Dan McKiernan was making the rounds, as he'd done before and would do again. It was just before Christmas and the coach was handing out basketballs to some of the kids in Colorado Springs who wouldn't get much else.

At one house, it wasn't an up-and-coming star he surprised with a gift. It was a child who needed a reason to smile after having part of a leg amputated.

"We had driven to places in town I didn't know existed," said Stacy Bush, the third oldest of McKiernan's five children. "A little boy hobbled out with a crutch and half his leg missing. When he got that basketball, he was so happy."

That was three decades ago, but McKiernan - Doherty's coach the past four seasons - remembers it like yesterday. For 37 years, he's been promoting the game he loves to people of all ages and races in the Springs.

McKiernan's influence is widespread. More than two dozen former players or assistants have branched out into a large "coaching grapevine" for the 67-year-old whose wisdom and passion for the game has yet to wane. Of those, 16 remain in the coaching ranks in the area or around the country.

McKiernan, who coached at Palmer for 30 seasons, started annual basketball camps at the school and had 300 kids attending - all of them getting a basketball to keep - with his players helping as counselors. His presence helped change Palmer's reputation, which had slipped from its better days.

"He's been a pioneer around here, the standard of excellence for coaches," said Rampart coach J'on St. Clair, his son-in-law. "He's done an incredible job meshing personalities and backgrounds. Kids really believe in him."

Admiration oozed from the voice of Wasson coach Damion Copeland, a player and assistant for McKiernan, who used to put nets on rims in the parks in Palmer's neighborhoods.

"The respect he had in the community was always amazing to me," Copeland said. "He was respected for reaching out to every part of the community."

McKiernan had players live at his house, found them coats and shoes, gave them rides home from practice and even bailed at least one former player out of jail.

"Everything he did was directed toward the kids' welfare," St. Mary's coach Mike Burkett said. The former McKiernan assistant's son, Kyle, played on Palmer's 2000 championship team. "He wanted every kid to feel good about himself."

That attitude, that behavior, that passion for the game rubbed off.

"He had a major influence on me becoming a coach," Copeland said. "I'm trying to get where he's been."

McKiernan is not in the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame. The court at Palmer - where he won two state championships - is not named for him.

Both oversights could be rectified and should be, say many of his admirers.

But that's not why McKiernan began coaching in 1963 in Alva, Okla. It's not why he moved to Liberal, Kan.; Boise City, Okla.; Fort Morgan; and Frederick, Okla., before returning to his hometown in 1972 to take over at Palmer.

"I saw other coaches just putting in time and getting paychecks," his son, Pat, now an assistant at Rampart, said. "But he cares so much about kids and basketball; that's what drew me to be a coach."

Bush, who coached the Falcon girls for seven years, is an assistant principal at Cheyenne Mountain. McKiernan remembers telling her to dribble between chairs set up in the driveway before she could come to dinner.

"He not only teaches basketball skills and fundamentals," Bush said, "but he helps to grow young men. That's why so many want to emulate him."

The 6-foot-6 McKiernan was a self-described "average" player at St. Mary's. He played two seasons at Northeast Community College in Sterling - meeting Flo, his wife of 46 years, there - and two years at Northwest Oklahoma in Alva.

He coached Palmer to state titles in 1993 and 2000, moved to Rampart in 2003-04 for two seasons and then went to Doherty.

McKiernan wants to reach 600 career wins. He is 578-343 entering the Class 5A state playoffs, which begin Thursday.

Through it all, his manner has changed dramatically.

"He went from a Bobby Knight-explosive kind of personality to a lot more mellow," Bush said.

Cameron Long, 29, who played at Palmer, coaches girls in Nampa, Idaho, and calls McKiernan at least once a month.

"He fed my love for coaching," Long said. "He has such a love for it, and it's not something you can fake.

"He always said, ‘Don't try to be me or somebody else. You've got to be yourself as a coach.' But he's got a wealth of experience and whenever I'm in a tough spot, I don't hesitate to call him and ask what he thinks."

McKiernan counsels his disciples on how to handle kids, parents and administrators, how to beat zones, full-court presses and late-game situations, plus unexpected life problems.

Burkett is one of many believers who uses McKiernan's trademark 1-3-1 zone defense while Chris Earls, the Mitchell girls' coach and a former assistant, said he has borrowed mostly philosophical ideas.

"He's helped me be successful," said Earls, whose son, DeLovell, attends McKiernan's camps. "I love picking Dan's brain."

McKiernan has been called an icon, father figure, mentor and friend. But almost everyone calls him coach.