Sitting at a table alongside University of Tennessee at Chattanooga vice chancellor and athletic director Mark Wharton on Tuesday, Jim Foster finally allowed his emotions to get the best of him.
In front of UTC administrators, his coaching staff, friends and family, Foster announced his retirement from women's college basketball after 40 years of coaching, his final five at UTC.
Foster finished his career with a record of 903-347. In 40 seasons, his teams advanced to 30 NCAA tournaments and two Women's National Invitation Tournament appearances. Prior to his time in Chattanooga, he had head-coaching stops at St. Joseph's (1979-91), Vanderbilt (1992-2002) and Ohio State (2003-13). He led his teams to a combined six Sweet 16s, four Elite Eights and a 1993 appearance in the Final Four for Vanderbilt.
He was the second coach in NCAA history to lead three different teams to at least 200 victories and is the only coach to take a team from four different programs to the NCAA tournament and be ranked in the AP Top 25 poll.
At UTC Foster had a 120-40 record with four Southern Conference championships and five postseason appearances, including four consecutive NCAA tournaments. His final team went 17-13 and fell to Alabama-Birmingham in the first round of the WNIT.
During his time, national powers Connecticut, Stanford and Notre Dame played games at McKenzie Arena.
He was inducted into the Women's College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013 and was the chair of the USA Basketball women's junior national team committee.
At each stop, his wife Donna was there, going along for the ride. Foster said Tuesday that it's "time for her."
"When we started dating, I was making $1,250 a year coaching high school," he said. "Then I got the St. Joe job, and they paid me $3,000. Then they told me they were going to make me full-time, but you've got to coach softball and your salary was $10,000. She was sort of hanging with me.
"Then I said, 'OK, we're going to move to Nashville'; she said, 'OK.' We spent some time there, then I said, 'We're going to move to Columbus (Ohio)'; she said, 'OK.' We spent some time there, then I said, 'Let's go to Chattanooga,' and she said, 'OK, let's go.' It was time for her to say where she wanted to move and what she wanted to do.
"It's a two-way street."
Foster also will have more time to spend with his two sons, Christian and Andrew; daughters-in-law April and Erin; and his two grandsons, George and Oliver (with a third grandchild on the way this summer).
He said that hearing of the passing of former Western Carolina coach Larry Hunter "wakes you up." Hunter, who retired from the program in March, was 68.
"You have no control over what your future is," Foster said. "You can sit there and think about what you're going to do or what you'd like to do."
Assistant coach Katie Burrows, who played at UTC, has been given the interim role while the university conducts a national search for Foster's replacement. Burrows was also the interim in 2013 when Wes Moore left for the North Carolina State job.
Executive associate athletic director Laura Herron, who has been at UTC for 24 years, said it is a "really strong, attractive program."
"When I first got here, we played in Maclellan (Gymnasium)," Herron said. "We had the vision of hiring a great head coach in Wes Moore, and he wanted to build a program and he did that. When he left us, Jim comes in and takes us to a new level with back-to-back-to-back-to-back (SoCon) championships. So this is a very attractive job and a great time to be in Chattanooga."
There will be time for the next coach to take over and put his or her stamp on the program. The 2018-19 team will be young, with seven freshmen and sophomores on the roster. But Tuesday was about Foster, who laughed, cried, smiled and was every bit the person he's been since being hired by former UTC athletic director David Blackburn in May 2013.
It hasn't fully sunk in yet for Foster. That may not happen until July, when for the first time since 1977 he won't be sitting on a "hard bench" evaluating prospective student-athletes for his program.
Two national champions on his coaching tree, Connecticut's Geno Auriemma and Notre Dame's Muffet McGraw, are in the Hall of Fame along with Foster.
"I watched him take St. Joe's and then Vanderbilt and then Ohio State and now Chattanooga to the NCAA tournament and to elevate their programs," Auriemma said in a statement to The Associated Press. "I'm really proud to have been associated with Jim, and I'm happy for him. I'm happy that he gets to do this the way he wants to do it, and he's getting a chance to do it on his own terms.
"I'm really thrilled for him and Donna, and I know he's going to enjoy his retirement."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.