Top Local Sports Stories

Major decisions and an itinerate football team dominated the news during 1997.

by Dennis Freeland

1. Larry Finch Is Fired.

He had known for several weeks that the University of Memphis was going to buy out his contract and replace him as head basketball coach. Still, the final moments were painful for Larry Finch. Lawyers worked out the deal’s details while Finch waited in a small room across the hall from the plush Tiger locker room. He had just won his 215th game. The divorce papers were signed on the counter of a closed Pizza Hut stand in The Pyramid. At the press conference that followed, athletic director R.C. Johnson did the unthinkable, outlining his search for a new coach while a visibly shaken Finch and his wife sat before a bank of reporters and TV cameras.
The insensitivity of that moment left a bitter taste for the coach and many of his supporters. But in the end – despite rumors of boycotts and other disruptive action – Finch walked away from the job without sacrificing his dignity. In the last game he coached at The Pyramid, his Tigers spanked arch-rival Cincinnati 75-63 on national television. A large crowd of Memphians turned out to say farewell. The Finch Era, which began in the early Seventies with a trip to the Final Four, was finished.
2. Dean Jernigan Brings Baseball Back Downtown.
Less than six months after the Double-A Memphis Chicks announced their move to Jackson, Tennessee, local businessman Dean Jernigan was awarded an expansion Triple-A baseball team. Jernigan, in partnership with the Center City Commission and NationsBank, then announced plans to build a state-of-the-art stadium downtown at Third and Union.
At the end of summer, the team announced an affiliation with the St. Louis Cardinals. The team name, the Memphis Redbirds, and nostalgic logo design contributed to a positive public-relations spin which team officials hoped would carry them through one season at Tim McCarver Stadium before opening the downtown facility in 1999.
As 1997 came to a close, Jernigan and his partners were hammering out the final details of the financial agreements, but the grounds downtown were clear and ready for construction.

3. Oilers Move to Tennessee. Memphis Fans Say Ho-Hum.

From the first press conference, where team owner Bud Adams bungled the name of Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, to the final game, where 50,677 fans turned out mostly to root for the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers, the Houston/Nashville/Tennessee Oilers’ journey to the Volunteer State was a strange trip.
Sparse attendance at the 62,000-seat stadium caused Memphis to become the butt of national jokes. The national media missed the point: Memphis was voting against not only the arrogance of the National Football League, but also the (pick one) inept or insensitive organization that the Oilers have become.
The year ended on another low note for the Oilers when Adams was typically inarticulate while waffling about his team’s future in Memphis. This story is less important than the two above it because, in the end, whether that is sooner or later, the Oilers (or whatever they are called in the future) are only a blip on the local doppler screen. Despite the passions their visit here may have aroused, 10 years from now their Memphis years will be largely forgotten.

4. Tic Price Hired at the University of Memphis.

According to whose list you like, George “Tic” Price may have been the school’s third or fourth choice to replace Larry Finch. Price accepted the job because, as he told his wife, he believes Memphis is a school where he can win a national championship. Price immediately shored up the local recruiting base by signing super-smooth guard Marcus Moody from Overton last spring. He then signed local phenom Paris London from Hamilton for next season. Price also accomplished what no Memphis coach since Gene Bartow had been able to do: recruit talented players from outside the Mid-South.

5. Sports Authority Gets Off to Rocky Start.

Not only did the tax rebate from Oilers’ games not meet the authority’s lofty projections, but the chairman got blasted for being too soft in negotiations with the NFL team. At year’s end the sports authority was focusing on the unsexy job of grass-roots sports promotion.

There were other, less dominant, stories on the sports scene. The MIAA had an unfortunate year, with accusations of cheating breaking out at various high schools across town. The two major professional events produced popular champs in Michael Chang and Greg “The Shark” Norman, and the ever-constant RiverKings came within a whisker of snagging a CHL championship. Several Memphians had highlights as well. Cindy Parlow won the Hermann Award, given annually to the best college soccer player in the country. Anfernee Hardaway led a successful mutiny against Orlando Magic coach Brian Hill. And Cedric Henderson and Chris Garner found spots on NBA rosters as the number of Memphians in the league continued to swell.
It was a typical year in the Memphis sports market, where precious little remains the same for long. n