Julie Howell updates on the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame and the Paul Hornung Award

Julie Howell of the Louisville Sports Commission discusses changes coming to the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame and the Paul Hornung Award, plus a new event in town...

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
That's the story I was looking for. When those magicians were in here a
little while ago, I couldn't funnyfun They poked it up, okay from
Mark Jack Magic to be hey,ready for game night on a Thursday here
in Louisville. He and you rememberit wasn't that long ago when Tom George
was saying, we'll play any night, we'll get on national TV. We'll

(00:24):
do We'll do while they're on theACC Network tonight. That's good. Yeah.
I played a lot of Thursday nights, Tuesday nights, a couple of
Wednesdays in there, some Fridays,a Sunday didn't matter. Josh Hurd is
the athletics director for the University ofLouisville. Now, he was on with
us yesterday and he just wanted toremind people of several things. Oh,
first off, he put together thatrun this morning. There are a lot

(00:47):
of people that showed up for thatto go out and run with him at
seven o'clock in the morning. That'sawesome. So yeah, they came out
and did that and then they haddonuts, had a good time. That's
a new game day tradition here inLouisville. Run with the athletic director.
You meet at the Kaboo at seveno'clock in the morning on game day.
I wonder if that's every sports gameday or just football? No football,
but what if that's a noon kickoff. He wouldn't have time to do that,

(01:10):
then what there's too many other thingsto do that you're putting together.
Probably could still make that work.I mean it had to be a quick
run. Yeah, he he madeleave a few people behind. But Julie
Howe's in the studio with us fromLouisville Sports Commission. It's just fun.
That's positive energy we're seeing in theUniversity of Louisville. It certainly is.
It's good to see and excited fortonight. I loved that game on Saturday.

(01:33):
Yeah, that was great fun andIan you look it up at the
capacities, what's sixty sixty thousand,eight hundred with all the expansions. They're
on Floyd Street now, so theycould know they could get a pretty rocking
in there, all right. LouisvilleSports Commission obviously is connected with lots of
sporting events here in the community andthe Hall of the Kentucky Sports Hall of

(01:56):
Fame induction ceremony is soon as it'sTuesday night. Tuesday set number the twelfth.
Tell me about the proceedings this year'sclass. So we've got five people
being inducted. One Rick Bozit,who we all listen to read. Why.
Oh he's a nice boy, thebig serve. That's what we've called
him over the year. Rig's goingin. Chris Lofton, do you remember

(02:19):
that name? Played basketball at MasonCounty, took Mason County to three state
tournaments, then went to University ofTennessee. That's what I was gonna say.
Tennis, so I think he stillholds SEC record for three point shots.
He his jersey was just recently retired. He's one of five people to
have their jersey retired at Tennessee.Bubba Paris, Oh, we all love
Bubba. The sales Michigan. ThreeSuper Bowls for the Niners. I think

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three or four. That sounds goodtectedMontana's Blindside for last time I talked to
him. He was on his deck. He was on the air of Me
Live, but he was on hisdeck, his back deck fishing in San
Francisco. Was casting, Yeah,wherever he lives, he was casting from
his deck of a man you havefound a perfect life. He certainly has.

(03:05):
So he has actually come into townSaturday, so they're going to spend
quite a few days. He stillhas a lot of family here. Tom
Leach, voice of the Wildcats.Love that guy that's going in. I
mean, what a great guy.And to know that he started, you
know, doing radio coverage like inhigh school, he was doing high school
sports. He's living his dream.He loves, you know, having that
seat. But he always wanted itand he worked his way there and sure

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enough had happened. No, there'sno sound like Tom Leach when he says
touchdown Kentucky, Cuchucky. And lastbut not least, bridgid degrees. So
Bridget was a trailblazer in women's sports. Was one of the first female commissioners
of a high school athletic association inthe country, and so broke broke a

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lot of barriers, glass ceilings forpeople like me. You know, I
grew up in rural part of thestate and wanted to play with the boys.
And so for so Bridget is somebodythat made a lot of things possible
for women, and it you know, making sure that there are equal opportunities.
So that's our class of five,and we're doing it on the floor
at Freedom Hall, the ceremony,and we've decided that that's where the Hall

(04:14):
of Fame should live. That's wherethe plaques are. You know, there's
this reinvigoration of Freedom Hall and theExpo Center with Bellum and playing out there
now and and so we're gonna we'retrying to drive traffic out there to see
the Hall of Fame and to understandI mean, you know some of the
people that are in this hall areit's unbelievable. And the plaques go around
the consec yes, work their wayaround there because you go round and you're

(04:35):
able to read about these people wheneveryou're visiting Freedom Hall. Now. Right
now, they're not in the greatestorder there. There's really not in chronological
order, nor are they in alphabeticalorder. So we're working on it to
get them in an order where youcan go in and find somebody. And
in the meantime, we're gonna getsome wayfinding signs because right now you just
kind of wander around looking for people, right, Well, it wouldn't an

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app cure that well, it wouldyes, a g P. Yeah,
when you just say, oh,here's such such and here's how to get
here's how to get there. Sowe're working on it. You know,
we took over the Hall of Famein twenty eighteen, so we only had
it a couple of years. COVIDhit had to press pause, like so
many things in the world happened,you know, around COVID. So now
as we get back, we're lookingat you know, we're back to where's

(05:18):
it going to live? How arewe going to to you know, preserve
it and continue this legacy and soforth. And that's people can get tickets
to go to the Hall of Fame. They can call me directly five eight
seven six seven four two. Allright, And let's see there's a run.
Didn't I see something about a fivek or something? That's what's Saturday
Saturday in Shawnee Park. It's afive k and it is one of the

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only dog friendly five ks, soyou can run with your dog and the
proceeds from dog registrations go to MetroAnimal Services. That's the Louisville Water Pure
Tap. Yep, that's the PureTap five k. Okay, and where
do we sign up for that one? That's probably a pure Pure Tap five
k dot com and that makes sense, all right. You also run the
Paul Horning Award year and a yearout, and then you keep up with

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people as the college football season rollsalong, and it's about the most versatile
player in college football, correct,And so we're keeping an eye out for
people that are moving. One ofthem is the University of Colorado player who's
offense and defense. Yeah, hestarts at wide receiver and cornerback. He

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played one hundred and thirty eight plays. I think that isn't seven one hundred
and thirty eight snaps this past weekand the big win over t season,
the big win over Deon Sanders islike, you know who believes you believe?
Now you believe well? And heDeon played multiple ways you know when
he played, So yeah, thiskid and I watched that game and I

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kept thinking, gosh, he's gotto run out of gas. But he
didn't run out of gas. Hekept he and he made some big plays.
I mean, if you watch thatgame and any it was anybody's game
down to the end. And thenhe had an interception I think like right
within like five yards of TCU scoringthat that just kind of seal what's names
Hunter Travis Hunters on Colorado. Butthere are lots of other players that are

(07:11):
in contention. There are had ahad a number of guys this past weekend,
you know, I mean it wasit was hard to come up with
the six because a lot of people, you know, people are using these
coaches are using players in multiple waysmore and more all the time. There
was a kid from Washington, JalenMcMillan, that had two touchdown two eight

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catches, two for touchdowns. Helined up in the wildcat offense, took
the direct snap and ran it fora touchdown. He threw a pass for
a touchdown, and then he returnedtwo punts. That's very morning like exactly.
He touched the ball in four differentways and three of those ways resulting
in touchdowns. Yeah, that's prettygood. I mean yeah, now he

(07:54):
didn't play one hundred and thirty eightsnaps, but that just is mind boggling
to me that somebody's in that muchthat game. It's just just like,
man, his fitness level must becrazy good. You know, our very
first winner and you'll remember him,Owen marising Ye from Stanford. He played
both sides of the ball and Iremember Owen telling me when he was here
and I was talking to him aboutit, and he said, you know,

(08:15):
I had to learn to conserve energy. He said, I had to
learn not to run back to theline of scrimmage and not to celebrate after
touchdowns because I had to conserve energybecause I was making so many plays.
And so I watched Travis Hunter theother day. He wasn't conserving energy.
He was celebrating and running. Butit'll be interesting to watch him as the
season progresses, if they continue touse him that much, And does that

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change, you know, is hesprinting off the field in between plays or
is he trying to conserve that energybecause he knows he's got to keep going.
And there are lots of people whovote on who ultimately wins the Paul
Horning Awards. We have a nationalselection committee. We actually just we have
refurbished a little bit with some newnames. But you know, we have
Jeremy schapp on there, Phil Steele, Mike Tarico. We just added Laura

(09:01):
Rutlich from ESPN Excellent this year,so we're excited about that. And I'm
working on Pat McAfee. Haven't gottenhim yet, but I'm working on him.
So he's a little busy. Heis, but so is Laura and
we got her. So yeah,they vote, they'll vote twice. They'll
vote for finalists and we'll narrow itdown and that'll be third week in November

(09:24):
and then they'll vote the week beforeconference championships for the winner, and the
winner will be announced the Wednesday beforethe Heisman. Loyville sports scene healthy.
Obviously, we've got ul back atit now with football, but other events,
you know, track meets, theother things that we sometimes get.
Yeah, one big one is forthe first time ever, we are in

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conjunction with the University of LoVa hostingthe Men's College Cup, which is Division
one soccer championships. That'll be thisDecember, and it'll be at the Lynn
Family Stadium, the Big One wherelou City plays well. But that's the
first time that we've hosted Vision onesoccer championships, so we're excited about that.
The NCAA now awards their championships inlike two or four year chalks and

(10:11):
we're getting ready to bid on championshipsfour years twenty five and twenty six,
and those bids are due in December. So working, I mean, we
bid on everything. We bid oneverything. For every year and hope something
sticks. Julie Howe with Louisville SportsCommission. Great to see you again,
to see you, Thank you.Keep a surprised of how things are moving

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along. We're back in a fewon news radio, A forty whas