TSU’s Ford Wins Jobe Award

April 4, 2016

2016 BEN JOBE AWARD

HOUSTON, TX — Tennessee State’s Dana Ford is the recipient of the 2016 Ben Jobe award.

Ford led the Tigers to one of the biggest turnarounds in NCAA history, going from 5-26 in 2014-15 to 20-11 in 2015-16. It was just the third 20-win season at the Division I level. The Tigers also made their first postseason appearance since 2012.

The Ben Jobe Award is presented annually to the top minority coach in division I men’s basketball. An icon in the history of basketball at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Jobe is best known as the head coach of the Southern University, a position he held for 12 seasons.

His record at Southern was 209-141 and included four NCAA Tournament appearances. He also coached the Jaguars to one NIT appearance, five SIAC championships, 11 SWAC titles and two NAIA Tournament Championships. Perhaps his most memorable moment as a coach was Southern’s 93-78 win over Georgia Tech in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament. It stands as one of the great upsets in the history of the event.

Editor: The above is the press release from colleginsider.com.

College Insider.com awards a long list of awards in the offseason and is often a strong supporter of mid-major programs like those found in the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conferences. Their ‘Mid-Major Top 25’ is the standard bearing poll for mid-major programs.

Ford told tsutigers.com that he’s honored by the award and gave his players a lot of credit for the award.

“It’s definitely some great company to be associated with,” Ford said. “It’s another testament to how hard our guys worked to turn the program around, and I just happen to be the guy to oversee it. We’re very thankful to be associated with coaches like that, and I think that speaks volumes about where our program is heading.”

Prior to taking on the head coaching demands at TSU, Ford was an assistant with the Tigers, at Wichita State and at Illinois State of the MVC.

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