Tennessee Chancellor Jimmy Cheek, left, and Dave Hart, the former Alabama executive director of athletics, hold up a Tennessee shirt during a news conference announcing Hart as the new vice chancellor and athletic director for Tennessee, Monday, Sept. 5, 2011, in Knoxville, Tenn.We’ll begin today’s column on New Year’s Eve, 1993, with Alabama on its way to defeating North Carolina 24-10 in the Gator Bowl.
One of UNC’s biggest fans that night was student Rick Hart. One of the Crimson Tide’s biggest supporters was Rick’s father, Dave, who once played basketball for C.M. Newton at Bama.
“When I got back home, Dad had put one of those Tide detergent boxes with the roll of toilet paper on top on my bedroom door,” said Rick, now the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic director. “So he knows how to gig me a little bit.”
The Hart family gigging was ratcheted through the roof Monday evening. After a search of nearly three months, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville — once viewed as Big Brother to UTC — became Big Pappy with the announcement that Dave Hart is the new Big Orange athletic director.
Or, to slightly tweak the preferred moniker of Dave’s five grandchildren, Big Papaw.