The upcoming meeting of the Durham Sports Club will feature Tom Walter, Head Baseball Coach of Wake Forest University.

Walter was named head baseball coach at Wake Forest on June 16, 2009. During his first two seasons leading the Demon Deacons, Walter has recorded a 43-68 overall record. In just his second season with the team (2011), he guided the Deacs back to the ACC Tournament for the first time since 2008 after finishing the conference schedule with a 15-15 record.

More impressive than any on-the-field accomplishments, Walter selflessly donated a kidney to outfielder Kevin Jordan just days before the 2011 season opener. Jordan was diagnosed with a serious kidney disease and needed a transplant. Without hesitation, Walter gave Jordan one of his own, and in turn, gave Jordan an opportunity at a new life..

Prior to coming to Wake Forest, Walter spent five seasons at New Orleans. He compiled a 153-147 record at UNO and helped the Privateers to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in 2007 and 2008.  Entering his 16th year as a head coach, Walter has amassed an overall record of 469-396.

Walter played his college baseball at Georgetown University and started all four seasons either behind the plate or in the outfield. He served as team captain in 1990 and 1991 and was named to the 1991 Big East Conference All-Academic Team.

Walter graduated from Georgetown in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in finance. He later went on to earn his MBA at George Washington in 1994, while serving as an assistant coach for the Colonials.

Mark Your Calendar

2/15/12 – Chuck Kaiton, Radio Play-by-Play Announcer, Carolina Hurricanes
3/7/12 – Lennie Rosenbluth, UNC Basketball
3/21/12 – Dave Odom, Retired Basketball Coach of Wake Forest and University of South Carolina

Congratulations to Hornsby Howell

One of the Durham Sports Club’s members, Hornsby Howell, has been selected for induction into the Athens (Georgia) Athletic Hall of Fame.  Obviously, this is a tremendous honor.  Way to go, Hornsby!

The upcoming meeting of the Durham Sports Club will feature Bob Holliday, retired sports anchor of WRAL-TV.

Known as “The Captain” in the WRAL Sports department, Holliday served as sports anchor of WRAL’s highly successful weekend newscast since 1981, and he oversaw WRAL’s sports coverage during most of his tenure.

A University of North Carolina graduate, Holliday spent 10 years with the Village Companies, as news and sports director at WCHL radio. His time there included several years on the Tar Heel Sports Network.

Holliday moved to WRAL in 1981 and quickly made his mark as the station’s coverage grew. WRAL anchor Tom Suiter, with Holliday handling the logistics, launched the ambitious Football Friday show that covered 28 high school football games. That show became a WRAL staple and an enormous hit with viewers. Holliday has been a mainstay on the weekend news, knowing how to balance the ever-growing sports news in the market with information viewers needed on the national scene.

Holliday has been an integral part of WRAL’s coverage for decades, whether it was a U.S. Open in Pinehurst, covering Dale Earnhardt’s stunning death at Daytona, or reporting from the Final Four 18 times for WRAL.  He was in the Carolina Hurricanes’ locker room in 2006 for “the wildest celebration I’ve ever seen” after the Canes won the Stanley Cup. He was covering the Daytona 500 the day Dale Earnardt died. And he contributed to efforts that won four Emmy Awards, including a marvelous special on the history of Reynolds Coliseum. He interviewed Dean Smith soon after Smith retired from North Carolina in 1997 – the only local television reporter to be granted an interview at the time.

Mark Your Calendar

1/18/12 – Bob Holliday, Retired Sports Anchor, WRAL-TV
2/1/12 – Tom Walter, Head Baseball Coach, Wake Forest University
2/15/12 – Special Guest Speaker
3/7/12 – A Different Special Guest Speaker

Congratulations to Ingrid Wicker-McCree

One of the Durham Sports Club’s members, Ingrid-Wicker McCree, the Director of Athletics at North Carolina Central University, has been selected for induction into the George Washington University Athletic Hall of Fame.  Obviously, this is a tremendous honor for one of Durham’s own.  Read the story at:

http://www.nccueaglepride.com/news/2012/1/12/ATHL_0112122819.aspx?path=athletics

The upcoming meeting of the Durham Sports Club will feature Charles Clotfelter, author of “Big-Time Sports in American Universities”.

For almost a century, big-time college sports has been a wildly popular but consistently problematic part of American higher education. The challenges it poses to traditional academic values have been recognized from the start, but they have grown more ominous in recent decades, as cable television has become ubiquitous, commercial opportunities have proliferated, and athletic budgets have ballooned. Drawing on new research findings, this book takes a fresh look at the role of commercial sports in American universities. It shows that, rather than being the inconsequential student activity that universities often imply that it is, big-time sports has become a core function of the universities that engage in it. For this reason, the book takes this function seriously and presents evidence necessary for a constructive perspective about its value. Although big-time sports surely creates worrying conflicts in values, it also brings with it some surprising positive consequences.

Clotfelter is the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics and Law at Duke University. He is the author or coauthor of five previous books on topics including university economics, school desegregation, and state lotteries. At Duke he has served as vice chancellor and vice provost. He likes playing squash and golf, and he enjoys watching college sports.

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Mark Your Calendar

12/21/11 – Durham Sports Club’s Christmas Party Meeting
1/1/12 – Happy New Year!
1/4/12 – NO MEETING
1/18/12 – First Meeting of 2012

The upcoming meeting of the Durham Sports Club will feature the presentation of the Club’s “Hugo Germino Sports Ambassador Award,” named for the legendary former sports editor for the Herald-Sun newspaper and sports radio host for WDNC, as well as PA Announcer for the Durham Bulls.

The Hugo Germino Sports Ambassador Award was established to honor deserving citizens who have spent an exceptional amount of time promoting, coaching, and working with young people in various sporting activities in the Durham community, without recognition.  This year’s recipient will have ties to Hillandale Golf Course, which has been going through a lot of activity this year.

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Mark Your Calendar

12/7/11 – Charles Clotfelter, Author, Big-Time Sports in American Universities
12/21/11 – Durham Sports Club’s Christmas Party Meeting
1/4/12 – NO MEETING
1/18/12 – First Meeting of 2012

The guest speaker for our upcoming meeting will be Mike Krzyzewski, the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Duke and Head Coach for USA Basketball.  Krzyzewski has led the Duke to four NCAA Championships, 11 Final Fours (tied for second most in history), 12 ACC regular season titles, and 13 ACC championships over 30 seasons at Duke. He has an NCAA-record 79 NCAA tournament victories, while averaging more than 25 wins per season. Krzyzewski has 900 total career victories, making him the most winning active coach, and putting him just three wins away from being the most winning men’s basketball coach in NCAA Division I history.

Krzyzewski has been the head coach of several USA men’s national teams, winning a silver medal at the 1987 World University Games, a bronze medal at the 1990 FIBA World Championship, a silver medal at the 1990 Goodwill Games, a bronze medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, and gold medals at the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship, the 2010 FIBA World Championship, and 2008 Summer Olympics.  He was also an assistant coach to the USA teams which won gold medals at the 1984 and 1992 Olympics, the 1979 Pan American Games and the 1992 Tournament of the Americas.  In 2005, he was appointed coach of the national team through the Beijing Olympics. On August 24, 2008, Krzyzewski’s U.S. team won the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. “The Redeem Team” finished the tournament with a perfect 8–0 record.

Despite initially only being appointed for four years, Krzyzewski agreed to lead the U.S. through another Olympic cycle. He coached the U.S. team for the 2010 FIBA World Championship and led Team USA to a perfect 8-0 record, defeating host Turkey in the gold medal game, 81-64.

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Russell Blunt “Be A Good Sport” Award Winner Receives National Recognition!

Jenna Huff, recipient of the Durham Sports Club’s “Russell Blunt ‘Be A Good Sport’ Award,” was recently recognized by the United State Olympic Committee for her actions in a cross-country meet earlier this year:

“COLORADO SPRINGS– An event that occurred during last year’s North
Carolina High School Athletic Association regional cross country meet
has attracted the attention of the United State Olympic Committee.

Jenna Huff of North Stanly High School, for her act of
sportsmanship in last year’s meet, was named the winner of the NCHSAA
Spirit of Sport award last year and was recognized at the Association’s
Annual Meeting in May. Now she has been recognized by the USOC,
according to the Charlotte Observer.

Huff, now a junior, received a national sportsmanship award
in Colorado Springs known as named the Jack Kelly Fair Play, named after
a former USOC president and Olympic rowing bronze medalist. The award
has had previous winners like cycling’s Lance Armstrong and track’s
Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

As reported in the NCHSAA Bulletin last year, Jenna was
running for North Stanly at Dan Nicholas Park in the 2-A Midwest
Regional for the right to advance to the state championship. Late in the
race she is in 22nd place, trailing Deb Gunther of Cuthbertson by about
five meters. Suddenly Gunther screams in pain and grabs her hip, almost
stopping.

Instead of sprinting past Gunther to gain a spot in the
standings, Huff slowed down, checked on her and tells her, “Come on,”
gently putting her hand on Gunther’s elbow.

They shuffled along toward the finish line, and as North
Stanly cross country coach Drew Laucher said, “As they approach the
finish line, the crowd catches on. Applause and cheers erupt. Jenna puts
Deb in front of her, just as it would have been before Deb’s hip gave
out. Jenna didn’t take that point; it was always Deb’s so it stayed
Deb’s.

That in itself is remarkable, but it also had an impact on the meet. It
turned out that Cuthbertson and Salisbury tied for first in the regional
meet, and ties in cross country means that the performance of the
sixth-place finisher is used. Cuthbertson’s sixth-place runner: Deb
Gunther.

Gunther is now a freshman at Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, GA.
Huff is continuing to participate in several sports at North Stanly.
Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer nominated Jenna for the national
honor.”

Click here to see pictures of Jenna as she helps Deb to the finish line.

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Mark Your Calendar

11/12/11 – Special Event, North Carolina Central University vs. Florida A&M University
11/16/11 – Hugo Germino Award
12/7/11 – Charles Clotfelter, Author, Big-Time Sports in American Universities

The guest speaker for our upcoming meeting will be Joanne P. McCallie, the Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Duke. The ACC Coach of the Year in 2010, McCallie enters her fifth season at the helm of the Blue Devils’ program. Last year, McCallie guided Duke to its 7th ACC Championship and 10th regular season ACC title in school history.

In just four years, Coach P has guided the Blue Devils to an 114-20 overall record, a 45-11 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) action and four NCAA Tournament selections, including a No. 1 seed in 2009 and Elite Eight appearances in 2010 and 2011, while collecting her first two ACC regular season and Tournament titles in 2010 and 2011. Her 80.4 winning percentage in ACC contests ranks first on the conference’s all-time coaching charts. Meanwhile, Coach P’s winning percentage of 85.1 in all games is first among active coaches in the ACC and second in the conference’s all-time coaching records.

A year ago, McCallie and the Blue Devils netted a 32-4 overall record marking her second straight 30-win season at the helm at Duke. The Blue Devils posted 10 victories against ranked opponents, including wins against eventual national champion Texas A&M, 4th-ranked Xavier, 10th-ranked Kentucky and 10th-ranked DePaul.

Duke’s 2011 schedule features home games against Connecticut and Purdue, and road games to Kentucky, Temple and BYU, as well as participation in the “Junkaroo Jam” in the Bahamas.

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Mark Your Calendar

11/2/11 – Mike Krzyzewski, Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Duke University and USA Basketball
11/16/11 – Hugo Germino Award
12/7/11 – Charles Clotfelter, Author, Big-Time Sports in American Universities

The guest speaker for our upcoming meeting will be Bill Friday, the founding co-chairman of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and president emeritus of the University of North Carolina. Friday served as the President of the University of North Carolina for thirty years until his retirement in 1986.

In 1989, Friday and the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, were tapped as chairmen of the newly-formed Knight Commission.

Under Friday’s and Hesburgh’s leadership, the Commission successfully advocated for presidential control of intercollegiate athletics, rigorous academic standards for athletes, and a certification process requiring athletics departments to prove that they were running fiscally responsible, equitable, and ethical sports programs.

In 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association presented Friday with the Gerald R. Ford Award for “significant leadership as an advocate for intercollegiate athletics on a continuous basis over the course of his career.”

William Friday graduated from North Carolina State with a bachelor’s degree in textile engineering in 1941 and received his law degree from the Law School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1948. Friday served as a lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve from 1942 until 1946.

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Mark Your Calendar

10/19/11 – Joanne P. McCallie, Head Women’s Basketball Coach, Duke University
11/2/11 – Mike Krzyzewski, Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Duke University and USA Basketball
11/16/11 – Hugo Germino Award

The guest speaker for our upcoming meeting will be Mike Dement, Head Men’s Basketball Coach at UNC-Greensboro. Originally from Louisburg, NC, he was the head coach for UNCG from 1991 to 1995, leading them from a team with no conference affiliation to the top of the Big South Conference regular season standings in just four seasons.  He left UNC-G to coach at Southern Methodist University, then returned to UNC-G in 2005 for a second coaching stint. In 2007–08, Dement won his 300th career game when the Spartans topped The Citadel in Charleston. He is entering his 24^th year of coaching.

Dement served five seasons at Cornell from 1986-91 where he led the Big Red to the Ivy League crown and the NCAA Tournament in 1988. Prior to that, he served as an assistant coach at East Carolina (1985-86), Cornell (1983-85) and Duke (1982-83). His first experience as a college assistant came under Mike Krzyzewski.

UNC-G’s schedule includes road games at Duke, Florida State, Miami, as well as Tennessee and Georgetown as part of the Maui Invitational Tournament.  Their home schedule is highlighted with a game versus Virginia Commonwealth University, a “Final Four” team in the 2011 NCAA Tournament.

Dement earned an Associate of Arts degree from Louisburg College in 1974 and a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical Education from East Carolina in 1976.

Dement is married to Rhonda Rompola, the head women’s basketball coach at SMU. They have a son, Michael, 26, who played for him while he was coach at SMU, and a daughter Emily, 18.

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Mark Your Calendar

10/5/11 – Bill Friday, UNC and Co-Chairman of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics
10/19/11 – Joanne P. McCallie, Head Women’s Basketball Coach, Duke University
11/2/11 – Mike Krzyzewski, Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Duke University and USA Basketball
11/16/11 – Hugo Germino Award

The guest speaker for our upcoming meeting will be Billy Hite, Assistant to the Head Coach and Senior Advisor for Virginia Tech football.  Hite, who has helped develop 30 running backs that have signed with NFL teams, makes the move to this new role for the 2011 season, which comes after 34 seasons on the Tech coaching staff and his 10 years as the Hokies’ associate head coach.While the running backs coach, Hite helped produce nine of Virginia Tech’s top 11 career rushing leaders and he was on the sidelines for more Virginia Tech football games than any other coach.

Hite came to Blacksburg as a member of Bill Dooley’s football staff in 1978. He served as a recruiter and head jayvee coach his first two years, then took over as the offensive backfield coach in charge of tailbacks and fullbacks in 1980. He had been coaching Tech’s running backs up until his promotion last February.

Hite has been on the sidelines for 397 consecutive Tech games as a coach from 1978-2010 and coached in 21 bowl games for the Hokies.

A native of Hyattsville, Md., Hite was a former star tailback at the University of North Carolina. He received a bachelor’s degree in education in 1974. Hite began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at UNC in ‘74. He was a part-time assistant for the Tar Heels from 1975-77. Hite received one of his highest honors when he was inducted into the DeMatha High School Hall of Fame in 1992.

Hite is married to the former Anne Heen of Memphis, Tenn. They have two daughters, Kirsten, 26, and Bryn, 22, and a son, Griffin, 18.

Mark Your Calendar

9/21/11 – Mike Dement, Head Basketball Coach, UNC-Greensboro
10/5/11 – Bill Friday, UNC and Co-Chairman of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics
10/19/11 – Joanne P. McCallie, Head Women’s Basketball Coach, Duke University
11/2/11 – Mike Krzyzewski, Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Duke University and USA Basketball
11/16/11 – Hugo Germino Award