University of Tennessee Athletics
Catching Up With Former Vol Howard Wood
March 02, 2009 | Men's Basketball
March 2, 2009
By Oliver Peterson The East Hampton Press & The Southampton Press
Howard Wood, the head coach of the East Hampton (N.Y.) girls varsity basketball team, was recently named one of the University of Tennessee's best basketball players in the program's 100-year history.
Last month, Wood traveled back to his alma mater to celebrate the centennial of its basketball program. He was also one of 56 players in the running to make the Volunteers' All-Century Team and though Wood was not one of the 20 chosen for the illustrious honor, he was thrilled to reunite with old friends and relive his role in one of the university's most memorable seasons.
"It was a great weekend," Wood said.
He acknowledged his disappointment in not making the All-Century Team, but said he isn't bitter. "It would have been icing on the cake," Wood said, explaining that the chance to reconnect with his old teammates was rewarding enough.
On February 13 and 14, the University of Tennessee's 100 Year Celebration and Alumni Reception capped a season-long celebration that also revisited the greatest shots in the history of Big Orange basketball. Wood said he learned of his nomination for the All-Century Team in early November, but by the time he discovered that he could collect votes online, the ballots were nearly closed.
The 10 players who got the most votes were automatically placed on the All-Century Team.
"I thought it was just down there in banks and supermarkets," Wood said, noting that he assumed the voting was all done in Tennessee. He said some "tremendous" athletes were not named in the school's top 20 players.
Wood, 49, played for the Vols from 1978 to 1981 and the team won the Southeastern Conference for the first time in the school's history in 1979, his sophomore year. He made the all freshman Southeast Conference team and the second All American team as a senior. According to the book "Hoop Tales: Tennessee Volunteers Men's Basketball," by Randy Moore, the 6-foot-7-inch, 235-pound Wood was a "key player" on that winning team.
Wood said his strength was playing defense and catching rebounds at the boards.
"That was my forte," he said, noting that he was an inside post player. "I wasn't a scorer."
Wood played with Dale Ellis, who held the National Basketball League's record for career three-pointers with 1,719, until Reggie Miller broke his record in 1998. Wood said the highlight of the centennial weekend in Tennessee was getting to spend time with Ellis and another former teammate, point guard Gary Carter.
He hadn't seen either man in 28 years.
"I got all these guys' numbers again," he said. "We're back in the loop."
After a couple days of reminiscing and rekindling their old friendships, Wood and his former teammates made a pact to never lose touch again. "It was a weekend of laughs," he said.
Wood explained that 6-foot-10-inch professional wrestling superstar Kevin Nash also played with them on the Vols, but he was unable to make it to Tennessee last month.
"We really missed seeing him there," he said, though he and the other players called Nash one night over the weekend.
"Howard's one of my best friends," Carter said this week, adding that seeing Wood, "just made my whole year."
Carter noted that the centennial weekend was special and emotional for him. "We had a close knit team," he said, explaining that playing basketball with Wood was a pleasure. "It was great," he said.
"We called him the gentle giant," Carter said, adding that Wood's large hands made him one of the only players on the team who could catch a basketball thrown with the speed and trajectory of a "baseball pass."
Both Wood and Carter said that getting three upset victories over Kentucky, the defending national champion, in the 1978-79 season was their greatest accomplishment playing for Tennessee. On the Tennessee University website's message board, fans still wax nostalgic about those three wins.
Ellis is younger and did not play in the 1978-79 season.
"Gary would take your head off," Wood said, explaining that his friend was better than any point guard he ever faced. He added that their coach, Don DeVoe, didn't get enough credit for his contribution to Tennessee basketball. "He had us ready," Wood said. "He was tough."
He said his team wasn't always made of the men with the best individual statistics, but the Vols exceeded the sum of its parts.
"We won basketball games," Wood said.
As a coach in East Hampton, he noted that his focus is effort, not talent. "We had effort every night when we came out, that's what I try to teach," he said.
Wood was the 27th overall pick in the 1981 NBA draft and was selected by the Utah Jazz as the fourth pick in the second round. He played for one year in the NBA and averaged 3.4 points per game in 42 games. He went on to play basketball overseas in the Continental Basketball Association and in the Spanish League, both as a player and coach over 16 years.
Before earning a four-year scholarship and becoming a star on the Volunteers, he played for three years on East Hampton High School's varsity team. Wood was named all-league, all county and all state in his senior year at East Hampton, where he now coaches.
Wood lives in East Hampton with his wife, Maria Jesus Monzon, and his two children, Dennis, 14, and Luz, 8.
