Eastern Kentucky University Athletics

Draud played baseball for four seasons at EKU from 1957-60 for coach Turkey Hughes, where he was the starting catcher on back-to-back OVC championship teams in 1959 and 1960. He is still listed in the EKU baseball record with his .473 batting average he attained in 1958, a record which is only two percentage points away from the all-time EKU single season batting mark.  He ended his playing career by serving as co-captain of the 1960 Maroons, a season that saw him named to an All-OVC team. Upon graduation from Eastern in 1960, he served as a teacher in the Covington School District. In 1961, he returned to EKU as a graduate assistant coach for the Maroons’ baseball team and helped lead Eastern to the 1962 OVC championship.  He then returned to the Covington School District where he taught and coached the Covington Holmes High School baseball team to the 1963 Kentucky state high school baseball championship. He served as the Superintendent of the Ludlow School District from 1978-1997 and received the Paul Mason Legislative Advocate for Children Award from the Kentucky PTA in recognition for his ardent support for the Commonwealth’s children during his time as a legislator for the Kentucky General Assembly.  He was a Kentucky state legislator from 1998-2008 and then served as the Commissioner of Education for Kentucky from 2008-2010.  He has received numerous awards in the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati area and has had buildings in Edgewood and Ludlow named in his honor.  He was chosen as EKU’s Most Outstanding Alumnus in 2000 and delivered the Commencement address at EKU in the spring of 2009.