Honoring Tom Jurich Long Overdue -- SUNDAY CARDNAL COUPLE

 CEREMONY TO TAKE PLACE SAT. JUNE 28TH ON CAMPUS

The architect of the successes we see in Louisville women's athletics these days can be traced back to the hiring of Tom Jurich, back in 1997. 

Coming in from Colorado St., Jurich took a look at the sleepy UofL Belknap campus and affected change. A drive down Floyd Street is a testimony to that. Starting at Soccer's Lynn Stadium, across the street at football's Cardinal Stadium and headed northbound all the way to Softball's Ulmer Stadium, the facilities that stand there today are almost all Jurich planned and pushed through into reality. When I was an undergrad at UofL, once you got past the Eastern Parkway overpass, the was a small bar where students could occasionally get away with under age of 21 drinking , if the right bartender was on duty. That spot, today... is Denny Crum Hall, a facility where the dormitory sits for mostly college scholarship athletes. Each room has a fully furnished kitchen, washer /dryer and living room. It's a far cry from the old Threlkeld Hall, where I lived for a couple years, before moving in the fraternity complex that are now renovated and no longer houses the Delta Upsilon, Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Kappa Tau and Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternities. I even spent one night locked in a sorority house on campus, but that is a different story for a another time. 

And, let's not forget the KFC YUM Center

He also stressed the academic excellence that changed the program's attractiveness in athletics...increasing the graduation rate to 63%.

Under his leadership, the Cards won 87 conference championships and 43 conference tournaments. He took the Cards for Conference USA to the ACC. 

And...the coaches. On the women's side, Jeff Walz, Justine Sowry, Karen Ferguson Dayes and Sandy Pearsall are just a few of the coaches that Jurich brought to campus. Coaches that have shaped their programs during their time at UofL.

 

Arguably, Jurich has been the most significant figure in college sports this century. 

The recognition for Jurich is long overdue. The man was treated very unfairly in his firing back in 2017  and it took eight years for UofL to finally realize what he did and, now, finally he is being honored for what her did here. 

On a personal note, when I decided to start a website about UofL women's sports, Tom Jurich was one of the first two people I talked to get an opinion on how it might be perceived. He gave me a enthusiastic  "thumbs up" on the idea...and without his confidence and encouragement on doing a site about women's sports, I probably never would have made the leap. That was way back in 2009. 

It's been long overdue, Tom, but congratulations and... thank you.

paulie