BIG ORANGE TIPOFF CLUB

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Contact: Mark Hancock, Media & Public Relations, Phone (865) 522-8547,
or Hilary Phillips, E-Mail: tipoff@utfan.com

TOMORROW IS DEADLINE TO SIGN UP FOR BIG ORANGE TIPOFF BUS TRIP TO U.T.-GEORGIA MEN’S GAME IN ATHENS ON SATURDAY, MARCH 3^RD!

The Big Orange Tipoff Club is proud to have completed its second successive successful season of weekly meetings for the year. We appreciate all of your loyal support, encouragement, and publicity, and look forward to making next season even better.

BUS TRIP TO GEORGIA MEN’S GAME IN ATHENS: The Club is sponsoring a bus trip to the Georgia men’s basketball game in Athens, on Saturday, March 3. Coach Bruce Pearl has encouraged all Vol fans to go on the road to support the team as they attempt to sweep the Bulldogs this season. Everyone who went on the trip to South Carolina had a wonderful time. We have arranged through our corporate sponsor, Premier Transportation, for nonstop luxury motorcoach roundtrip transportation, meals and entertainment en route, and tickets to the games, all for only $99 per person. This is a day-only trip that leaves Knoxville mid-morning before the game and returns immediately after the game.

For those who are interested in going to Georgia, tomorrow is the deadline for signing up, and we will take your check or credit card number to secure your place. We would also encourage you to download the form from the link on the main page of our website, www.utfan.com/tipoff and to email Hilary Phillips at tipoff@utfan.com immediately or call Lloyd Richardson at 588-5433 or fax him at 588-2083 if you have an interest in making this weekend’s Georgia trip, so that we can secure enough game tickets for everyone.

BIG ORANGE TIPOFF CLUB PHOTO GALLERY: We have been working on getting our photo gallery online. We have all of the archives up now from last season and some of the highlights from this season, too, courtesy of our website host, Carl "Meathead" Swanson, of utfan.com. Most of the photos from last season are courtesy of Big Orange Tipoff Club Charter Member Jerry Upchurch. You can download any of them that you want from the following link:

http://www.utfan.com/volgallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3118

You can also access the “Club Photo Albums” Gallery from our main website, www.utfan.com/tipoff , as there is now a featured link to it from the main home page. We are working with Megan Ellis to get all of the photos from this season online, too, as well as with both Jerry and Megan to get all of our photos from bus trips to the away games online. We hope you enjoy this pictorial record of our club’s activities. Please feel free to use the photos to accompany any media coverage about our club. We will have all of them captioned soon, so please keep checking back for identification of those pictured in the photos.

THIS WEEK’S VOL & LADY VOL BASKETBALL CALENDAR: The men are playing their last regular season game in Athens this weekend, a game which may decide whether they are invited to the NCAA Tournament. The women will be playing in the SEC Tournament, which for the first time will be played in Duluth, Georgia, only 50 miles away from Athens, northeast of Atlanta, in the same suburb where former UT star Bernard King resides.

OFFICIAL BIG ORANGE TIPOFF PHOTOS: Many of you may not be aware that we now have an official Big Orange Tipoff Club photographer, Megan Ellis. You may have seen her roaming around our big meeting room taking pictures before, during, and after our meetings. To view and purchase pictures from any of our Big Orange Tipoff Club meetings this season, please go to www.meganellisphotography.com and click on the “TN LOGIN” page. The password is simply “tipoff”. You can also e-mail Megan with any questions you may have at megan@meganellisphotography.com .

2008 CLUB MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION AVAILABLE ON WEBSITE: The club is soliciting individual members for next season at only $75 and discounted senior citizen memberships at only $60. Spouses of members are free, making this an excellent deal. In addition, corporate memberships, which include up to 5 members of a firm, are being offered at only $250.

Annual membership applications are also available by calling Club President Lloyd Richardson at (865) 588-5433, by faxing a request to (865) 588-2083, by e-mailing us at tipoff@utfan.com , or by visiting the website at www.utfan.com/tipoff . A membership application for downloading with the Big Orange Tipoff Club logo on it is available on the website.

All former UT men’s and women’s basketball lettermen, former UT Orange Tie Club members, Knoxville Quarterback Club members, VASF donors, Boost-Her Club members, UT students, UT alumni and friends, as well as the general public, are invited to attend and join as well. Legendary former UT Head Basketball Coach Ray Mears is an Honorary Member. Many members of the UT athletics administration, coaches, etc., are in attendance regularly.

MEDIA INFORMATION: All media are invited to attend all of our meetings. Each of our meetings so far has been covered extensively by print and broadcast media, including TV stations and several newspapers. Local talk show hosts have live remote radio broadcasts for some meetings.

All media are also invited to call J. Mark Hancock at (865) 522-8547 or e-mail Hilary Phillips at tipoff@utfan.com to schedule radio, television, and newspaper interviews with various Big Orange Tipoff Club steering committee members, including Charles W. Morgan, Barry J. Smith, Michael J. Turner, Christy Gentry, J. Mark Hancock, and Club Historian R. Larry Smith regarding the club, its promotion of UT basketball, its purposes, its sponsoring of awards and contributions to scholarships, and its charitable endeavors in supporting college and amateur athletics in East Tennessee. Steering committee members have been making radio and television appearances and doing newspaper interviews regularly, and are available for speaking engagements to any groups.

OFFICIAL MERCHANDISE: The Big Orange Tipoff Club is offering special merchandise for sale with the distinctive club logo on it, including T-shirts and caps, each for the low price of only $10. Only a limited number of each is available, and they are quickly becoming collectors’ items.

NEXT YEAR’S SPEAKERS AND FEEDBACK: We invite you to send us email suggestions on future speakers and to make other comments through our feedback form that you can download from the main page of our website and return to us. We are always interested in getting suggestions from anyone to improve our meetings.

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