March 2026 Athlete of the Month
By Del Moon, NSGA Storyteller
Kinney Baughman, 72
Vilas, North Carolina
Basketball
Photo courtesy Kinney Baughman.
Some people stand out in a room. In the midst of the boisterous action and noise of men’s Basketball at the 2025 National Senior Games presented by Humana, Kinney Baughman quietly drew our attention as he stood courtside. While Kinney is tall, it was his Einstein-esque hairdo, piercing eyes and beaming smile that struck us.
The kicker was glancing down to see that he was barefoot. Does he really play basketball barefoot?
“No, I just don’t like to wear shoes between games because I want my feet to dry out,” he replies with a laugh. “But yeah, I’m an old country boy from South Carolina. I grew up going barefoot and have always had a barefoot running style.”
Kinney reveals he’s a lifelong athlete. He enjoys running, but his main sport is basketball. He was the first from his small high school to obtain an athletic scholarship (to Appalachian State University) and went on to compete professionally in Europe for one year as a young adult.
Decades later, he found Senior Games and opened a new chapter that includes returning to international basketball competition as a masters athlete.
“I just never saw this coming,” he says. “If you told me that I’d still be playing competitive basketball on the level that I’m playing at 72 years old, I’d have said you’re out of your mind. All of a sudden, I find myself with this organization and making friends. It’s been great.”
Kinney, #8, competing with the Land of Waterfalls team at the 2025 National Senior Games presented by Humana.
A Brush with Greatness, and the Country Boy Goes to Belgium
One college highlight was playing for Press Maravich, father of the legendary “Pistol Pete” Maravich, when the coach came to Appalachian State University from LSU.
“I idolized Pete because we’re about the same body type. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world that I was going to be playing for Press Maravich,” he recalls.
It did not turn out quite as he hoped at first. “I was recruited by the former coach, and I rode the bench most of that senior year,” he laments. But when his team was taking a beating by the Citadel later in the season, Maravich threw Kinney into the game in exasperation. He did not disappoint and played a significant role for the rest of the season. He even asked Kinney to join a team he was going to coach in Sweden after he graduated, but at the time, it didn’t work out.
After earning his philosophy degree, Kinney built log cabins and helped a close friend restore the Profile Trail on nearby Grandfather Mountain while waiting for his next inspiration. But the seed was planted, and three years later, Kinney was invited to play roundball for a pro team in Belgium – a life-altering experience.
“The year in Belgium was the best year of my life in so many ways – the culture, the language, the people, and the best beer in the world! For a redneck boy from Wagener, South Carolina, to go over there and have those experiences was just unreal.”
Kinney then obtained a teaching fellowship on his way to a masters degree from the University of Georgia, where he played intramural basketball to feed his sports fix. Kinney returned to North Carolina after earning his degree and eventually launched a 30-year career as a professor of philosophy and interdisciplinary studies at Appalachian State. He then transitioned to a technology career in Internet programming and computer support.
But he is better known as a pioneer in the craft beer brewing revolution of the ‘80s, and his journey to Belgium helped inspire him to try home brewing.
Kinney earned the nickname “Bubbleman” for delighting attendees at local festivals with giant bubbles. Photo courtesy Kinney Baughman.
“Bubbleman” Slam Dunks as a Brewmaster
“I ordered a beer-making kit from an ad in Mother Earth News and brewed my first batch of beer in 1980,” he says. “I wondered if you can make a beer as good as Budweiser at home. My beer came out really good, and I thought, ‘The hell with Bud – this is my ticket back to Belgium!’”
He did not return to Belgium, but his beer prowess led him to become brewmaster at the second craft brewery in North Carolina. Being a self-described gadgeteer, Kinney also invented an upside-down fermentation system and traveled around the country selling it. He then became an award-winning head craft brewer at the Tumbleweed Grille in Boone.
Kinney has also become known in the region as “Bubbleman” because he often brings a bubble gun to events like the High Country Beer Festival and whimsically blows bubbles for everyone.
Discovering A New Basketball Chapter Through Senior Games
The next turn in Kinney’s storied life came when he learned about the North Carolina Senior Games in 2007. After years of playing pickup games with other faculty, he was amazed he was on a team again, enjoying local and state competitions and winning medals.
Since playing in his first National Senior Games in 2015, Kinney’s teams have won two silver medals, so earning gold is high on his bucket list for Tulsa in 2027. “I want that so bad I can taste it!”
Kinney and teammates at the 2022 National Senior Games presented by Humana. Photo courtesy Kinney Baughman.
Injuries have almost convinced Kinney to quit at times, but the rewards have been worth it. “I didn’t realize how much being on a basketball team was in my DNA. There’s just a brotherhood there that’s unmatched,” he asserts.
Kinney is also stunned that his journey has led him back to playing basketball in Europe. At Nationals in 2022, Darrell Cavanaugh, the captain of the Capo Classics team Kinney played against, urged him to join his Team USA in the FIMBA championship series, informally called “The World Cup,” which draws from 250,000 masters players around the world. He will travel to Portugal this summer for his third international masters event.
Team USA and Team Italy at an international masters basketball competition. Photo courtesy Kinney Baughman.
In recent years, Kinney was invited to join the North Carolina Senior Games Board of Directors, which he humbly accepted. “I was an ambassador for the local and state games already, and I’m kind of a big personality, so they knew they could count on me for a good media quote,” he says.
“Being asked to serve on this board was one of the greatest honors of my life,” he continues. “I love Senior Games, and I love all those people. And I’m lucky North Carolina has one of the strongest programs in the country.”
