Southeastern honored one of its own by dedicating a part of Western Avenue to the legendary Edward L. “Ned” McGehee, III.

The dedication, happened on April 19, 2012 at 2 p.m., hosted a number of faculty and staff members as well as members of the McGehee family, who all came to honor the late Ned McGehee.

“I’d like students, when they see that sign, to realize that they can do anything they want to do,” said Gurley McGehee Maurin, McGehee’s daughter. “They’ve got the strength to do it and they need to get their act together and really go after whatever their desires are.”

The ceremony began with an introduction from the Vice President of Univeristy Advancement Wendy Lauderdale followed by opening remarks from Southeastern President John L. Crain. Emeritus Professor of History C. Howard Nichols treated the audience to a history of the life of McGehee. Maurin followed by introducing her family to the crowd. Finally, Mayor Mayson Foster declared the day to be “Ned” McGehee day and the street sign was unveiled by the family.

McGehee was the nephew of Dr. Lucius McGehee and a native of Hammond. He joined the Southeastern staff in 1934 as athletic trainer and assistant head football coach. He was named head football coach in 1946 and led the team to an undefeated season. In 1951, McGehee became athletic director where he served until 1971. While at Southeastern, McGehee coached football, baseball, basketball, track, tennis and golf. Additionally, he was an active member of the Hammond community, forming Hammond’s first teams in youth baseball.

“We had many of the young men in Hammond who might have been called high risk today. He would pick them up and put them on his baseball team,” said Maurin. “I had one call me the other night and said that daddy had saved him. There’s lots of kids who have a life today because he took a special interest in them.”

According to Crain, the distribution of the donation had not been decided.

“The concept behind the gift is to help support the university’s efforts for our students,” said Crain. “Some of the money may eventually go to scholarships or it may go to programming, but it will all, in one way or another, benefit our students.”