Former Vanderbilt basketball star and longtime Tennessee State coach and athletic director Teresa Phillips was named Wednesday to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023.
Phillips has now been added to five halls of fame in the final seven years: Vanderbilt Athletics in 2017, Greater Chattanooga and Girls Preparatory College in 2018 and the Ohio Valley Conference in 2021.
“This 1 was appropriate up there with all the rest, which contains Vanderbilt when (former) athletics director David Williams named personally to let me know I was going in,” Phillips stated. “It is essentially huge when you believe about all the great men and women currently who are in or eligible for the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. I am confident I am at the bottom of the pail, but at least I am in the bucket.”
Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame executive director Brad Willis shocked Phillips with the announcement although she was speaking to a class at Belmont about Title IX and the impact it is had on women’s sports.
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Phillips was element of that history when she became the initial lady to coach an NCAA men’s basketball game in 2003. She was TSU’s athletic director at the time and filled in as interim coach for a game against Austin Peay.
Phillips was the second Black student to attend Girls Preparatory College and the initial Black player on the basketball group.
She attended Vanderbilt on an academic scholarship in 1976 and was asked to join the school’s initial women’s basketball group in 1978. As a senior in 1980, Phillips was awarded the inaugural women’s Athlete of the Year Award and, just just after graduating, joined Commodores coach Joe Pepper’s personnel as an assistant.
She began her head coaching profession at Fisk in 1984, specifically exactly where she compiled a profession record of 62-38, and was named the coach at TSU in 1989. She led the Tigers to their initial OVC typical season and tournament championships and their initial NCAA Tournament appear.
Phillips moved into administration in 2002 as TSU’s AD and remained in that position till her retirement in 2020.
In 2003 Sports Illustrated named Phillips 1 of the 101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports.
In 2014, by means of the NCAA Women’s Final Four at Bridgestone Arena, Phillips was named one of “ten Legends in Women’s Basketball in Tennessee” by The Tennessean.
Phillips is presently serving as the radio analyst of Vanderbilt’s women’s basketball games.
“Teresa Lawrence Phillips created optimistic modify for sports by means of every level of her profession,” Willis stated. “From a player, to a coach, to an athletics director, she worked tirelessly to make sports a great deal improved in every way.”
Phillips joins former Tennessee Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck former Pearl-Cohn, Tennessee Vols and NFL player John Henderson former Nashville Predators captain Mike Fisher MTSU baseball legend Steve Smith former Memphis Grizzlies power forward Zach Randolph former Memphis football linebacker Tim Harris golfer Loren Roberts Bristol Motor Speedway co-founder Carl R. Moore ETSU basketball coach and athletic director Les Robinson and Tennessee Lady Vols track star and Olympic gold medalist Tianna Madison in the 2023 class.
The comprehensive 2023 class will be released far more than the coming weeks. The induction ceremony will be July 22 at the Omni Nashville Downtown. Ticket details will be announced at a later date.
Attain Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.