Former Tech men's basketball/tennis head coach Connie Inman passes away at 91
Inman coached the Golden Eagle men's basketball team for seven seasons, guiding Tech Sports Hall of Famers
By Thomas Corhern, TTU Athletics Media Relations
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Connie Inman, a former head coach for the Tennessee Tech men's basketball team, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 91. He leaves behind a loving legacy of support for his student-athletes and an adventurous spirit that extended long after his days on the court ended.
Services will be through Hooper, Huddleston & Horner. Details have not been finalized yet.
Inman was the head coach for the Golden Eagle men's basketball team for seven seasons, stretching from 1969 to 1976, as he put together a 79-94 record, earning a third-place finish in the Ohio Valley Conference in the 1975-76 season and three fourth-place runs in 1971-72, 1972-73, and 1974-75.
He also coached Wayne Pack (1970-73) and Frank Jones (1972-76) – both of whom went on to reach the professional level and were inducted into the Tennessee Tech Sports Hall of Fame. Pack was drafted by the American Basketball Association's San Diego Conquistadors in 1973 before playing with the Indiana Pacers and Iberia Superstars overseas, while Jones was drafted by the National Basketball Association's Buffalo Braves in 1976.
The All-Ohio Valley Conference talent Inman oversaw included Pack, Al Lewis, Rich Stone, Jones, and Tom Schmidt. Nine players during his tenure – Jim Sutton, Ron Sutton, Pack, Lewis, Jones, Tony DiLeo, Schmidt, Bobby Porter and Jimmy Howell – were later named to the Tech Men's Basketball All-Century Team as part of the program's centennial celebration in 2021-22.
Inman oversaw tennis for the Golden Eagles in 1966 and 1967, guiding future Tech tennis head coach, administrator, and Tech Sports Hall of Famer Randy Smith.
In his bio in the 1971-72 men's basketball media guide, Inman was described as an advocate of "40 minutes of quality, heads-up, aggressive basketball" as gleaned from his days at Miami (Ohio) after earning his bachelor's degree there in 1958, followed by a master's in 1965.
After graduation, he was a physical education instructor for the Piqua (Ohio) City School System, then coached at Dennison (Ohio) High School before becoming the head coach at Talawanda High School in Oxford, Ohio, from 1959 to 1965.
He came to Cookeville in 1965 as he oversaw the Tech freshman squad and was an assistant under head coach Kenny Sidwell, including the 1967-68 season with an OVC tournament championship.
Inman meant the world to his former players. As noted in the 2025 edition of the Crawford Alumni Center's Gratitude publication, before Inman's 90th birthday in 2024, several players recollected on how Inman impacted their lives.
Pack: "When I was lucky enough to be inducted into the Tennessee Tech Sports Hall of Fame, Coach Inman threw a big party at his house, and all the guys were there. It was packed from the front door to the back.
"We never won a conference (title) while I was there, but we always had a competitive team, and we always played hard. I think that was because of Coach Inman. He just really knew how to get the most out of people. My career was in human resource management for Fortune 500 companies, and when I would assemble the team in the conference room, I would say, 'If I'm the smartest man in the room, we are in trouble.' You always have to rely on your team."
Lewis: "Coach Inman played a big part when I bought my first car. The first house I rented in Cookeville – I didn't have any credit – so he was involved in that. He hired me as his assistant coach at Tech, and I worked for him for years. He, Coach Jim Bradbury and John McClellan were like father figures for me. There were very few things I did that Coach Inman wasn't involved in or I didn't get his opinion on."
Dan Furlong, who had a 30-year coaching career of his own: "The thing I learned from Coach Inman is that it's not just about the X's and O's – it's about how you treat people and how you get the best out of them. I learned how to mold a team and how each person fits a role. It's about each individual person.
"Coach Inman was a guy who took a chance on us, and you have to appreciate a guy who will do that. We will appreciate what he did for us for the rest of our lives."
After leaving Tech after the 1975-76 campaign, Inman went into the insurance business, selling with his wife, Norma, until they retired in 2010.
Outside of his coaching career, Inman was an avid outdoorsman. He traveled to the Canadian wilderness nearly every summer – only missing a year here or there – with sometimes multiple 2,800-mile round trips to one of his favorite spots.
Legendary Tennessee sportswriter – and one of Inman's favorite fishing companions -- Larry Woody noted in 2024 that Inman aimed to spend his 90th birthday "with a shore lunch of fresh-caught walleyes on the banks of Little Vermillion Lake, serenaded by the lonesome wail of loons, peal of eagles and the occasional distant howl of a wolf. His birthday candles will be watercolor sunsets and shimmering Northern Lights."
