John Calipari, Kentucky basketball coach, to give keynote address at 2013 Iba Awards
BY JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
2/27/13 at 8:23 AM
The Rotary Club of Tulsa is expected to announce Wednesday that Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari will be the keynote speaker at the 2013 Henry P. Iba Citizen Athlete Awards.
The 20th annual Iba Awards dinner will be staged June 3 at the Renaissance Hotel.
The Iba Awards are named in memory of the former Oklahoma State basketball coach and three-time U.S. Olympic coach who died in 1993.
The Rotary Club of Tulsa paid tribute to Iba by creating an award to annually recognize male and female athletes who excel in their sport and who have shown by their actions a desire to help others.
"This is one of the great events that honors one of the great coaches of our time," Calipari said. "Coach Iba defined basketball coaching with the way his teams played and the class that he showed. I'm honored to be a part of the night and look forward to celebrating athletes who exemplify the highest degree of citizenship and who would have made coach Iba proud."
Calipari is the first confirmed member of the 2013 Iba Awards "lineup card."
The Rotary Club of Tulsa has yet to announce the identity of a female recipient, male recipient or master of ceremonies. The 2012 Iba Awards recipients were Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and softball Olympian Jessica Mendoza.
Calipari will be an Iba Awards speaker one year removed from leading the nation's winningest college basketball program to an eighth national championship. In winning his first national title, he fortified his status as one of the top coaching figures in college basketball.
Calipari and Louisville's Rick Pitino are the only coaches in NCAA history to lead three different schools (Massachusetts, Memphis, Kentucky) to Final Fours. Calipari and Frank McGuire are the only coaches to lead three schools to a No. 1 national ranking. Five Calipari-coached teams have risen to the top spot in national polls.
Since the 2005-06 season, Calipari is the winningest coach in major college basketball. His 173 victories during the previous five seasons are the most ever for a coach in a five-year span in Division I history. His eight 30-win seasons are tied for the third-most in Division I history.
Calipari will become the second Kentucky coach to serve as an Iba Awards speaker. Tubby Smith was the keynote speaker in 2002 when he was coaching the Wildcats.
Other former speakers include Mike Krzyzewski, Lou Holtz, Dick Vitale, Tommy Lasorda, Bill Bradley, Tom Osborne, Paul Tagliabue, Rick Reilly, Roy Williams, Tim Brando, Steve Rushin, Archie Manning, J.C. Watts, Bill Self, Jeff Capel, Scott Brooks, Bob Knight and Danny Manning.
Like individuals who have been honored as Iba Award recipients, Calipari has a humanitarian body of work. His foundation has raised millions of dollars to help people in need across the country. In 2010 and 2012, he used telethons to raise money for victims of an earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Sandy.
Calipari began his coaching career at Kansas as a volunteer assistant under Ted Owens, a Tulsa resident and former Oral Roberts University coach.
The announcement that Calipari will be the Iba Awards speaker will be made by Iba Awards advisory committee chairman Eddie Sutton, who played for Iba at OSU and whose coaching stops included tours of duty at OSU and Kentucky.
Iba Awards
Monday, June 3, Renaissance Hotel.
Male recipient: TBA. Female recipient: TBA. Master of ceremonies: TBA. Keynote speaker: John Calipari.
Tickets: 918-584-7642
Original Print Headline: Calipari to speak at this year's Iba Awards
Jimmie Tramel 918-581-8389
jimmie.tramel@tulsaworld.com
