BIG ORANGE TIPOFF CLUB

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, January 19, 2007
Contact: Mark Hancock, Media & Public Relations, Phone (865) 522-8547, or Hilary Phillips, E-Mail: tipoff@utfan.com

FORMER GEORGIA COACH HUGH DURHAM TO BE BIG ORANGE TIPOFF CLUB SPEAKER TUESDAY, JANUARY 23RD

The Big Orange Tipoff Club is proud to announce its next scheduled meeting this coming Tuesday, January 23, at 11:00 a.m., at Calhoun’s on the River in Downtown Knoxville, where a buffet luncheon will be served for only $12.50 for members and $15 for guests, including a variety of entrees and side dishes, drink, dessert, etc. Hugh Durham, former head basketball coach at the University of Georgia, will be the featured speaker.

Due to the overwhelming demand for parking at Calhoun’s, please plan to arrive as early as possible for this meeting. Calhoun’s will open the buffet line at 11:00 a.m. to accommodate what is expected to be another overflow standing-room-only crowd to hear Hugh, who is always an entertaining speaker, and who has just had a major national basketball coaches award named for him.

THIS WEEK’S VOL & LADY VOL BASKETBALL CALENDAR: UT Men’s Head Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl is also expected to be in attendance to say a few words about his team’s upcoming road trips to Ole Miss on Wednesday and Kentucky a week from Sunday, as well as review the big home game this Saturday night against South Carolina. The Lady Vols will just have had their big nationally televised “Big Monday” TV game with Duke on ESPN2, and will be preparing for their annual road trip to Vanderbilt on Thursday night in Nashville.
The fact that UT’s men’s basketball team is drawing capacity crowds and is ranked in the Top 25 in the polls and in the RPI, and that the Lady Vols are ranked in the Top 5 nationally, too, will drive attendance upward for this meeting. UT Men’s Athletics Director Mike Hamilton is also expected to be on hand.

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. If you would like Megan to take some photos of you, the people at your table, your guests, etc., please don’t hesitate to flag her down when you see her and her camera, as she will be most happy to do so for you. To view and purchase pictures from last week’s Big Orange Tipoff Club meeting and those for future meetings from her, please go to http://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 .

THIS WEEK’S SPEAKER: Hugh Durham is one of the winningest coaches in college basketball history. In eight seasons as the head coach at Jacksonville University, Durham became the Dolphins’ all-time winningest Division I coach (106 wins), making him the only coach in NCAA history to be the winningest coach (pct. or wins) at three different Division I schools. He had the longest tenure (8 seasons) of any coach in the 56-year history of Jacksonville University basketball. He built national programs at Florida State – where he holds the record for best winning percentage with a 230-95 (.708) record in 12 years – and at Georgia – where he is also the all-time winningest coach in the 99-year history of the Bulldog program, having won 297 games in 17 seasons.

Durham’s career reached new heights in 2003 when he became the 32nd coach all-time to win 600 career games and just the 17th D-I coach to eclipse 1,000 career games. CollegeInsider.com, which has championed the idea of recognition for mid-major programs, recently announced the creation of the “Hugh Durham Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award,” which is given annually at the NCAA Final Four.

Durham ranked 8th among active Division I coaches with 633 career wins and is the 25th winningest Division I coach in the history of college basketball. He is one of just 12 coaches to have led two different teams to the NCAA Final Four (Florida State, 1972 & Georgia, 1983). However, Durham is the only coach to lead BOTH teams to their ONLY Final Four appearances.

Durham is one of just eight coaches to win 200 games at two Division I schools: Ralph Miller (Oregon St. & Wichita St.); Norm Sloan (Florida & N.C. State); Jim Calhoun (Northeastern & UConn); Lou Henson (New Mexico St. & Illinois); Neil McCarthy (Weber St. & New Mexico St.); Johnny Orr (Michigan & Iowa State); Eddie Sutton (Arkansas, Oklahoma). Durham is one of seven coaches with 100-or-more wins at three Division I schools: Tom Davis, Cliff Ellis, Mike Jarvis, Frank McGuire, Jerry Tarkanian and Butch van Breda Kolff.

Not only does Durham’s 44-year coaching career contain just about every award and honor given in college basketball, but he has coached some of the game’s best, a “Who’s Who” list that includes nine All-Americans, four Academic All-Americans, four first-round NBA draft picks and a pair of Olympians. Fifteen of his former players have gone on to play in the NBA, while he has had 31 players selected in the NBA Draft. His first recruiting class at Florida State in 1966 contained Dave Cowens, who is a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. He also coached Dominique Wilkins, one of the top-10 scorers in NBA history, as well as former Olympian and NBA standout Vern Fleming, who helped Durham lead Georgia to the 1983 Final Four. In 1972, Durham led Florida State to the NCAA Championship Game, eventually falling to perennial powerhouse UCLA, 81-76.

A native of Louisville, Ky., and a four-sport prep standout at Eastern High School, Durham began his coaching career as an assistant to long-time Florida State coach Bud Kennedy in 1959. This followed an outstanding playing career at Florida State, where his name still decorates the FSU record books in a dozen different categories after scoring 1,381 points during his three-year career. Florida State’s annual Team MVP award was re-named the “Hugh Durham Most Valuable Player” award in 1999.

HIGH SCHOOL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: The Big Orange Tipoff Club will also be hosting the Knox County boys and girls high school basketball players of the week, as they do weekly, who will be awarded certificates by prep sports Editor Jesse Smithey of The Knoxville News-Sentinel and will be honored along with their coaches.

PICK AND WIN: One lucky member each week will win a pair of tickets to each of the next home UT men’s and women’s basketball games by participating in the club’s weekly Pick’N’Win Contest for only $1 and picking the winners of a selection of men’s and women’s SEC games. The club will have several surprise celebrity guests on hand regularly, including former players, coaches, and other nationally-known basketball personalities.

CLUB MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION ATTACHED: The club is still soliciting individual members 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 still being offered at only $250.

Annual membership applications are still available by calling Club President Lloyd Richardson at (865) 588-5433, by faxing a request to (865) 588-2083, by e-mailing 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 also attached to this press release.

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 and will have the opportunity to record and film any portion of the meeting, ask questions of Coach Summitt in a public forum at the conclusion of her remarks, and will be able to interview her, as time allows, on both a group and individual basis. 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 are planning live remote radio broadcasts for some meetings.

All media are also invited to call 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, 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 WEEK’S AND FUTURE SPEAKERS: Next week’s Big Orange Tipoff Club meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 30, with UT Lady Vols star and ESPN national commentator Kara Lawson as the featured speaker.

Other speakers to follow in our stellar 2007 lineup are Brad Nessler, ESPN broadcaster who will be in Knoxville covering the UT-LSU men's game nationally on February 6, Tom Boerwinkle, former UT Vols and Chicago Bulls star on February 13, the day of the UT-Kentucky men's game in Knoxville, former Alabama head basketball coach Wimp Sanderson on February 20, and UT alumnus and ESPN commentator Woody Paige on February 27. All weekly meetings this season are on Tuesdays, so please mark your calendars to plan to be there for all of them.

XXX

Labels: 2007 Press Releases

By John Mark Hancock
Copyrighted - All Rights Reserved

KNOXVILLE - Pat Summitt certainly doesn't sound like a coach who is ready to retire anytime soon. In her 33rd year at the helm of the Tennessee Lady Volunteer basketball program, she spoke to the Big Orange Tipoff Club today about big plans she has for her program's future.

Summitt has 927 wins to her credit, the most of any college basketball coach ever. Incredibly, she has an 87% winning percentage in the tough Southeastern Conference. She is the only coach that has been in every NCAA Women's Sweet 16 that has ever been played in history. On top of that, she plays the toughest schedule in America annually, remains #1 nationally in the RPI as a result, and draws more people to watch women's basketball every year than any other school. She has won six National Championships, more than any hoops coach in history other than the legendary John Wooden.

Her list of accomplishments is practically endless. In addition to her national championships, she has won 25 SEC Championships, and coached 12 Olympians and 18 All-Americans. She was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame the first time she was eligible and was named Naismith National Coach of the Century in 2000. Her Tennessee program has been molded into a dynasty. She is truly a living legend.

As a player, Pat won Olympic Silver. As a coach, she won Olympic Gold for the USA for the first time ever in women’s basketball in 1984 in Los Angeles. Success and accomplishment have become her legacy. She is perhaps The University of Tennessee’s greatest ambassador, in demand as a speaker, consultant, author, and motivator.

Summitt told the capacity luncheon crowd today that she feels the schedule she has her teams play toughens them mentally and makes them focused when tournament time comes around. She hopes that it will take them to the Final Four of women's basketball once again, something she has achieved so regularly that most UT Lady Vol fans are disappointed if she doesn't make it in any given year.

Tennessee boasts perhaps the greatest player in the women's game, Candace Parker, who at 6'4" aspires to be an Olympian in China soon. Parker, now famous as one of the few female players in the game that can regularly dunk the ball, had told her teammates that she was going to dunk it during what turned out to be a signature win for them over UConn on national TV this past weekend, cementing themselves as one of the top teams in the nation at this stage of the season.

Asked whether she fears Candace will leave school early for the lucrative WNBA offers she is sure to receive, Pat told the crowd that she really hadn't thought about it too much. She was reminded that Indianapolis Colts Pro Bowler Peyton Manning had sought her advice on staying in college at UT rather than going to the NFL early. Pat said that maybe she should call Peyton and ask him to remind her what advice she gave him and give that same advice to Parker.

Pat said she enjoyed the T-shirts that her sorority sisters made for the UT-UConn game, which said, "Geno loves Orange!," referring to Geno Auriemma, the UConn coach with whom Summitt has exchanged barbs in the past. She said they proved so popular that even some nuns bought them and wore them.

Summitt also related a story about how junior college transfer Shannon Bobbitt, a native of the Bronx in New York, was taking her socks home with her rather than leaving them with the managers to launder. When the managers told Pat that they were starting to miss socks after practices, Bobbitt immediately confessed and said they were so soft and warm compared to those she had been used to previously, she didn't want to give them up or lose them. Summitt assured her that she could have fresh ones anytime she wanted, and all the team had a good laugh. It is a testimony to the family atmosphere Summitt has created for her program.

It is also why Pat keeps attracting the top talent. Her eyes brightened when she talked about the girls she already has committed to join the team next year, including 6'6" post player Kelly Cain of Atlanta, who chose the Lady Vols over Duke, LSU, and Georgia, Angie Bjorklund from Spokane, Washington, whom Summitt deftly took from under the nose of Stanford, and who also considered UConn and Duke, Sidney Smallbone, the 5'9" shooting guard from South Bend, Indiana, and Vicki Baugh a 6'4" forward from Sacramento. For Summitt, it appears the rich just keep getting richer.

One thing that caused Pat's eyes to moisten at the luncheon was how she has come full circle from her days as a player at UT-Martin. The Lady Skyhawks came to Knoxville early this season to play the Lady Vols, and Pat got to be reunited with her former coach and athletics director who first recommended her for the head women's basketball coaching job on the main campus in Knoxville when she was only 21 years old. She addressed the UT-Martin team and invited them into her own team's locker room, too, both of which were unprecedented. She said she will always be grateful for that opportunity. Look for her to continue to continue in that role for many years to come. She should surpass 1,000 wins in just a few more short seasons.