University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s head basketball coach Jim Foster smiles during a presentation made to celebrate his 800th career win after UTC defeated Samford Saturday at McKenzie Arena.Let’s pick up the Jim Foster story more than 30 years ago. Not at the beginning of his college coaching career, which started at St. Joseph’s in 1978, because neither Jim nor his wife, Donna, can remember the first of his remarkable 800 wins.
But they both remember the Christmas Eve when Jim and some young St. Joe’s assistant named Geno Auriemma tried to build a tricycle for Foster’s oldest son, Christian, who was 3 at the time.
“It never worked and we couldn’t fix it,” Donna said early Saturday evening, just after Jim’s University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s team beat Samford 63-50 to deliver him the Big 8-0-0.
“It just went down the road like this,” she added, making a wobbling motion.
Added Christian, now 35, as he broke into a grin: “To this day, Dad probably doesn’t know the difference between a flathead and Phillips head screwdriver.”