Thank you for allowing me in The Boneyard. One of your posting members invited us to come in.
I can see that some of you guys are not thrilled with the idea of my Tigers being in the conference with you. I want to tell you what I think about it.
I worked in downtown Hartford for six years in the 90s. Even though I have been a Tiger fan for decades, I went to Gampel Pavilion to cheer Rebecca Lobo, Kara Wolters, Jennifer Rizotti (who coaches where I received one of my graduate degrees), Nykesha Sales, Ray Allen, both Donyell and Donny Marshall, Travis Knight, Kevin Ollie and all of the Huskies. It was my local team and I loved going to Main Pub or Bidwell Tavern to watch games with friends. Coaches, in the mid 90s, was one of the best sports bars I have ever seen.
We love The Nutmeg State and hated to leave. It was a great place to live and work and have fun. I have waited for years to be able to be in the Big East and one of those reasons is to go back to football games at a stadium that is located on what was an airfield when I lived ten miles from there. I will be blessed if we can get that game on the first weekend of October. There is not a better place on earth than Connecticut at that time.
So, yes, I am disappointed that some of you guys that live and love one of the places I love thinks so poorly of the school from where I was reared and live and also love as my home. Time will just have to take care of that, I guess. Maybe you can come to Memphis in mid to late October and spend a weekend on Tiger Lane at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium and enjoy something that means more to me than anything else besides my Maker and my family.
In the meantime, let me tell you about Memphis. Like most river towns, it is eclectic, crazy, stunningly wonderful, heartbreaking, vibrant, blighted, full of personality, exceeding its limit in woes, abundant in riches, overgrown in troubles, resilient and full of history of its very own. We are more than just Barbeque (Little Mark's in Vernon, CT. was our favorite when there), Elvis and Beale Street Blues. We have a culture that is unique and cultural institutions, such as The Brooks Museum of Art and The Memphis Symphony, that rival any city in the nation. Our problems are exacerbated by stereotype and prejudice but it is more accepting of other cultures than many of the ethnic neighborhoods I was acquainted with in New England. I drove through the North End in the evenings going to school after work and I went to a "swap meet" in Stafford Springs one time with some friends. Memphis does not corner the market on blight and I found that rednecks are universal.
The University of Memphis is not the low rent community college some seem to portray. The University has 25 Chairs of Excellence and five endowed Centers of Excellence that is world class. The FedEx Institute of Technology (as you may have heard, FedEx supports the local university) does world renown research and introduces leading practical applications of theoretical interdisciplinary innovation. Our music school is also renown and we have one of the world's leading
Egyptology experts. I will stop with that but I could go on.
We also have a well known heritage in athletics and it didn't just start with John Calipari. For what it is worth, a lot of our folks didn't like him either, so we have that in common with Coach Calhoun. John did lead our basketball through some of the most exciting times but left with a lot to answer for. Let's just say that most Tiger fans are in love with our coach now, Josh Pastner. Gene Bartow, who very recently passed away, and Larry Finch and Dana Kirk, both who also recently passed away, had great success as coaches here prior to Josh and Calipari.
Now, football. Yeah, we have had some hard times recently and, in our 100 years as an institution, have had others. However, it was just a few years ago that we went to five bowl games in six years (2003-2005, 2007, 2008). In 2004, our football and basketball teams were shown on ESPN more than any other school in the country. We had great success against some of the current Big East members. We got left behind when the Big East took traditional rivals Louisville and Cincinnati and our football coach went through the 2006 signing period with three blocked arteries and had bypass surgery just a couple of days after Signing Day. Our program suffered for a few reasons, not the least of which was that we got behind on football facilities. We, at one time, had the best football facilities in the south. The SEC schools did not have what we had. We did not capitalize on that.
Now, because of large and small donations and a realization that we HAD to step up, we are an unfinished indoor practice field away from having facilities that are Top 25 in the nation. Even with all of the renovations that have been done to our stadium within the past three years, much more is about to be done. Ask Cincinnati what they think. They just played in the Autozone Liberty Bowl last month and their fans and administration were shocked at what we have done since they left CUSA.
We have a young, energetic football coach now in Justin Fuente and one of the best staffs I remember in the history of the program. I can't wait until Labor Day weekend.
Friends, your home is where I left a part of my heart and soul. I will always love my friends there and cannot wait to see them when we travel there as Big East members. But, my home is Memphis and I am proud of what we are and what we aspire to. Come see us when you can. I hope you leave some of your heart and soul here, too.
