Mike Glenn Named The 2010 Atlanta Tipoff Club Outstanding Contributor to Basketball Award Winner
Honored for Dedication to Hearing-Impaired Athletes

ATLANTA (March 10, 2010) – The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced today that Georgia native and former NBA star Mike Glenn has been selected as the 2010 Steve Schmidt Outstanding Contributor to Basketball award recipient. The award is given annually to the individual who has made an outstanding impact on basketball in the state of Georgia.

Glenn will be among those honored at the 2010 Atlanta Tipoff Club’s Naismith Awards Banquet presented by AT&T and SunTrust on March 23 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. 

A legend at Coosa High School in Rome, Ga., where he was the state’s top player in 1973, Glenn starred at Southern Illinois University. He was drafted as the 23rd overall pick in the 1977 NBA draft and went on to play 10 seasons in the NBA with the Buffalo Braves, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks before retiring in 1987. Known for his shooting accuracy, Glenn was named “Stinger” by his Knicks teammates and is still the Hawks’ all-time leader in field goal percentage, shooting more than 50 percent from the field in each of his four seasons with the team.

In addition to being a star on the court, Glenn has made a significant impact off the court and in his community as the founder of the Mike Glenn All-Star Basketball Camp for the Hearing-Impaired, a basketball camp dedicated to serving hearing-impaired athletes. While Glenn was growing up, his father, Charles Glenn, taught and coached athletics at the Georgia School for the Deaf. Mike Glenn quickly became a member of the school community, where he learned sign language and admired his dad’s athletes.

“I am, indeed, honored by this recognition,” said Glenn.  “Dad's athletes and students were my first heroes as they shared everything with me and adopted me into their culture.  I learned lessons on sharing and inclusion that shaped my life, created my character, and defined my destiny.”

While playing for the Knicks in 1980, Glenn attended a basketball tournament for local deaf schools. That experience encouraged him to start a basketball camp for deaf athletes, and as a result, the nation’s first major basketball camp for deaf athletes was born in New York City. In 1982, the camp moved south to Decatur, Ga. after Glenn joined the Hawks. The camp is offered free of charge to as many as 120 athletes each year and gives them the opportunity to develop their basketball skills and have fun in a unique setting. Glenn has touched thousands of lives through the camp and will celebrate the camp’s 31st anniversary in 2010.

After his retirement from the NBA, Glenn served as an analyst for ESPN, WGNX, SportsSouth, TNT, WTBS and CNN, and he currently serves as a color analyst on FOX SportsSouth for the Atlanta Hawks. He also served as commissioner of the World Basketball Association from 2005-07.  Glenn was previously awarded the NBA Walter P. Kennedy Citizenship Award and the NBA Spirit of Love award.

ABOUT THE ATLANTA TIPOFF CLUB
The Atlanta Tipoff Club, an Atlanta Sports Council property, is committed to promoting the game of basketball and recognizing the outstanding accomplishments of those who make the game so exciting. The Atlanta Tipoff Club, founded during the 1956-57 season, has presented the Naismith Trophy every year since UCLA’s Lew Alcindor first won the award in 1969.  Old Dominion’s Anne Donovan won the inaugural Women’s Naismith Trophy in 1983. 

The Naismith Award is the most prestigious award in all of college and high school basketball, recognizing the Men’s and Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year, Men’s and Women’s College Basketball Coach of the Year, as well as awards for outstanding achievement in high school basketball, officiating, and contribution to the game.  For more information visit www.naismithawards.com.  The Atlanta Sports Council was created in 1985 under the original name of Sports 2000, and is a division of the Metro Atlanta Chamber.  For more information visit www.AtlantaSportsCouncil.com.