LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Tom Jurich has made the drive back to Louisville plenty of times. His children live here. So do his grandchildren. And his 96-year-old mother still calls it home.
But on Tuesday, winding through the mountains of Eastern Kentucky — detouring around closed highways and old memories — Jurich acknowledged that this trip was different.
This time, he’s coming back to be honored. A portion of Floyd Street, the road that runs through the heart of the University of Louisville’s athletic complex, will be renamed “Tom Jurich Way.”
And Jurich, who spent 20 years transforming Louisville’s athletic department and campus, will set foot on campus for the first time since the day he was voted out by the university’s board of trustees.
“This will be my first,” Jurich said. “So that … that will be emotional.”
Saturday’s 10 a.m. public ceremony on campus is happening because longtime friends and colleagues — particularly John Ramsey and Kenny Klein — kept the effort alive. And because Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg made it a priority, working with university officials to see it through.
“I’m so appreciative to everybody,” Jurich said. “Craig did a wonderful job. A lot of people, I know, got involved and worked hard. It’s really special to me, and my family. We have such great memories of our time in Louisville, all the friends we made and tremendous people we worked with. And that’s what this is all about.”
It’s fitting. The stretch of Floyd Street that will bear his name runs past a procession of facilities Jurich helped bring to life — a kind of living résumé cast in steel and concrete: Cardinal Park for track and field. The softball stadium. The natatorium. Field hockey and lacrosse stadiums. Football practice fields. The indoor practice facility. The soccer stadium. The basketball practice center. The baseball stadium across the street.
Jurich had time to think on the drive in. And with his wife Terrilynn beside him, the road brought back good memories.
“We spent 20 years in Louisville,” he said. “It’s the longest we’ve lived anywhere. We raised our kids there. To see Mark and Brian, and then the twins, all graduate from Louisville — and then all four of them got master’s degrees — it worked out great for us. We loved every minute of it.”
What he gave in return reshaped the university.
He remembered the Sugar Bowl — when Louisville, a 13.5-point underdog, stunned Florida and its fans turned the Superdome into a sea of red.
“Paul Houlihan, who was the president of the Sugar Bowl, made his way around to our suite, and he pulled me aside and said, ‘Let me just tell you something. Without red, we are dead.’ That meant so much to me.”
He remembered the 2007 Orange Bowl — and the sight of Muhammad Ali and Arnold Palmer meeting as honorary captains. When Palmer saw Ali, he glanced over and said, “This is not a fair fight.”
There were Final Fours. A Heisman Trophy. Volleyball crowds that outgrew the new arena almost as soon as it opened. There was an NCAA championship. And teams — so many of them — that found a national stage.
One of the most emotional moments I saw from Jurich came after Jeff Walz and the Louisville women’s basketball team upset Maryland to reach the Final Four. He choked up in a postgame interview. It meant that much.
“People say, ‘You did this, you did that,’” Jurich said. “But it was always ‘we.’ We had incredible coaches, incredible athletes, a passionate fan base. We did it together.”
He’s proudest, perhaps, of the growth in women’s sports. He added four women’s programs and pushed hard for Title IX compliance — not just to meet legal standards, but, as he said, “because it was the right thing to do.”
“I faced a lot of resistance on that because, from a financial standpoint, there was no ‘return on investment,’” Jurich said. “I told the board at the time, the return will come 20 years from now, when these fantastic women are running companies and they’re going to be the ones making decisions on donations. … I give Julie Hermann so much credit. She worked really hard to get all of that going.”
Jurich remains a Louisville sports fan. He watched all of the volleyball team’s NCAA runs. He followed baseball’s College World Series push and still talks to coach Dan McDonnell regularly.
“What a phenomenal job Pat Kelsey did with basketball. He has that ready to take off,” Jurich said. “And you know Jeff (Brohm) is always going to have football in a great place. I think Louisville is in a very good position. I think the ACC has done wonders for our opportunities for the future. And obviously, Adidas helped pave the way for a lot of it financially. Keeping those two together is extremely important — that gives you a foot up on a lot of schools. But the key is our fan base. Our support is known all over the country. It makes this place special.”
And on Saturday morning, Jurich will come back and will get to see some of that fan base for the first time since he left.
He’ll return not as a former AD, but as an honoree of the city and university. And he’ll walk that old street again, now bearing a meaningful new name.
“I loved every minute of it,” Jurich said of his time at Louisville. “I can't say I was too excited about the way it ended. But you know, it was a great run. The beauty of the city of Louisville, the reason any of it happened, is the people. They put all of our teams on their shoulders. And we all had a great, great time. That meant the world to me. It still does.”
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