Background
McLearn was born in Montrose, Iowa, to Editor and Mary Cale McLearn.
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Bud McLearn
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Education
He graduated from Montrose High School in 1951, where he was senior class president, and then from Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant in 1955, with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Career
Most notably the head coach for the Bullettes of Mediapolis High School (Mediapolis, Iowa) girls six-on-six basketball team from 1959 to 1987. He served two years in the United States Army and did graduate study work at Western Illinois University in 1957. He began coaching in 1957 at Oakville High School (Oakville, Iowa) and after two seasons became the head coach at Mediapolis High School (1959-1960 season).
In 28 seasons he had a career coaching record of 706 wins and 80 loses (an 898 winning percentage).
During his 26 year tenure at Mediapolis the girls team went 333-8 (976 percent) on their home court. This run included consecutive home winning streaks of 97, 84, and 66 games.
He retired in 1987 with the fourth best record in Iowa state basketball history. McLearn and Mediapolis lost to Van Horne High School, 62-59, in the 1962 state tournament final (Van Horne"s Mickey Schallau scored 37 of the teams 62 points).
McLearn was inducted into the Iowa Girls Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1988, and after dying of cancer in 1999, was posthumously inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2000.
The high school gymnasium at Mediapolis was named McLearn Court in his honor in 2001. He is buried at the Montrose Cemetery, a block away from his childhood home.
