After serving in the United States Navy during World War II, Kearney attended Seattle Pacific University and attained his BA degree in history.

In the 1978–79 season at Michigan State University, his teams captured the Big Ten Conference titles in football, basketball and baseball—the so-called triple crown.

The 1978–79 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team, led by future NBA Hall of Fame forward Magic Johnson, defeated Indiana State (led by fellow future NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird) in the title game of the 1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament.

In other sports he worked with such outstanding coaches as Dick Erickson and Bob Ernst in crew, Earl Ellis in swimming, Dr. Eric Hughes in gymnastics, Ken Shannon in track and field, the legendary Danny Litwhiler in baseball, Joe Baum in soccer, and Amo Bessone and Ron Mason in ice hockey.

In 1991, Joe Kearney was nominated by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) to be its recipient of the Corbett Award, which is the highest honor in university sports administration.