Oct. 26, 2012
For Immediate Release
By Christina L. Kern, office assistant
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky.– Campbellsville University’s annual President’s Club dinner featured Mike Pratt, who played for the University of Kentucky basketball team from 1968 to 1970 and coached at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from 1975 to 1983.
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Mike Pratt |
The President’s Club is for donors of Campbellsville University who contribute $1,000 or more in a fiscal year. The dinner is held as a thank you to them, as well as to honor the new members of the President’s Club.
Of the $6.3 million donated to Campbellsville University in the 2011 to 2012 fiscal year, the President’s Club members accounted for $4.1 million of the donations, Benji Kelly, vice president for development, said.
Pratt, who also coached in the NBA, said at UNC-Charlotte “we had to raise all the money we spent,” and he told Campbellsville University’s President’s Club “some young lady or young guy will benefit from your gift.”
Pratt said he hasn’t visited Campbellsville University since the summer of 1974. “I see why people want to come here… things have changed a lot [since I last visited].”
Pratt told the President’s Club members stories about when he first went to play basketball at the University of Kentucky thinking he was playing for Coach Joe B. Hall, but later found out because he was on the junior varsity team that he would be playing for the assistant coach, Harry Lancaster. “I had no idea who the assistant coach was. Now I can turn on the TV, watch All-Access Kentucky and find out everything. Times have changed.”
Pratt also talked about the hiring of Coach John Calipari. Pratt went with then-UK President Lee Todd and Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart to interview Calipari in Chicago. “I knew going up he would get the job and Lee Todd would like him,” Pratt said.
He said during the interview Calipari peaked Todd’s interest when he said, “Kentucky is a brand, and it’s been falling on hard times lately. We need to build the brand.”
Pratt said last year’s team was made up of “good guys and good students. They understand the brand and what Kentucky wants.”
He said last year’s team was “a unique team because of their maturity and sacrifice.”
Pratt told the President’s Club the UK basketball team “is building a brand just as you have here [at Campbellsville University] and will in the future.”
Dr. Michael V. Carter, president of Campbellsville University, said, “Higher education stands at a crossroads. Can you afford it; yet how can you afford not to? CU is in the midst of that crossroads.”
Carter said, “We must model what we want to see in our students. We each believe higher education can be much more than an academic experience, but higher education can be a life changing experience… what would you do without a college education with what we face in the future?”
A total of 43 new members were inducted into the President’s Club. There were 388 members total in the President’s Club for 2011-12.
New members of the President’s Club for 2011-12 are: Advance Pierre Foods, Enid, Okla.; James Thomas Badgett, Louisville, Ky.; Tommie and Sharon Brown, North Port, Fla.; Charles E. Schell Foundation, Cincinnati, Ohio; David and Susan Cox, Campbellsville, Ky.; Lloyd and Doris Farrar, Norris, Tenn.; Ken and Debbie Hatfield, Crestwood, Ky.; Robert and Ruth Ann Shaw, Frankfort, Ky.;
Community Coordinated Child Care, Elizabethtown, Ky.; Joseph E. Sparks, Breeding, Ky.; Jay and Lisa Allen, Bardstown, Ky.; Kim D. Borders, Scottsville, Ky.; Karl and Tara Clinard, Somerset, Ky.; Details Communications, Birmingham, Ala.; Rick and Susan Mann, Russell Springs, Ky.; Murakami Manufacturing USA, Campbellsville, Ky.; Chris and Karen Reynolds, Campbellsville, Ky.;
Bill and Beth Adams, Lebanon, Ky.; Susan M. Blevins, Campbellsville, Ky.; George R. Buckner II, Salem, Ore.; Paul Cantley, New Braunfels, Texas; Joe and Tiffany Early, Campbellsville, Ky.; Joe and Phyllis Early, Williamsburg, Ky.; First Baptist Church, Monticello, Ky.; Roger and Gwinn Hahn, Mt. Washington, Ky.; Robert L. Holloway, Louisville, Ky.; Key 2 Recovery Inc., West Chester, Ohio; Lebanon Baptist Church, Lebanon, Ky.;
Gerald and Jolene Lord, Bowling Green, Ky.; Mary R. Miller, Campbellsville, Ky.; Steve and Carolyn Morris, Campbellsville, Ky.; Fred and Pat Newby, Charlestown, Ind.; Dorothy H. Payne, Naples, Fla.; John L. Seesock, Columbus, Ohio; Sue Cravens Stivers, Columbia, Ky.; Swan’s Landing Caterers, Campbellsville, Ky.; Dennis G. Vaughn III, Germantown, Tenn.; and David P. Wilcoxson, Greensburg, Ky.
Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 3,600 students offering 63 undergraduate options, 17 master’s degrees, five postgraduate areas and eight pre-professional programs. The website for complete information is campbellsville.edu.