Campbell University

Belmont Abbey mourns the loss of Michael Reidy

One of the Fighting Camels’ all-time basketball greats, Mike Reidy, was inducted into the Campbell Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 1, 1988.
 
A native of Bronx, N.Y., Reidy was a prep basketball standout at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Md., where he played under legendary Coach Morgan Wootten. 
 
During his four seasons at Campbell, Reidy helped the Camels make a smooth transition from junior college to senior college competition.  He served as team captain his final three seasons, and amassed 1,610 points, a mark that still stands sixth on the Camel record books nearly 60 years after he graduated, in his 97-game career.
 
While at Campbell, he met his wife of 50 years, Bonnie.  After graduating with a B.S. in health education, Reidy earned a master’s degree from Appalachian State in 1969 and a doctorate in education administration from Northwestern (La.) State in 1978.
 
He joined the Belmont Abbey College faculty in 1969 and was named “Teacher of the Year’ in 1984.  He served as department chair of the sports management and recreational studies program. 
 
Reidy coached the Belmont Abbey men’s tennis team for 31 years.  He led his teams to six conference titles and seven national tournament appearances, including an NCAA Division II Sweet 16 appearance in 2001. He earned conference Coach of the Year four times on the men's side, including in 1999, when he was in the middle of his tenure leading the women's program. That same year, the Crusaders captured the Carolina-Virginia Athletics Conference women's tennis championship. 
 
He also coached basketball and swimming and coordinating intramural sports before becoming athletic director in his four-decade career at the school.
 
Inducted into the Belmont Abbey Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Gaston County Hall of Fame in 2019, Reidy passed away Oct. 9, 2020.