e-Newsletter, Fall 2011

Kentucky Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame Selects WKU’s Fred Carter

Western Kentucky University's Director of Teacher Services and School Relations, Dr. Fred P. Carter, was recently inducted into the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. The ceremony occurred between games of the Girls' Sweet Sixteen Basketball Tournament on Friday, March 11, 2011, in EA Diddle Arena.

Carter was also selected to coach the West team in the Kentucky East/West All Star basketball game held on Saturday, March 12, 2011. Carter was hired as an English teacher and head girls' basketball coach at Warren East High School in Bowling Green in the fall of 1975. Over the next 14 years, his teams averaged 22 wins per year while qualifying for regional tournament play 10 of the 14 years. Carter led the Lady Raiders to back-to-back Sweet Sixteen trips in 1981 and 1982. When he retired from coaching basketball in 1989, Fred Carter was the fifth winningest coach in Kentucky girls' basketball history with a record of 306 wins and 97 losses. He was also selected twice as the Bowling Green/Warren County Outstanding Young Educator during this same time frame.

During his 34-year career in public education, Carter served in a variety of positions. He was a high school assistant principal, a high school principal, a district instructional supervisor and a school superintendent. Following his retirement, Dr. Carter was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of Education for the State of Kentucky. Since July of 2008, Carter has been employed at Western Kentucky University in the position of Director of Teacher Services and School Relations. Fred Carter's reaction upon being inducted into the Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame was summed up in the following quotes. "I am extremely honored to be inducted into the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. I have been blessed to coach some very talented athletes." Carter also stated, "I am honored to have been called Coach, and I have made some great friends who will remain so for a lifetime. Most of all, I have had a small part in shaping the lives of some wonderful young people who have truly taught me more than I ever taught them."

Dr. Carter and his wife Lucretia live with their two sons, Benjamin and Luke, on a farm in Oakland, KY, where they breed, raise and sell registered Tennessee Walking Horses.