The initial reaction to my completely unscientific survey regarding what people thought of former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball coach Jim Foster being inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame on Monday night was pretty much as follows:
"What? He's not already in?"
And that response made perfect sense, since Foster is already a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame just up I-75 in Knoxville.
But the other great thing about Foster is that it's never been about the accolades, despite putting up the kind of numbers - 903 total victories, one Final Four, four Elite Eights, six Sweet 16s and the only coach in history to take four schools (St. Joseph's, Vanderbilt, Ohio State and UTC) to the NCAA tournament and the Top 25 - that dwarf almost every other coach, men's or women's, who's ever held a grease board.
"I saw this as an opportunity to get together with folks that we used to get together with on a regular basis," Foster said Tuesday morning, a little before he and Donna would make their way back to Athens, Georgia, where they often store their suitcases before heading off to see friends and family around the country, or off to his new favorite vacation destination of New Zealand, which they'll visit again this summer for a month or two.
Asked what he most likes about those North and South Isles beyond the fact New Zealand has no snakes, Foster replied, "They had a mass shooting there for the first time. Within a week they banned assault weapons. Impressive reaction to a thing you never want to see again."
It was vintage Foster, always coming from an angle you'd never expect. Then again, when has anyone better embodied well-roundedness, wisdom, wit and concern for all humanity more than Gentleman Jim?
You want a patriot? He served two tours of duty in Vietnam, the second one so his brother wouldn't have to serve. You want a keen judge of coaching talent? He hired current women's coaching legends Muffet McGraw (Notre Dame) and Geno Auriemma (Connecticut) to assist him at St. Joe's. You want someone who, despite turning 71 last fall, doesn't believe youth is wasted on the young?
Asked what he misses most about coaching after retiring from UTC two years ago, he replied, "I miss being in the world of 18-to-22-year-olds on a daily basis."
Want more? He's as knowledgable about wine as he is basketball. Of New Zealand's rising reputation in that industry he said, "Their sauvignon blanc and pinot noir are very, very good."
Even more? His newest interest isn't wine or art or social issues. It's his 20-month-old granddaughter Kula, who lives in Ojai, California.
"Never had a granddaughter before," he said of the offspring produced by his sons Christian and Andrew and their wives. "Only grandsons. So it's new, a completely different experience."
What isn't so different is the UTC women's program he guided to four NCAA tournaments in five years once more looking capable of claiming the Southern Conference's automatic bid by winning next week's league tourney in Asheville. North Carolina.
Despite a 1-13 start under Katie Burrows, who replaced Foster in the spring of 2018, the Mocs are now 9-4 in the league with one game remaining against East Tennessee State on Saturday at McKenzie Arena.
What Foster always has known is that people come first. So he'll return to Ohio this fall for the wedding of one of his former Buckeyes point guards, Samantha Prahalis. He planned to call former UTC athletic director David Blackburn on his way back to Athens because had Blackburn not hired him, Foster wouldn't have become a member of Chattanooga's Sports Hall of Fame.
And whenever he returns to the Scenic City he always thinks of the late Henry Davenport, whom Jim and Donna did so much for over the years.
"Donna and I still talk in Henry-isms sometimes," Foster said. "I'll say, 'I don't know, Donna. You tell me.' Or when Henry was eating this overcooked steak one night and I asked him if he wouldn't rather have a red, juicy one and he said, 'Jim, don't you know red meat is bad for you?' Every time I see a sign for a steakhouse, that moment with Henry pops into my head."
When you've been around for 71 years, won all those games, visited all those places, influenced all those people, there are a lot of memories - good, bad, big, small.
Not surprisingly, Foster said of life in retirement, "I like the little moments."
When you've provided so many big moments for so many, it makes perfect sense.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.
Mark Wiedmer