passing, Cadle has received numerous posthumous honors including recognition from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and the establishment of the British Basketball League’s Molten Kevin Cadle Coach of the Month Award. On March 17, 2024, he became the first coach inducted into the British Basketball League’s Hall of Fame.