Geno Ford
Birthdate: October 11, 1974
Birthplace: Dover, Ohio
High School: Cambridge (1993)
Colleges: Ohio University (1997)
Year Inducted: 2023
Geno Ford continues to give back to the game he loves and that led him to stardom as an undersized, scrappy high school player.
While playing for his father, legendary coach Gene Ford, at Cambridge High School in eastern Ohio, Geno totaled a staggering 2,680 career points. That number still ranks fourth in all-time Ohio scoring annals behind only Jon Diebler (3,208 points), Luke Kennard (2,977) and Jay Burson (2,958) – and ahead of the likes of LeBron James, Jerry Lucas and Bob Huggins. He ranks second in state history behind Kennard in free throws made in a season (288) and career (697).
In 1993, Ford won the coveted Ohio “Mr. Basketball” to cement his standing as one of the state’s true standouts.
A 5-8 guard, Ford went on to play collegiately at Ohio University and started 113 of 123 games for the Bobcats, leading the team in scoring as a junior and senior. From 1993-97 he produced 1,752 points for OU, averaged 14.2 ppg, and connected on 79.6 percent of his free-throw attempts and 36.8 percent on three-pointers. After one playing season with the Leicester Riders in the British Basketball League, he returned to the states to begin a distinguished coaching career that is still ongoing.
His coaching stops include stints as an assistant at his alma mater, Ohio University, as well as Kent State and Stony Brook. He also served as head coach at in-state schools Shawnee State, Muskingum and Kent State before logging four years as head coach at Bradley and five more at his current position running the program at Stony Brook. He was named Mid-American Coach of the Year while at Kent State in 2010 and 2011, both times as a result of the Golden Flashes winning the league championship. Following in his father’s footsteps, Ford sports an overall winning record and more than 200 victories as a head coach.
In 2004, Ford was named to the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Hall of Fame and was enshrined in the Ohio University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008. He enters the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame at age 48.
