University of Tennessee Athletics
From The Desk of Mike Hamilton
The school year has come to a close, and our student-athletes have performed well both in sports competitions and in the classroom. Already this year we have won Southeastern Conference titles in women's cross-country, soccer and women's basketball and have finished in the NCAA top 10 in soccer, women's indoor track and basketball. On the men's side, the football team tied for first in the SEC Eastern Division, while the men's track and field team garnered several All-America certificates and an SEC javelin champion in Lee Smith. Along with their accomplishments on the field, we had 55 student-athletes graduate in May and 209 student-athletes received a GPA of 3.0 or higher in the spring semester.
Labor Day weekend is shaping up to be an exciting weekend in Knoxville. Last month we announced that we are partnering with the city to create a weekend-long celebration. Boomsday will kick the weekend off on Saturday, Sept. 4, with more than 300,000 people expected to attend. On Sunday, Sept. 5 at 8 p.m., we'll kick off the 2004 football season against UNLV before a national audience on ESPN2. This is a great opportunity for our football program to be in the national spotlight as we pay tribute to our football lettermen who will be present at the game. We will also be unveiling 50 "hounds" around town in a joint venture with the city of Knoxville and the Dogwood Arts Festival called "Hounds on the Town." This project, featuring Smokey, will follow the same concept as the bears from "Bearfoot in the City" produced by the Dogwood Arts Festival in 2003. More information on the Labor Day festivities is featured in this month's magazine.
This year's Big Orange Caravan has come to a close, and we are elated at the reception our coaches and staff received in the communities. This year we visited 14 different cities and added five mall visits to allow our coaches the opportunity to meet the fans that fill our stadium and arena each year.
Thank you for your continued support of Tennessee athletics. We're looking
forward to great things in 2004.
| Expect to win! |
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| Mike Hamilton |
