2022-23 Year-In-Review: Honoring Our Past and Embracing Our Future

Tiger Nation,

As we finish another successful athletic year here at the University of Memphis, now is a good time to put together some thoughts on where we are and where we are headed.

First of all, what a year it was! On the field, we took home conference championships in women's soccer and men's basketball, and we had additional postseason success by football, women's basketball, men's soccer and men's tennis.

Additionally, we would like to give special shout-outs to:

Football for reaching their 9th-straight bowl game
Women's basketball for earning their first 20-win season in 11 years
Women's soccer for advancing to the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history
Men's soccer for earning their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2004

In the classroom, our student-athletes had a grade point average of 3.30 this past spring, which is our highest semester GPA in school history. A total of 270 student-athletes earned a 3.0 GPA or higher, and 61 earned a spot in the 4.0 GPA Club.

One of the themes we talk a lot about as an athletic department is "honoring our past and embracing our future." We are able to do what we do based on the foundation set by others who have come before us. To help honor those trailblazers, we spent time this year recognizing important teams and individuals in our history:

The 1972-73 National Runner-Up men's basketball team
College Football Hall of Fame inductee Coach Billy J. Murphy
Glenn Rogers Sr. as the first African-American to integrate the Memphis Football team
Football legend Danton Barto's jersey retirement
Men's basketball legend Lorenzen Wright's jersey retirement.

The celebrations were some of our favorite moments of 2022-23, and it was enjoyable to see former student-athletes interact with our current student-athletes in meaningful ways.

Perhaps the biggest example of where "honoring the past" and "embracing the future" merge in the present is what is about to take place at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. The 2023 football season will be the final one in the current configuration of the historic Liberty Bowl, which opened in 1965, as we prepare for transformational stadium renovations over the coming years in partnership with the City of Memphis.

We are tremendously appreciative of City of Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, additional city leadership, State of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee State Legislature for their support of our vision to make this a reality.

So what exactly do we mean when we say "embracing our future?" College athletics is going through an unprecedented time of change with conference realignment, the NIL era and continued transformation anticipated on the national level.

With change, though, comes opportunity. To truly embrace the future and meet our moment, we must continue to invest, and we need your support. Now is the time to put our foot on the gas. We are going to continue to push forward, and we need Tiger Nation behind us. We need you to commit to season tickets – and use them! It's paramount that we show the nation how we care and support our teams, especially in this time of change. And we need donations to the Memphis Athletics Fund to support our coaches and provide a first-class experience for our student-athletes. If you cannot commit to season tickets, you can still join the MAF for as little as $50 and help set the course for current and future student-athletes.

On the NIL front, we're so thankful that the 901 Fund is an option to allow our student-athletes to use their NIL to help local charities in their mission to support our community. Please contact the 901 Fund for more information on how to help connect Memphis student-athletes and charities that are doing such great work in our backbone, the City of Memphis. This is truly NIL with purpose.

You will hear us ask for philanthropic support in amounts and levels you've never heard us ask before, and we need our leadership donors and corporate partners to say yes and invest. We have made great strides in the past year, with upgraded facilities, new student-athlete support systems for mental health and nutrition, and our 901Women initiative to empower the next generation of female student-athletes, but there's room for continued growth.

As I said last year, I have never been more optimistic about the future of Memphis Athletics, and that remains the case as we finish up this year and prepare for the next. I know together, we can meet our moment and embrace the future, all while staying true to what makes Memphis "Memphis" and honoring the past.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or suggestions, and Go Tigers Go!

Laird Veatch signature black

Laird Veatch
University of Memphis Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics

2022-23 Year-In-Review: Honoring Our Past and Embracing Our Future

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