Nice Praise For Buzz

[Tugg Speedman]

Tribute is a must at Navarro for Orr
By Michael Adams, The Corsicana Daily Sun
April 19, 2008

http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/sports/local_story_110210455.html

I have to admit I was deeply saddened when I heard the news of Lewis Orr's retirement from Navarro basketball.

I have only been with coach Orr through one season, but it was enough to get to know a very passionate basketball coach.

I met coach Orr for the first time at the Region XIV Media Day in Athens in late October.

As a new guy embarking on a new professional relationship, I was a little intimidated by him.

It was nothing personal to coach Orr. I am intimidated by any basketball coach when meeting them for the first time.

Basketball coaches are a different breed of coaches. They are more flamboyant, more passionate and a lot more vocal than most other coaches in other sports.

In other words, basketball coaches have very little time for chit-chat.

Coach Orr fit everything I have come to know about basketball coaches. Maybe not as much as a Trinity Valley's Pat Smith, Lon Morris' Dale Dotson or San Jacinto's Scott Gernander, but Orr was in a league of his own.

Although I haven't been around long enough to experience the legacy coach Orr has bestowed on Navarro College and its basketball program, I have been around the sport of basketball long enough and have an absolute love of the game to know that Navarro had itself a true legend.

Orr was the Bobby Knight, Eddie Sutton or Roy Williams of the junior college level. He should be remembered as such.

He was an excellent teacher of the game and has protegee'd one of the hottest up-and-coming coaches at the NCAA Division I level — Marquette's new head man Buzz Williams.

His legacy will live on through the players he coached at Navarro and the players of future generations.

Navarro has a responsibility to remember that legacy.

Oklahoma State enshrined Sutton by naming the floor of its arena after the legendary coach.

I think it would be the right thing to do at Navarro to do the same thing for coach Orr. Wouldn't it sound wonderful to say, "playing on the Lewis Orr Court at the K. and Ida Wolens Special Events Center at Navarro College?"

Hey, it's just a suggestion.

A man who has left such a legacy on Navarro basketball and junior college basketball should be remembered forever. What better way to do it than naming the court he helped build after him?

I am a big pro wrestling nerd and one of the greatest of all time recently retired — Ric Flair.

Flair had a catch phrase, "Diamonds are forever and so is Ric Flair."

The same could be said for coach Orr.

I think I speak for the entire community of Corsicana and Navarro College when I say, thank you for the memories coach Orr.