It appears Bruce Pearl will be taking his exile from the game of college basketball very seriously. Rather than taking a job in some sort of sports capacity, Pearl has decided to go in a completely different direction. The former Tennessee coach has accepted a job as vice president of marketing for H.T. Hackney Co., a wholesale company that provides products for grocery stores.
While Pearl was a marketing and economics major at Boston College and H.T. Hackney is the 82nd largest privately-held company in America, how long can this really last? At age 51, Pearl says he took the job because it is a solid career and will allow he and his family to remain close to home.
“I worked for 33 years — my entire coaching career — to get to a place like Knoxville,” the former coach said in a statement shared by GoVolsXtra.com. “This is where my family lives, this is home. We have made life-long friends here and we are very blessed to have this opportunity.”
Pearl is a guy who can do and say whatever he wants and still somehow be loved by the media, so you know he could have broken into broadcasting if he chose. You can say he is a disgrace to college basketball, but his shirtless, chest painted antics lead us to believe he loves the game as much as anyone else who coached at the Division 1 level. Needless to say, I think I would have a back-up plan in place if I were in charge of hiring at H.T. Hackney.
Chest bump to The Dagger for the story.
