Tuesday, June 12, 2007

When I heard early yesterday afternoon that Coach Ray Mears had passed away into eternity at a nursing home in Knoxville at age 80, my mind raced back over 40 years to the first time I ever met him as a wide-eyed UT fan when I was just nine years old. That was my first exposure to Big Orange basketball, in 1966, the year that his Tennessee Volunteers basketball team beat the Kentucky Wildcats at Stokely Athletics Center to end the season in a rousing way, 69-62.

It was that game that got me hooked on UT basketball. I had no idea at the time that it would come to be such a big part of my life, and that the head coach of that team, his 4^th in 15 seasons at the Vol helm, would come to have such a big influence on me as an individual.

My Dad took me to cavernous Stokely to watch those 1960’s games in which Mears battled the legendary Baron of Bluegrass, Adolph Rupp. Ray became the only coach in basketball history to finish with at least a .500 record against Kentucky that had coached against them as many games as he had (15-15). No one else did better over time challenging UK.

As the years went on, I became at usher in the Orange Tie Club section at Stokely when I was in junior high. I got to meet all of the major supporters of the program Mears was building. When I started school at UT early, after graduating from high school in two years, I worked part-time as a Sports Information intern with men’s basketball, helping Haywood Harris with media days and traveling on the road with the team in the famous Ernie and Bernie days, still the Golden Age of UT basketball.

In those days, the SEC schedule had you go on the road for a Saturday-Monday two-game road trip. We would leave on Friday afternoon on a chartered jet and wouldn’t get back home until early Tuesday morning. I helped John Ward do statistics sometimes on the radio. I especially remember a game in Alligator Alley at Florida that was exciting.

Since there wasn’t much to do in places like Starkville and Auburn on Sundays, I got to know the players, coaches, administrators, etc., very well, spending time with and eating all my meals with them. Coach Mears always insisted that the team go to church on Sundays on the road. He also wanted to find something for them to do to keep busy on Sunday afternoons, too.

Coach had me go scout around town in Starkville one weekend to find an event. When I came back and reported that a rodeo was in town, he ordered the team bus to pick us up and take us there to get everyone relaxed and keep their mind off the intense basketball game they had ahead on Monday night.

Most of all, I remember that Coach Mears was intense. His fiery eyes flashed, darted, and twinkled. He never lost that intensity and never lost those unique eyes as long as he lived.

Ray saw to it that the Tennessee basketball program went first class. He was as classy a man as I’ve ever known. He told us that we would stay in the best hotels, eat at the best restaurants, order the best thing on the menu, and ride in the best transportation.

However, he made it clear that all of us on all of those trips were to conduct ourselves as first class citizens, too. He told us before every trip that we were expected to be ambassadors not only representing ourselves and our families and The University of Tennessee, but also the entire State of Tennessee. He made it clear that if we did anything that reflected badly on any of those things, we wouldn’t be going on future trips.

Another thing that Coach Mears made very clear to us is that we were never to react to the taunting of the crowd at away games. He was a master at firing up the opposing fans.

Perhaps he is best known for parading around the court in his Big Orange blazer before every Vanderbilt game at Memorial Gym in Nashville. There is a story to that one that needs to be told as to how it began. However, he would engender the wrath of the fans everywhere we went.

The key, in his estimation, was to fire up the team, to motivate them to believe it was an “us against the world” situation that we had to overcome. It promoted team cohesiveness. It was the reason UT had such a great road record during his tenure.

He wanted the crowd fired up, and most of all, he wanted us to totally ignore them, to show them that we were totally oblivious to them and above the fray. That frustrated them even more when we wouldn’t look at or even acknowledge them in any way. That was also a part of Ray’s master plan to win games.

I was there when Tennessee won the last UT-UK game at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington. That was the game where Mears showed off some excellent coaching skills and gamesmanship, and Ernie Grunfeld may have shot more than his share of free throws. It was Kentucky’s last loss in their venerable old venue. I was also there when we won the first UT-UK game the very next year at famed Rupp Arena. It was the first Wildcat loss in their new place, too.

Once Rupp opened, Mears started the campaign to build an arena in Knoxville. The plans for it languished until Mears suggested that the UT administration should build something bigger than what Kentucky had. Once that decision was made, the entire state, city, and county governments got behind it as a matter of pride to best our rival.

When I was a student at UT, my favorite place to hang out between classes was at the UT basketball offices. I got to know the coaches and secretaries well. It was always a beehive of activity. The phone, by edict of Coach Mears, was always answered with the greeting, “Big Orange Basketball!” I was privileged to answer the phone a few times in relief that way.

I also got to attend what were all closed practices during Mears’ coaching career. Very few people were allowed behind the curtains that stretched across the portals at Stokely Center in the afternoons. It was there that I saw the reasons why and how Tennessee basketball was so special.

The practices were intense, even moreso than many games. However, Coach Mears showed everyone that they were loved and appreciated as individuals. He never used profanity. He was always true to his moral principles.

Many of us knew that Mears had “Big Orange Forever” tattooed in Big Orange ink on his wrist after he retired. That was the way he lived his life, dedicated entirely to the school that made him famous.

I haven’t said much in this piece about Ray’s phenomenal success as a coach. Had his career not been cut short by health issues, he might today be in the Top 5 in wins all-time. As it stands, he is still in the Top 20 all-time among basketball coaches in terms of winning percentage.

He was a master motivator and a genius at promoting the game and the program he built. He was also a brilliant offensive tactician who complemented the brilliance of his top associate all those years, Stu Aberdeen, who was the defensive guru, and who ironically passed away 28 years ago this week.

Perhaps the reason I haven’t dwelt on his success as a coach is that I got to know him as a man. I coached under him at his Camp of Champions in the summer. He was a stickler for detail and made it clear that we were expected to be on time for all our meetings, as well as see to it that our teams followed the rules explicitly.

Much of the self-discipline I have in my life now, over 30 years later, is as a result of the principles that he instilled in me. He will forever be a part of me in that regard. I viewed he and Coach Aberdeen as my mentors and later as my friends.

On one particular road trip, I was flying on a private plane with oilman and pilot Harry Bettis, a friend and big UT donor. We had played Auburn on Saturday afternoon on TV and Florida, the team we were going to play on Monday night, was playing on Saturday night in Gainesville.

Coach gave me some scouting sheets and I was given the assignment of scouting the game for them, since the team plane wasn’t going to arrive until later. That confidence he placed in me to do that was something I’ll never forget and for which I’ll always be appreciative.

I got to know Coach Mears’ sons, Mike, Steve, and Matt, when I attended school with them at UT. I also got to know his wife, Dana, much better during his illnesses later in life. I know the struggles they all had and tried to keep encouraging all of them.

Ray was only able to attend two games this past season, the Texas game, at which I got my photo made with him at his courtside seat that UT Athletics Director Mike Hamilton provided for him, and the Kentucky game, honoring his most famous recruit, Bernard King. Both were big wins for his beloved Volunteers, and I can tell you from my personal talks with him at both games, he was very satisfied and happy.

One of the things that made Coach Mears happy the most is that he was able to live to see those who didn't appreciate him enough pass from the scene, and to be recognized for his unique contributions to the entire Big Orange Nation. Anyone who ever saw him tooling around town in his Big Orange Mercedes, with "Wizard of Orange" painted on the driver's door, knew how much he loved Tennessee.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, Knox County Commissioner Larry Smith and I had the good fortune to be his only visitors that day at the nursing home where he was recuperating from his stroke this past November. Larry, who is also the Historian of the Big Orange Tipoff Club and serves with me on the Steering Committee, brought Ray a proclamation from Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, naming that special day "Ray Mears Day" in Knox County. I brought he and Dana a similar proclamation from Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam from the city government. His eyes twinkled and brightened when I read from those proclamations to him all of his accomplishments.

One thing I had almost forgotten about Coach Mears is that he was the inspiration for me taking the Military History 101 class that was offered by the UT ROTC program when I was a student in the 1970's. Of course, I thought it was kind of cool that the class met in Stokely Athletics Center itself, since that's where I liked to hang out anyway. But Coach Mears' lifelong passion for military history, and especially for General George Patton, whose photos he put in the UT basketball locker room just down the hall from the ROTC classrooms, was the reason that I wanted to learn more.

Ray viewed basketball as a war, and he had his troops ready for battle and on the attack for every game. He had SEC Championship rings for his players inscribed with Patton's brand from his huge Texas ranch, which was "Triple A Bar Zero." That signified that he wanted his teams to believe that they could win "Anywhere, Anyhow, Anytime, Bar Nothing." That was the way he lived his life, as a winning coach, as a winning soldier, as a winner in life, until the end.

When I became involved on the Steering Committee of the Big Orange Tipoff Club a couple of years ago, it was to give back a little of my time to a man and a program that has given so much to me. Ray Mears built UT’s basketball program from nothing to something really special. We owe him a debt of gratitude for that, and I also owe him and will be forever grateful to him for what he meant to me personally as a man, far beyond what he did as a coach.

As most of you know, the Ray & Dana Mears Scholarship Fund was started in his honor at UT. I hope all Vol fans will join me in designating their donations to the University to it.

One more unfinished thing that needs to be done is to honor Coach Mears in a more permanent way. I’m campaigning for the Tipoff Club and UT to present a Ray Mears Award to a deserving basketball coach annually, one who not only was a great coach, but who was also a great man who promoted the game as he did.

However, his most lasting legacy needs to be having the UT Board of Trustees rename the building that he alone was truly responsible for having built, “Ray Mears Arena at Thompson-Boling Assembly Center.” It would be just a minor alteration in its name that would mean so much to every Tennessee basketball fan everywhere. It would be an altogether fitting tribute to the man who founded a country, “Big Orange Country.”

Coach Bruce Pearl is the epitomy of Coach Mears. He wears the Big Orange blazer in his honor during the Kentucky and Vanderbilt games every season. He promotes and represents the program well. Some have said that from the upper deck at the arena, Pearl looks just like Mears prowling the sidelines as he used to at Stokely Center.

Pearl respects the tradition that Mears built. Ray is already a Hall of Famer, having been inducted into the Tennessee and Ohio Sports Halls of Fame. However, Bruce is pushing to get Ray inducted into the both the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City. He is most definitely worthy of both honors, having won a National Championship at Wittenberg in his native Ohio before coming to UT, and winning many more championships here on The Hill.

In summary, no matter what you thought of him, Ray Mears was a winner. He provided me with countless hours of marvelous, wonderful memories of great victories in Knoxville and on the road. The 103-98 win over Kentucky at home, billed as the “UT-UK Shootout,” was a classic.

The excitement of going to a game during his era is almost indescribable. The UT Pride of The Southland Band would parade around the court before every game. The lights would dim and the team would burst through the giant “T” at the south end of the floor.

The crowd would be literally hanging from the rafters, as every game saw Stokely Center filled to overflowing with people and excitement for a decade and a half. It was a happening, an event. People came early to see the spectacular warm-ups that Mears initiated. It was better to be there an hour too early than a minute too late, because you didn’t want to miss seeing and hearing what he might do next.

Ray Mears was intense, but he also had a heart of gold. He truly cared about other people. He made you feel special, like you were a part of his family. He made the common man feel like they were a part of the UT family, too.

No matter what is or isn’t done to honor him, and there is much more that should be done by the Governor, as Chairman of the UT Board of Trustees, by the UT President, and others, as I’ve related above, his legacy will live on in the minds, hearts, lives, and souls of every true diehard Tennessee fan, whether they loved basketball or not, as well as his players and everyone he touched in his extraordinary life. He now belongs to the ages as a legend who will never be forgotten.