Bio

National champion NAIA head coach Happy Osborne joins the Tennessee Tech staff as associate head coach for the 2011-12 season. Osborne comes to Tech from Georgetown College in Georgetown, Ky., where he posted a 456-84 career record and led the Tigers to the 1998 national championship. At Tech, he will be involved in recruiting, coaching, developing players and cultivating and maintaining relationships in the community.

Golden Eagle head coach Steve Payne served as an assistant on Osborne's staff at Georgetown from 1996-2000, where the two became close friends. In the four years the pair coached together, Georgetown won 26, 37, 30 and 35 game for a total of 123 wins in four years. They played in two national championship games, winning one.

A native of Lynch, Ky., Osborne began his tenure at Georgetown as an assistant coach in 1980, serving for 14 years before being promoted to the head position in 1996. In his 15 years as head coach, Osborne has been named the Mid-South Conference Coach of the Year six times, won nine of the last 12 MSC titles, and posted at least 25 wins each season. He holds the distinction of being the fastest coach at any college basketball level to post 100 career wins. He holds the same distinction among coaches who have won 400 games.

Due in large part to his leadership, Georgetown is the all-time winningest men's basketball program in NAIA and has made a record 20 consecutive NAIA Tournament appearances. More than 40 Georgetown players have gone on to professional careers overseas, many of whom played under Osborne.

Most recently, Osborne led the Tigers to a 32-5 record and the Fab Four, the NAIA national semifinals, in 2010-11.

He played high school basketball at Lynch High School, where his father was the school superintendent before going on to serve as a student assistant at both Pikeville College and Morehead State.

He is married to Bobbi Osborne and the couple has one daughter.