Synergy in Keegan Murray, Connor McCaffery Sharing Street Award

Strong Connections Prevail with Special Iowa Basketball Honor

Iowa's Keegan Murray waits to be introduced before a game against Penn State on Jan. 22, 2022 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

When Kenyon Murray was a freshman at Iowa in the fall of 1992, college was a whole new world.

Discouraged at times, with both basketball and academics, Murray’s head was spinning. That’s when a Hawkeye junior took Kenyon under his wing, showed him the ropes and told him everything was going to be alright.

That junior’s name was Chris Street. He encouraged Murray, who had come to Iowa as a top-flight recruit after winning Michigan’s Mr. Basketball award as a senior at Battle Creek Central. Chris would take Kenyon back to Indianola on weekends, where they’d hang out with the Street family.

Chris and Kenyon became very close, an unbreakable bond that remains connected even though Street, in the prime of his basketball life, died in an automobile accident on Jan. 19, 1993.

Fran McCaffery took the Iowa coaching job in March of 2010. He had seen Chris Street play, and remembers hearing about his death. McCaffery has also heard plenty of stories about Street from Hawkeye fans since he moved to Iowa. The McCafferys, have been up front in helping keeping Street’s legacy alive.

The Iowa program has done its part, too, presenting the Chris Street Award annually since 1993. It goes to “a Hawkeye player who best exemplifies the spirit, enthusiasm and intensity of Chris Street.”

Last Thursday, at the team’s annual award banquet, Keegan Murray and Connor McCaffery shared the award. So perfect.

Keegan, the fourth player in Iowa history to be named a consensus all-American, has a very bright basketball future. So did Street, before fate cut it short. And Connor McCaffery plays with the same kind of emotion that Street thrived on. An emotional edge Chris never tried to hide. Connor doesn’t, either.

Chris Street’s parents, Patty and Mike, were in attendance for the presentation of the award that touches their hearts on an annual basis.

“We were happy with the decision,” Mike said. “Of course, with Keegan there’s a connection (to the Street family). And then with the year he had, it was a no-brainer. Connor is the leader of the team, on and off the floor. And a coach on the floor, too. When his dad was reeling off what he was doing outside of basketball, and how he was engaged in different things around campus, I thought, “What a good choice.’ ”

It’s been quite a season for Kenyon and his wife, Michelle, watching Keegan burst on the national scene and be mentioned as a potential Top 10 NBA Draft pick. And there was also the emergence of Kris, Keegan’s twin, who was named after Chris Street.

So it’s safe to say Thursday was an emotional night for the Murray family. Especially when Keegan talked about Chris after accepting the award, and recalled playing in a basketball tournament named for him in his home town of Indianola.

“I was moved, not only by him winning the award, but how he so eloquently acknowledged what Chris meant to him, his memories of the CMS tournament, how his brother was named after Chris and how much he appreciates Mike and Patty,” Kenyon said.

Keegan also mentioned the poem, “Don’t Quit,” which appears with a picture of Street just outside the entrance to Iowa’s team locker room. Above the poem and picture is a sign that reads, “Forever 40.”

“Him quoting the picture of Chris as you walk into the locker room validated he knows what it means to put on the Hawkeye uniform,” Kenyon said.

The Streets have always considered Connor McCaffery to be the unsung hero of the Iowa teams he’s played on. Thursday night’s award reminded Mike of a story involving his son. When Chris was a freshman, assistant Coach Rich Walker once told the Streets, “Your son is sneaky good.”

When Patty went up to Connor to congratulate him for his award Thursday, she told him, “You’re sneaky good. Not everyone realizes everything you do.”

Connor told the audience Thursday that he would return to Iowa for one more season. He also tried to put the Street Award into perspective.

“He said it meant a lot to him,” Mike said. “He said it was probably the most important award he’s received. I thought that was really a neat statement.”

Connor is the program’s all-time leader in career assist-to-turnover ratio (3.47). He won the team’s Academic Excellence Award for a fifth consecutive year, is a four-time Academic all-American and will receive degrees in finance and political science next month. McCaffery and Murray also made the Academic all-Big Ten team.

Keegan joined Kevin Durant of Texas (2007) as the only players in Division I history to score 800 points, block 60 shots and make 60 3-pointers in the same season.

After Iowa won the Big Ten Tournament Championship in March, the Streets found the Murrays in the stands and congratulated them. Kenyon pulled out a couple of passes and took the Streets with them to celebrate with the players.

A few years before, the Streets attended senior night at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids when Keegan and Kris were honored before their last home game.

As they celebrated Iowa’s title in Indianapolis, Mike said to Keegan, “This is a little bit different than senior night, isn’t it?”

Keegan just smiled.