Even though he was Mr. Basketball for the state of Michigan in his senior year of high school and a McDonald's All-American, Kenyon Murray was never the stereotypical jock.

For one thing, he didn't play the sport in his home town of Battle Creek until the eighth grade. His gym teacher suggested it because he was taller than the other kids.

"I wanted to play football," Murray says. "But my mom wouldn't let me."

He was a near straight-A student. And, for seven years took classical viola lessons and won state contests. At the University of Iowa, he majored in English.

Oh, and he also played basketball at Iowa. He was in every game (124) of his four-year career there from 1992 to 1996 and started in most of them from the time he was a freshman.

He ranks 16th on the school scoring list with 1,230 points. And he's one of only two Hawkeye players (along with Ryan Bowen) to collect more than 1,200 points, 500 rebounds and 200 steals.

Even in those days, though, Murray was looking beyond the basketball court. As a college sophomore, he was in the first group of counselors for an innovative leadership program for at-risk youth in Cedar Rapids.

"I've always been passionate about impacting young people," says Murray, 38, who lives in Cedar Rapids with his wife Michelle, 11-year-old twin sons Kris and Keegan and 6-year-old daughter McKenna.

"I've had a lot of great teachers and coaches in my life. I've seen how they can make a difference in kids' lives."

He's been a coach himself, from AAU to high school to junior college, and is now using that background to teach life skills.

A year ago, he founded the Legacy Basketball Academy. With programs in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area and the Des Moines area, the academy offers fundamental basketball skills instruction and fields competitive teams for boys and girls in elementary school through high school.

"We're not just about putting together elite tournament teams," says Murray, whose livelihood comes as a territory manager for a dental supplies firm. "We're teaching all skill levels. And it's about much more than basketball."

Participants in the program are required to take part in service projects which help pay for their fees. And they're expected to keep up with their school work.

"The kids may not know we're checking on them," says longtime Cedar Rapids volunteer youth coach Al O'Bannon, a Legacy coach and community liaison. "But we've got eyes in the back of our head."

A former Marine who started coaching at the Jane Boyd Community House more than 20 years ago, O'Bannon said he jumped at the chance to join Murray's program.

"Basketball is just the carrot," says O'Bannon, whose own 11-year-old son Collin is a budding player. "That's what draws them to us. It gives us the structure to build discipline, teamwork and character.

"We're interested in them as kids first. Basketball comes second or third or fourth in importance."

Murray says the model for the Legacy Academy is loosely based on an inner-city Detroit program called "The Family" which was highly successful when he was growing up.

"Our goal," he says, "is to not only to make kids better basketball players but to make them better people."

According to his longtime friend Betsy Altmaier, an education psychology professor at Iowa who's just completed a 10-year term as faculty athletics representative to the Big Ten Conference, "Kenyon sees the big picture. He looks at sports as an avenue to future success in life.

"He's achieved a lot. And he's very committed to helping other kids."

Altmaier, who serves as chair of Legacy's foundation board of directors, says she has no doubt that Murray's efforts will pay dividends.

"I've always been impressed with how hard Kenyon works at everything he does. He's like the Energizer Bunny. He's very creative, but he's realistic, too. And he's always extremely positive."

The two have worked together on various committees at the university, where Murray has remained active since his graduation in 1996. He played professional basketball overseas in China and Sweden for two years, then was an assistant coach at Indian Hills Community College for three years. He also coached the elite Martin Brothers AAU team in Waterloo.

"I've always had a passion for coaching," says Murray, who also does television commentary for high school, college and NBA developmental league basketball.

He became involved in youth basketball in Cedar Rapids when his own two boys started playing and served as freshman boys coach at Prairie from 2007 to 2009. For several years he's done individual basketball skills instruction, which last year led him to develop the full-fledged Legacy Academy.

"We don't intend to replace school programs," he says. "We want kids to play on their school teams. We hope to develop better players. And we want to get more parents involved in their kids' activities."

Mercedes Prince of Cedar Rapids has two sons in the Legacy program, 11-year-old Derrick and 14-year-old Donall. Besides going to all their games and most practices, she's also helped them out in service projects at Camp Courageous and in fundraising for the juvenile diabetes association.

She's seen a difference in her boys, both in their school work and in their more positive attitude. Accountability learned on the court has carried over into their social skills.

But, she says, "Derrick still needs work on his jump shot."

(Editor's note: For more information on the Legacy Basketball Academy, go to www.legacybball.com)