LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – I’m not sure anyone expected the emotions.
When I talked to Tom Jurich on Wednesday about how he thought he’d handle the emotions of being back on campus for the first time since controversial departure, he said he thought he’d be fine.
Then he got off the interstate on Saturday morning.
“As soon as we got off the ramp,” he told me shortly after arriving for a ceremony to honor him on campus, “I broke down. This is hard.”
He wasn’t the only one feeling it. The city of Louisville and Mayor Craig Greenberg named a section of Floyd Street that runs through campus after Jurich. And it was a strangely powerful moment.
“It will always be an honor to drive down Tom Jurich Way, and be reminded of your commitment and impact to the University of Louisville,” athletics director Josh Heird said.
Tom Jurich and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg unveil a street sign in the former athletic directors honor after a ceremony on campus on June 28, 2025.
Heird’s remarks were tinged with emotion as he talked about the chance Jurich gave him by hiring him in the U of L athletics department, and what it meant to his family.
And baseball coach Dan McDonnell delivered emotional remarks about his old boss.
“This is what I always remember about him,” McDonnell said. “When he’s with you, he’s present. He looks into your eyes. He looks into your soul. And all that matters is you and him. … He was with you. And he made you feel like you were the most important person in the world, the best coach in the country. And he had this gift that he made you feel as if your sport was what really matters.”
It wasn’t just the return. It was the rush of memories, the faces, the place. Jurich has visited Louisville many times in recent years. His children live here. His 96-year-old mother still lives here. But he hadn’t come back to this part of town — to Floyd Street, to the corridor of sports venues that was once a gravel path and became, under his watch, a showpiece of college athletics.
And for the first time since his controversial exit in 2017, the man who built that vision stood again in the shadow of the buildings he helped to raise and the program he helped elevate.
Tom Jurich, with his wife Terrilynn, after the unveiling of the street sign.
What followed was part ceremony, part reunion — a formal acknowledgment of what Jurich meant to the University of Louisville, and what Louisville still means to him.
“I gave everything I had for 20 years,” Jurich said. “My number one goal was to make this a destination — not just a place you passed through. I think we did that.”
There were speeches from Louisville mayor Craig Greenberg, U of L president Gerry Bradley, Heird, longtime administrator Julie Hermann, McDonnell and a representative from Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office, who read from a formal Congressional Record entry honoring Jurich’s legacy.
Hermann called Jurich’s tenure at Louisville unprecedented for its expansion of women’s sports opportunities and navigation of three major conference moves, culminating in an unlikely invitation to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“This standard, this brand was created in a 20-year dead sprint by Tom Jurich,” Hermann said.
There was laughter — McDonnell recounted Jurich asking him after a dugout-clearing brawl, “Yeah, but did you win the fight?”
There were tears — from coaches and staffers whose careers and lives he shaped. And there was pride — in the wins, the championships, the facilities, the rise from Conference USA to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
But more than anything, there was gratitude — toward Jurich, and from Jurich.
“This wasn’t me,” he said. “I hired great people and got the hell out of the way.”
He paused as he looked across the crowd. “I wanted this to be a family. No employees. No divisions. Just we.”
Jurich said Louisville football “is on top of the world and will be as long as they keep Jeff (Brohm).” He lauded basketball coach Pat Kelsey, whose son is a close friend of his grandson’s. He said in a recent trip to New York to visit with former Louisville coach Rick Pitino, the Hall of Famer spent 20 minutes talking about the job Kelsey had done last season.
The sign for Tom Jurich Way at the corner of University and Floyd Streets on the University of Louisville campus.
“He says you’re the real deal,” Jurich said, nodding to Kelsey. “I can’t tell you how much fun we had watching your team play this season.”
And Jurich reached out to Louisville fans.
“This was all because of this fan base,” he said. “It's all because you put us all on your shoulders. You rode us through, and I hope you never quit doing that. This program will just get stronger and stronger and stronger, if the support continues to grow. You've got everything in front of you. Everything's in front of you. The ACC is a perfect spot for us. College athletics is a crazy place right now. Josh has got a tough job in front of him. He knows it. But you’re going to make it, you’re going to do great things. You’re not just going to make it, you’re going to do great things”
By the end, he was still wiping tears.
“Terrilynn and I talk about this,” he said, after the ceremony. “We’re getting older. She asked me where I wanted to be buried. I never had an answer. But today I know. It’s Louisville. This is home.”
Other sports stories:
LouCity FC’s home Cup match against North Carolina rescheduled for Sunday
Coffee with Crawford | White Sox. Hoosiers. Ginger Ale. My time with Rick Bozich
'We're happy' | Louisville big man Aly Khalifa ruled eligible after NCAA appeal
Copyright 2025 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
