March 29, 2002
Get a Coach Smith autographedbasketball here!
ATLANTA (March 27, 2002) — The NABC Foundation and TheCoca-Cola Companywill be auctioning designed and painted basketballs autographed bycollegebasketball coaches from Division I schools. Funds raised from theauctionedbasketballs will be donated to the NABC Foundation.
One hundred official size Rawlings basketballs will be decorated by eachschool and autographed by the head coach. The basketballs will be ondisplayfor auction starting Thursday, March 28, at the Atlanta Downtown Hiltonthrough the following Monday, April 1, 2002. Participating coachesincludethose from the 65 teams participating in the tournament, plus coachesfromthe Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference and from collegesinthe state of Georgia.
The auction will also be available over the Internet at www.nabc.com.Theauction will run 24 hours a day on the Internet starting at midnight onMarch 28th and ending at midnight on Friday, April 5th.
“We’ve had a longstanding relationship with college basketball programsthroughout the country and wanted to do something meaningful when thecoaches hold their annual convention in our hometown,” said Jeffrey T.Dunn,president of Coca-Cola Americas.
“This is a very exciting program for our foundation, and we hope thisprovesto be the first of many successful fundraising activities for ourfoundation,” said Jim Haney, executive director of the NABC. “We arethankful for the participation of The Coca-Cola Company with our coachesaswell as the long history Coke has of supporting our sport.”
About the NABC:
The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), located inOverlandPark, Kan., was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, the legendary UniversityofKansas basketball coach.
Formation of the NABC began as an emergency measure for the presentationofa united opinion the Joint Basketball Rules Committee, then the centralgoverning authority of the game, announced without notice that it hadadopted a change in the rules, which virtually eliminated the dribble.Allen, a student of basketball founder James Naismith, organized coachestotake a stand in a nationwide protest, which successfully postponed theadoption of the rule change for one year. It is worthy to note that thedribble still is part of the game of basketball. This marked thebeginningof this collective group of coaches to serve as Guardians of the Game.
Sinceits inception, the NABC has contributed numerous ideas and programs tohelppreserve and enhance the positive aspects of college basketball. Theseinitiatives include establishing the original Basketball Hall of Fame,creating the format for today’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, supportingCoaches vs. Cancer, and building the NABC National Basketball Center.
