FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, February 6, 2006

TENNESSEE COACH PAT SUMMITT TO BE TIPOFF SPEAKER WED., FEB. 8

The Big Orange Tipoff Club is proud to announce its next scheduled meeting this coming Wednesday, February 8, at 11:00 a.m., at Calhoun's on the River in Downtown Knoxville, where a buffet luncheon will be served. Tennessee Lady Vol Basketball Head Coach Pat Summitt, who just won her 903rd career game and is the winningest basketball coach of all-time, will be the featured speaker, and will be introduced by UT Women's Athletics Director Joan Cronan.

Due to the overwhelming demand for parking at Calhoun's, the Tipoff Club has secured and is continuing to offer auxiliary parking at the former Tennessee Grille parking lot on Neyland Drive, just west of Calhoun's. Anyone who can and will park there will help alleviate the crunch. It is a short, pleasant walk down the Volunteer Landing Greenway from the Tennessee Grille parking lot along the Tennessee Riverfront to 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 Pat, as this meeting will be held just after the Tennessee men's game against Kentucky in Lexington that is being nationally televised by ESPN, and just prior to the big women's home game with LSU on Thursday night. UT Men's Head Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl is also expected to be in attendance to say a few words about the Kentucky game and about his team's upcoming road trip to Athens to try to sweep the Georgia Bulldogs and stay atop the SEC Eastern Division.

The fact that UT's men's basketball team is drawing capacity crowds and is ranked in the Top 15 in the polls and in the Top 5 in the RPI, and that the Lady Vols have the big "Rivalry Week" game with LSU in a matchup of two teams in the Top 5 that will be nationally televised by ESPN2, followed by the "February Frenzy" home game on Sunday afternoon that will be nationally televised by the same network, will drive attendance upward for this meeting. UT Men's Athletics Director Mike Hamilton is also expected to be on hand.

THIS WEEK'S SPEAKER: Pat Summitt is incredibly in her 32nd year at the helm of the Lady Volunteers basketball program. She has won six National Championships, more than any hoops coach in history other than the legendary John Wooden. In commemoration of her becoming the winningest basketball coach of all-time last year, the court at UT's Thompson-Boling Arena was named "The Summitt" in her honor. Amazingly, she has won 84% of her games as a head coach.

Her list of accomplishments is practically endless. In addition to her national championships, she has won 24 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.

The Tipoff Club will 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 The Knoxville News-Sentinel and will be honored along with their coaches.

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, and also a set of 4 tickets to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame 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. Other door prizes will also be given to guests and prospective club members. 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 $60 and discounted senior citizen memberships at only $50. Spouses of members are free, making this an excellent deal. In addition, corporate memberships, which include all 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

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, and UT students can still join for half price. UT alumni, friends, and students, 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.

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 at (865) 522-8547 to schedule radio, television, and newspaper interviews with various Big Orange Tipoff Club steering committee members, including Charles W. Morgan, Gary D. Rowcliffe, Barry J. Smith, Michael J. Turner, Christy Gentry, 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.

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 in this, the club's inaugural year.

BUS TRIP TO TUSCALOOSA FOR THE U.T.-ALABAMA MEN'S GAME ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18: One of our corporate Big Orange Tipoff Club members, World Travel, is trying to gauge interest on the part of our members and others in a bus trip to Tuscaloosa on Saturday, February 18. The tipoff for that game will be at 4 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Central time.

The trip would include roundtrip luxury motorcoach transportation, a ticket to the game itself, a box lunch, snacks (soft drinks, chips, etc.), and all taxes and tips, for only $99 per person. It would leave Knoxville on Saturday morning and return immediately after the game, so no one will have to miss work or church.

The trip will include video UT basketball highlights en route, and they would also make a stop on the way back to eat on your own in the Birmingham area. If there is enough interest and this trip proves to be successful, they may do these for all Saturday away games next season and beyond, to Nashville, Athens, Columbia, Lexington, Auburn, etc., as Coach Pearl has indicated that he wants to have as many Vol fans as possible to follow the team on the road.

Please e-mail back immediately to JMH@ICX.NET or call Mark at (865) 522-8547 if you have an interest in this trip or would be interested in going on others next season as well. They need at least 40 people to sign up for this one to make it happen, as they need to get the tickets ordered from Alabama this week. If they get as many as 80 people, they will take two buses. Time is of the essence and space is limited.

You do NOT have to be a member of the club to go on the trip. Anyone is welcome and invited, including children. If you've never been on a road trip to follow the Vols, they are a lot of fun and this is your opportunity to do so.

NEXT WEEK'S SPEAKER: Next week's Big Orange Tipoff Club meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 15, with humorist and former Auburn Head Coach Sonny Smith, a Roan Mountain, Tennessee, native, as the featured speaker.

Other speakers to follow are Fox Sports and Sporting News Senior College Basketball Columnist Mike DeCourcy on February 22 and NBA Hall of Famer Gail Goodrich on March 1.

MARCH 1 EVENING DINNER EVENT TICKET ORDER FORM: Goodrich will be speaking at a major, special evening dinner event at a larger venue at The Foundry at World's Fair Park just prior to the final Senior Night home UT men's basketball game against Kentucky, which tips off at 8:07 p.m. on WVLT Channel 8 Volunteer TV, the local CBS affiliate. The UT band and cheerleaders are expected to be on hand as well, making it a festive pre-game pep rally. Dress is "game casual" and very informal. Just wear whatever you normally wear to a game, jeans, sweater, etc., and take advantage of the very affordable low prices to bring your whole family or all your clients.

Tickets are only $20 for members, $25 for guests, $10 for a special children's menu buffet, and $250 for a reserved table of 10, and are on sale now. Many tables have already been reserved and space is limited. The cash bars will open at 4:30 p.m. and the buffet lines will begin at 5:00 p.m., with the program to start at 6:00 p.m. The event will be over by 7:00 p.m., in plenty of time to get to the big game, since it has a late tipoff time and the Foundry is only a short 5-minute ride away from the arena.

Parking will be free and plentiful. There will be a silent auction of autographed UT basketballs, signed by all of our speakers this year and also by the UT men's and women's coaching staff. Come to the meeting on Wednesday to purchase your tickets, which are going fast, or e-mail us for an order form. The event is open to the public.

XXX

EMOTIONS AND CROWD OVERFLOW FOR DEVOE
By John Mark Hancock
Thursday, February 2, 2006
Copyrighted - All Rights Reserved

Don DeVoe was always a tough, stern disciplinarian when he coached the Tennessee Volunteers. He learned that demeanor from his mentor in coaching, Bobby Knight, when he was on the staff of The General at West Point.

However, members and guests of the Big Orange Tipoff Club saw a different side of DeVoe yesterday when he made his first public address since returning to Knoxville after his retirement from a 35-year career in basketball coaching. An overflow standing-room-only crowd came to Calhoun's on the River in Downtown Knoxville to hear DeVoe. Included in that crowd were many of his former players from his SEC championship teams.

Barry J. Smith, a manager on the 1982 Tennessee team that won the SEC Championship, made some introductory remarks about what Coach DeVoe had meant to him as a person. Kirk Naler, who played on that same team, and who chose Tennessee over Auburn in his native state of Alabama, spoke glowingly of the character that DeVoe built in him.

Several more of DeVoe's former players were scattered throughout the huge audience, including Tony White, Fred Jenkins, Myron Carter, and Bert Bertelkamp, now color commentator on the Vol Radio Network. Their presence moved their former coach to tears as he talked about what it meant to have them come to hear him in his honor.

DeVoe is the second winningest coach in Volunteer basketball history, trailing only the legendary Ray Mears. He beat Kentucky three times in his first season at the helm, something no coach before or since him has ever done. He won the first SEC Championship Tournament that had been played in over two decades that same season. He was named SEC Coach of the Year three times and took UT to postseason play nine of his 11 seasons at the helm.

But it was those he had coached who came out of respect for and to honor him that caused DeVoe to choke up and get a lump in his throat as he spoke to the big crowd who gathered for the Big Orange Tipoff Club weekly luncheon. He called his time at Tennessee, "a wonderful journey," and said he was, "so proud of the guys who played for me," and thanked them for the memories he had of them.

DeVoe spoke on the day that Tennessee played and beat Vanderbilt 69-62 on Wednesday, and he had a couple of stories to tell about the series with the Commodores. The most interesting was about what many in the national media still believe to be the worst call by an official in the history of basketball.

Allie Prescott of Memphis had just been hired by C.M. Newton to be an SEC referee. At the end of the 1983 game, with the Vols up by a single point at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Vandy guard Phil Cox drove the length of the floor and ran over UT's Tyrone Beaman. Legendary Voice of the Vols John Ward, an astute hoops observer, said on his radio broadcast that Cox charged. In the most blatant example of both home cooking and a referee determining the outcome of a game, Prescott inexplicably called Beaman for a block, and sent Cox, a 90% free throw shooter, to the line with only one second to play in the game, whereupon he promptly sank both shots, giving Vanderbilt a one-point win. Prescott never called another Tennessee game for the rest of the time DeVoe was coach. The outrage in the media over that call was overwhelming, too.

Another interesting tale that DeVoe related was about the game at LSU when their timekeeper, who had failed to start the clock on time as UT's Michael Brooks was driving down the court for the winning basket in the 1982 game, was fired. There was a buzz among the players in the Big Orange Tipoff Club crowd who were there listening, as they whispered about what DeVoe was recounting. They remembered that not only did the Volunteers leave the court instantly but that they by passed the locker room and were on the bus ready to go to the airport in seconds.

LSU Coach Dale Brown was on the Public Address system at the Pete Maravich Center in Baton Rouge telling the crowd that the Tennessee team was going to come back out and the last seven seconds of the game was going to be replayed as the UT bus was leaving the campus. Since the referee had called the game over, the issue was settled, or so it seemed.

Brown and LSU filed a protest with the Southeastern Conference office. There was a meeting in Atlanta with the Commissioner at which both Athletics Directors attended. There was even wild talk that the final seven seconds of that game would be replayed at the SEC Tournament that season. In the end, Coach Bob Woodruff posed the question, "Would we even be here if the ball hadn't gone in the basket?" That settled it once and for all, the protest was dismissed, and UT officially won a big game on the road against the talented Tigers.

DeVoe also heaped praise on the late and former UT Athletics Director Bob Woodruff, to whom he said he will be forever grateful for hiring him as the Vol coach, and on present UT Athletics Director Mike Hamilton, whom he credited with reviving the men's basketball program on The Hill by hiring Bruce Pearl.

Even though DeVoe was head coach at Virginia Tech, Wyoming, Florida, and Navy, as well as Tennessee, he said that wherever he goes across the country, he is always referred to as the coach at Tennessee. His daughter and son are both enrolled in school at UT. He has moved back to Knoxville permanently in his retirement, and Bruce Pearl indicated on his weekly VolCalls radio show on Monday night that he will be taking advantage of DeVoe's advice and counsel on defensive schemes for the Vols.

In that regard, DeVoe joked with Pearl, who is attending every Big Orange Tipoff Club luncheon that his schedule will allow, that when he came to UT's practices last fall, he didn't think Pearl was spending as much time on defense as he should. DeVoe, of course, was known as a master of sticky man-to-man defense.

DeVoe said he was so happy to see the excitement of students filling the arena once again, making full use of UT's large 25,000-seat venue as it was intended. He said he hoped that, "we will one day have a party to burn the black curtains," which now sometimes drape the bleacher seats in the upper reaches of the arena, and that capacity crowds would be the norm for all games.

In picking up on Coach Pearl's call for "take this show on the road," which Pearl made on his postgame radio show, DeVoe called for UT fans to start following the team on the road in the SEC again, which was a regular part of things in the 1970's and 1980's when DeVoe coached. He said the SEC tournament in Nashville could be "our tournament at Tennessee this year," and that there were lots of parallels between his first year as the Vol coach and Coach Pearl's initial season, with the players listening to their coach and believing they can win every game.

He concluded by doing a good imitation of former Georgia Coach Hugh Durham and joking that the new rules like the shot clock and the three-point line "forced you to play the game," and that they hurt his style of coaching. He said that when he was coaching, "there was nothing more satisfactory than having a victory wrapped up and watching Bert Bertelkamp with the ball tucked under his arm at half court while time expired."

Another tenacious coach was also in attendance at the Big Orange Tipoff Club Wednesday, Coach Pat Summitt of the Lady Vols, along with all of her staff, Associate Coach Holly Warlick, and Assistant Coaches Nikki Caldwell and Dean Lockwood, along with her Director of Basketball Operations, Danielle Donehew. Summitt will be the featured speaker at the Big Orange Tipoff Club luncheon this coming Wednesday at Calhoun's on the River. All members of the general public are cordially invited to attend as guests, even if they are not members of the club. The buffet lines open at 11 a.m., and the program starts at 12 Noon. The meetings conclude by 1 p.m. The cost for members is only $10 and only $15 for guests, which includes two entrees, salad, vegetables, bread, drink, tax, and tip. It's the best deal in town for basketball fans to congregate weekly.

PEARL HAS VOLS IN A BIG ORANGE WHIRL!

By John Mark Hancock
Copyrighted - All Rights Reserved
Saturday, January 28, 2006

KNOXVILLE - Like a fiery television evangelist, Jewish Bostonian Bruce Pearl came to Knoxville last spring to preach the Big Orange Gospel from the pinnacle of Rocky Top. The new head men's basketball coach on The University of Tennessee campus appears to be the second coming of legendary coach Ray Mears, the winningest men's hoops coach the program has ever known and the godfather of "Big Orange Country."

With his energetic, enigmatic personality, Pearl strapped on Big Orange suspenders, rolled up his sleeves, and went to work relentlessly in promoting the program, recruiting the nation and turning up UT's first Top 10 class ever, according to guru Bob Gibbons, coaching up a team that has marginal talent, and using his brilliant intellect to outsmart his opponents and outwork them, too. Along the way, he's ruffled feathers just like Mears used to do in the 1960's and 1970's when Stokely Athletics Center was bursting at the seams with maniacal fans.

Pearl's hard work has resulted in Tennessee sitting in the catbird seat in the Southeastern Conference race. The Vols are #1 in the SEC East and on a roll, with huge wins over nationally-ranked powers Texas on the road and Florida at home, a game that attracted over 24,000 fans to Thompson-Boling Arena, which threatens to set an all-time league record of 26,000 for a regular season game before this year is over.

Leading the conference in turnover margin, the style of play that Pearl has brought to the South shows that defense is truly the key to winning championships in every sport. That's one reason why Pearl never gets upset much when his players mess up on offense, as long as they make up for it on defense and hustle.

The team has reacted to Pearl's coaching by rocketing to #3 nationally in the RPI and cracking the Top 20 in the polls. Forward Andre Patterson responded so positively to being a starter in the lop-sided road win at Mississippi State Wednesday night that he turned in his best performance of the year, and it was equally gratifying to see how Stanley Asumnu responded so positively to having to come off the bench, also turning in what might have been his best game as a Vol. Both benefited. Pearl had hinted that he would make this lineup change on the Vol Calls radio show that he hosts every Monday night during the season.

Equally good news for Tennessee fans from Wednesday night was that Florida went down again on the road, putting UT in firm control of 1st place in the SEC East. LSU is the only team in the conference that is still unbeaten in league play, but the Vols have two fewer losses than LSU does overall. Who would have ever thought that Tennessee would be in this position now?

The Big Orange can easily win its next three home games in a row, sweeping South Carolina today, and then beating Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, and wind up going to Lexington to face a struggling Kentucky Wildcat team on a roll at 16-3 and on a 5-game winning streak. In fact, looking at the remainder of the Vol schedule, they might even be favored to win all the rest of their games with the exception of Florida in Gainesville. If they did that, that would be a miraculous achievement, perhaps the best job in college basketball. That's why many national media are openly saying that Pearl should be National Coach of the Year.

This follows a season in which Phillip Fulmer and Tennessee's football team turned in a performance that was perhaps the worst flop of the year nationally on the gridiron. With Pat Summitt's Lady Vol basketballers struggling with two straight road losses in an uncharacteristic slump, that makes Pearl's Big Orange Magic that he has worked even more impressive when compared with everything else athletic on campus. He certainly has the hottest thing going nationally in sports, and as long as he can keep his Vols playing at the level they are now, the sky's the limit for his team this season and for the longterm future of his program.

In fact, many are openly speculating about what Tennessee will have to do to keep him. An extension and a substantial raise from his $800,000 per year package that he has now are inevitable. Ticket and concession sales already exceed last year's totals with six more big home games left, all of which may outdraw Kentucky and everyone else nationally with over 20,000 at the gate. With a brand new practice facility ready to be built, with luxury skyboxes coming to the arena, and with Pearl's family settled and happy in the South, look for him to make Big Orange Country his home for a long time to come. He may very well create a dynasty in the next 15 years just as strong as Mears did, challenging the Wildcats and everyone else in the SEC and propelling his Volunteers into the national limelight at every turn.

Whatever UT chooses to pay to keep him will be money well spent for the positive impact and energy he brings to the entire community, and with a $70 million annual athletic budget, one of the nation's largest, along with Thunder Thornton, named one of the Top 10 college athletic boosters in America by ESPN just recently, there is plenty of cash in the Big Orange piggybank.  Look for Thornton to be front and center in his Big Orange cowboy hat, suit, and boots in stepping up to the plate to keep Pearl in Knoxville for a long time to come.

Pearl knows that Tennessee has been a sleeping giant in men's basketball for decades, with pent-up passion that was due to several botched coaching hires by former UT Athletics Director Doug Dickey, who seemed to have no clue how to run a hoops program properly. Dickey's successor, Mike Hamilton, hit a grand slam home run in his first major hire in landing Pearl, who has endeared himself to the Vol faithful by giving bushels of credit to Mears, whose flair for promotional skills rivaled his.

Legendary Voice of the Vols Emeritus John Ward told the Big Orange Tipoff Club in Knoxville two weeks ago that he started each radio broadcast with "It's Basketball Time in Tennessee!" long before he ever broadcasted a UT football game. The term "Big Orange Country" was coined by Ray Mears, the only basketball coach in history who beat Kentucky 15 times in 15 years. Pearl told Mears in one of their first meetings that he would know he had arrived as Tennessee's coach once Kentucky wound up hating him as much as they did Mears.

Pearl has tapped into this hysteria with his ebullient, intense personality. Mears, who along with fiery and always-animated Associate Coach Stu Aberdeen, brought national prominence to Tennessee by recruiting New Yorkers Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King, the best duo in the history of the SEC, was forced to retire in his prime due to manic depression.

Pearl, on the other hand, seems to run on adrenalin and is driven to succeed. He is anything but politically correct and he doesn't try to be. He's already gotten under the skin of John Brady at LSU and John Calipari at Memphis. He's been compared to Dale Brown and Rick Pitino, in addition to Mears, in his irrepressible style.

A near-capacity crowd is expected again this afternoon to see if Tennessee can sweep the South Carolina Gamecocks for the first time since Jerry Green did it in 2001 en route to his fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in a row. Since then, UT hasn't been to the Big Dance in any of the last four seasons under Buzz Peterson. Pearl has never experienced this kind of big-time success himself, even though he won a national championship at Southern Indiana and had a Sweet 16 team at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Thus, both he and his team are in uncharted waters and in a hoops stratosphere.

There has been a cacophony of media attention showered on Pearl and Tennessee this week. Stories have appeared on ESPN and CBS, in USA Today, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and Fox Sports, all featuring the Big Orange Volunteers front and center. Time will tell if this team can handle prosperity. Some projections are that Tennessee could wind up with a #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, their highest in school history. For now, Tennessee fans are content that Pearl has their Vols in a Big Orange Whirl.

The Big Orange Tipoff Club is announcing its next scheduled meeting of the 2006 basketball season this coming Thursday, January 19, at 11:00 a.m., at Calhoun's on the River in Downtown Knoxville, where a buffet luncheon will be served. Tennessee Men's Head Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl will the club's featured speaker, only hours after returning from the game at Memphis on Wednesday night, and will be introduced by the man who hired him, UT Men's Athletics Director Mike Hamilton.

Due to the overwhelming demand for parking at our inaugural meeting at Calhoun's, the Tipoff Club has secured auxiliary parking at the former Tennessee Grille parking lot on Neyland Drive, just west of Calhoun's. Anyone who can and will park there will help alleviate the crunch. It is a short, pleasant walk down the Volunteer Landing Greenway from the Tennessee Grille parking lot along the Tennessee Riverfront to Calhoun's.

Please also plan to arrive as early as possible for this meeting. We are having Calhoun's open the buffet line at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, 30 minutes earlier than usual, to accommodate what is expected to be another overflow standing-room-only crowd to hear Coach Pearl, one of the most dynamic speakers in America.

Pearl has his team off to an 11-2 start overall and 2-1 in the Southeastern Conference heading into their last non-conference game of the regular season at No. 5 Memphis on Wednesday night. Vol fans have shown their love for Pearl's up-tempo, relentless style of play by coming out in record numbers to see the team. Tennessee's Thompson-Boling Arena is averaging almost 16,000 fans per game through the first eight home games of the year. There were nearly 22,000 rowdy patrons who turned out for UT's Southeastern Conference opening win against Georgia last Wednesday night, and a sellout of over 25,000 is a definite probability for this coming Saturday night's game against the Florida Gators, currently ranked #2 nationally. UT has a chance to finish in the Top 5 nationally in attendance.

Pearl has a track record of success. Prior to coming to Knoxville, he had 20-win seasons in 12 out of his 13 years in his career as a head coach at Southern Indiana and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. By all accounts, he has been a great motivator and role model to the fine young men who play for him.

There's also no doubt that Pearl knows how to sell a product. In his first six months on the job, he has had more than 200 speaking engagements, yet he is more entertaining each time he speaks. He and his staff have a 2006 recruiting class ranked in the nation's Top 10.

Many media have described Pearl as being a combination of Rick Pitino, Ray Mears, and Dale Brown, all of whom had fantastic success in their coaching days in the SEC. His brilliant intellect, along with his coaching, recruiting, and promoting skills, have caused many to remark that he appears to be the second coming of Mears, the legendary coach who took Tennessee basketball to heights it had never seen before or since his tenure.

The 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 The Knoxville News-Sentinel and will be honored along with their coaches.

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, and also a set of 4 tickets to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame by participating in the club's weekly Pick'N'Win Contest and picking the winners of a selection of the previous week's games nationally. Other door prizes will also be given to guests and prospective members. The club will have several surprise celebrity guests on hand regularly, just as they did at their first meeting, including former players like Tony White, Don Johnson, and Shelly Sexton Collier, coaches, and other nationally-known basketball personalities.

The Big Orange Tipoff Club is the booster organization for The University of Tennessee men's and women's basketball programs. The club is still soliciting individual members at $60 for the season and discounted senior citizen memberships at $50. Spouses of members are free. In addition, corporate memberships, which include all members of a firm, are still 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 new Big Orange Tipoff Club logo 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, and 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 and it is hoped that he can attend several meetings. Many members of the UT athletics administration, coaches, etc., are expected to be in attendance regularly.

All media are invited to attend and will have the opportunity to record and film any portion of the meeting, ask questions of Coach Pearl in a public forum at the conclusion of his remarks, and will be able to interview him, as time allows, on both a group and individual basis.

All media are also invited to call (865) 522-8547 to schedule radio, television, and newspaper interviews with various Big Orange Tipoff Club steering committee members, including Charlie Morgan, Gary Rowcliffe, Barry Smith, Michael Turner, Christy Gentry, Mark Hancock, and Club Historian 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.

PLEASE NOTE: Next week's Big Orange Tipoff Club meeting will resume their regular weekly Wednesday meetings and will be held on Wednesday, January 25. All other weekly luncheons for the rest of the season will also be on Wednesdays. Jennifer Azzi, an Olympic Gold Medalist and National Champion, who was recently named by ESPN as one of the Top 25 players in women's basketball history and is in great demand as a motivational speaker to large corporations across the USA, will be the featured speaker.

Other speakers to follow are former UT Head Coach Don DeVoe on February 1, UT Head Coach Pat Summitt on February 8, former Auburn Head Coach Sonny Smith on February 15, Fox Sports and Sporting News Columnist Mike DeCourcy on February 22, and former NBA All-Star Gale Goodrich on March 1. Goodrich will be speaking at a special evening meeting just prior to the final home UT men's basketball game of the season against Kentucky.

 XXX

            The Big Orange Tipoff Club, the primary booster organization for The University of Tennessee men's and women's basketball programs, announced today its slate of meetings and nationally-known speakers for this season. The list includes: 

            Wednesday, January 11 - John Ward, legendary Voice of the Vols for 30 years, who will be making a rare public speaking appearance and commenting on his unique experiences with Big Orange basketball, just prior to the Vols' SEC season home opener against Georgia that night.

            Thursday, January 19 - UT Head Men's Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl, who will be fresh from the team's trip to Memphis the previous night. 

            Wednesday, January 25 - Jennifer Azzi, former women's basketball U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist and National Champion at Stanford, and former Oak Ridge High School star, who is now in demand nationally as a motivational speaker for major corporations.

            Wednesday, February 1 - Former UT Head Basketball Coach and former U.S. Naval Academy Coach Don DeVoe, on the day the Vols play Vanderbilt in Knoxville.

            Wednesday, February 8 - UT Head Basketball Coach Pat Summitt, who will be previewing her upcoming "Rivalry Week" game with LSU the next night in Knoxville as well as the "February Frenzy" game with Vanderbilt in Knoxville the next Sunday, both of which will be on TV on ESPN2 national TV. 

            Wednesday, February 15 - Former Auburn Coach Sonny Smith, a native of Roan Mountain, Tennessee, and the Southeast's premier sports humorist, who will be previewing the Tennessee-Auburn game in Knoxville that night.

            Wednesday, February 22 - Mike DeCourcy, Senior College Basketball Editor for The Sporting News and Fox Sports nationally. 

            All of the above-listed meetings will be buffet luncheons starting at 11:30 a.m. at Calhoun's on the River in Downtown Knoxville. Plans are in the works for surprise celebrities to be in attendance. The club, along with The Knoxville News-Sentinel, will also honor top boys and girls high school basketball players from the Knoxville area weekly. 

            A special event will be held at 5:30 p.m., on Wednesday, March 1, the night that the Tennessee men's team plays host to Kentucky to close out its home regular season on Senior Night, at which Gale Goodrich, the former NBA All-Star and a nationally-known basketball celebrity, will be speaking. The club will also be involved in sponsoring the team's annual banquet this spring. 

            The club is soliciting individual members at $60 for the season and discounted senior citizen memberships at $50. Spouses of members are free. In addition, corporate memberships, which include all members of a firm, are offered at $250. 

            Membership applications are available by calling club president Lloyd Richardson, captain of the 1972 UT men's basketball team and former president of the UT Letterman's Club, at 588-5433, by faxing a request to 588-2083, by e-mailing them at tipoff@utfan.com , or by visiting their website at www.utfan.com/tipoff .

All former UT men's and women's basketball lettermen, former UT Orange Tie Club members, and Knoxville Quarterback Club members are invited to attend and join as well. Legendary former UT Head Basketball Coach Ray Mears is an Honorary Member and is expected to be in attendance.