Jim Calhoun, the former coach of the Connecticut Huskies who retired two months ago will make his debut Friday in the UConn broadcast booth as they take on Michigan State at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
The Hall of Fame coach will assist Joe D’Ambrosio’s play-by-play by providing color to the Armed Forces Classic on the UConn Radio Network. Calhoun is filling in for color commentator Wayne Norman, who is staying behind in Connecticut to broadcast the Huskies football game Friday against the Pittsburgh Panthers.
In September, Calhoun retired from coaching after spending the last 26 of his 40 years of coaching at UConn, where he won three national championships and finished his career with 873 total wins.
Since retiring, Calhoun has been serving as an assistant to athletic director Warde Manuel, but will not be fully retired until March 21, 2013. When that day comes he will become head coach emeritus at the university.
For right now there are no plans at this point to have Calhoun broadcast other UConn basketball games according school spokesman Mike Enright.
“I always said that I would know when it was time, whenever that might be,” Calhoun said while announcing his retirement in September. “The hip injury really didn’t enter into the decision, except that it gave me more time to think about it and the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that this was the right time to move on to the next phase of my life.”
The 70-year-old broke his hip during a bike ride in early August and had to have surgery to repair it.
Kevin Ollie was appointed to the head coaching position in the wake of Calhoun’s retirement since serving as his assistant from the start of 2010. At the time of his appointment as coach, Ollie showed nothing but gratitude towards the legend.
“I am very honored and humbled to become the UConn men’s basketball coach,” Ollie said at the time. “I cannot put into words how grateful I am to Coach Jim Calhoun, who retires today as one of the most legendary coaches in the history of college basketball. Coach Calhoun brought me here to Connecticut as a person right out of high school and has mentored me into the person I have become today.”
