February 8, 2011

TSHF Hall of Fame induction Friday for Marynell Meadors

Former Tennessee Tech basketball and volleyball coach Marynell Meadors will be inducted Friday into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. Tickets for the dinner at Nashville's Renaissance Hotel, are available for $125 per person.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Former Tennessee Tech women's basketball and volleyball coach Marynell Meadors, currently the coach of the WNBA's Atlanta Dream, will be inducted Friday into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. The dinner is at the Renaissance Hotel in Nashville, with a reception at 6 p.m. and the diner and induction beginning at 7 p.m.

A limited number of tickets to the event are available for $125 per person. For tickets to the event, please call the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame at 615-242-4750.

Meadors established the tradition-rich women's basketball program at Tech and led her team to more than 350 wins in 16 seasons.

She will become the 11th Tennessee Tech entry into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. Previous Tech inductees are Raymond "Bull'' Brown, Hooper Eblen, Tom Fann, P.V. "Putty" Overall, Emmett Strickland, Wilburn Tucker, Star Wood, Jim Youngblood, Bill Dupes and Watson Brown.

Raised in Nashville and a graduate of Hillsboro High School, Meadors decided in the seventh grade her future was coaching women’s basketball. Following graduation from high school, she attended Middle Tennessee State and there began coaching women’s basketball before it became a varsity sport and prior to Title IX.

In 1970 following the passage of Title IX, she moved to Cookeville and became the women’s head basketball coach at Tennessee Tech. She coached the Golden Eagles for 16 seasons, compiling a 363-138 (.724) lifetime record. While coaching at Tech, she won six consecutive Tennessee state championships and four Ohio Valley Conference championships. She was twice named Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the year and became the first major women’s college coach to win 350 games at one institution.

In 1986, Meadors accepted the head coaching position at Florida State University where she led the program for 10 years. In 1991, the Seminoles won the Metro Conference Championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA.

Meadors is currently the head coach and general manager of the Atlanta Dream of the Women’s National Basketball Association and was one of the original eight head coaches when the WNBA was formed in 1997.

Along with the inductees, a number of individual and team “honorees” will be recognized at the annual banquet. Those recipients will include the Male and Female Amateur Athlete of the Year, and the Professional Athletes of the Year.

The Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame is a statewide, nonprofit organization founded in 1966 to honor and preserve outstanding sports achievements in Tennessee.