#TomChildress January 23

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For January 2024 several of us will be participating in the “30-Day 6 Degrees of Separation Coach4aday Challenge”-today we dive into connections between TOM CHILDRESS and Dave Davis.

Today’s post does a little bobbing and weaving on connecting a number of basketball coaches and their ties to Pfeiffer University. Tom Childress is the first name I want to share but he made an important hire of Bobby Lutz in 1986 who created an impressive coaching tree. Tom also mentored his own assistant coach John Lentz who replaced him as head basketball coach in 1983.

Tom Childress accomplished a lot in his career. He was a great coach and director of athletics at Pfeiffer from 1969-1990. then he went back to his alma mater Catawba College to do a lot including admissions and external relations.

Tom offered a friend of mine Wendell Staton some fantastic advice he learned in external relations/fundraising that I have stolen and shared with many. His quote “If you want someone to give you advice ask them for money-If you want someone to give you money ask them for their advice”.

Rules of the Challenge

Many people have heard of this concept. The notion of six degrees of separation grew out of work conducted by the social psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. It then became a 1993 film named appropriately “Six Degrees of Separation.”

Organizing a six degrees of separation challenge involves creating a chain of people, each connected to the next by a mutual acquaintance. The goal is to demonstrate that any two people in the world can be connected through a chain of six or fewer personal connections.

How to Participate

Here is how to participate:

1. Identify the First and Last Person in the Chain.
2. Go thru the connections with a brief explanation.
3. Do this daily for 30 Days posting on social media with the hashtag #Coach4adayChallenge

Day 23-Tom Childress-Dave Davis

6 Degrees of Separation-Tom Childress-John Lentz-Bobby Lutz-Benny Moss-Kirk Earlywine-Dave Davis

1. Tom Childress was the head basketball coach at Pfeiffer from 1969-1983-He hired John Lentz who was at UNC Pembroke under Joe Gallagher as his assistant coach in 1976-77.
2. John Lentz-played basketball at Lenoir-Rhyne and was a teammate of Rick Barnes. John’s son Bryan is now on Rick’s staff at University of Tennessee. John after college went to UNCP as assistant coach then on to Pfeiffer from 1977 to 1986. He was the Head Coach at Pfeiffer for three season. When John left Pfeiffer Tom Childress hired Bobby Lutz.
3. Bobby Lutz became the Head Coach at Pfeiffer in1986 and remained there for 9 seasons. In 1995 he left to be an assistant for Jeff Mullins at UNC Charlotte. During his time at Pfeiffer he had a NAIA powerhouse and created a great rivalry with UNC Pembroke. Bobby had two dynamic assistant coaches in Benny Moss and Dave Davis. Benny played for Bobby at Pfeiffer after transferring from UNCC.
4. Benny Moss would join Bobby Lutz at UNCC in 2000. After 6 years at Charlotte he would become Head Coach at UNCW and then assistant coach at Coastal Carolina under Cliff Ellis. Today he is interim Head Coach at CCU. When Bobby Lutz left Pfeiffer in 1995 to go to UNCC he was replaced by Kirk Earlywine.
5. Kirk Earlywine grew up in Indiana but was recruited to play college basketball for UNC Pembroke by Billy Lee. When Billy left UNCP in 1985 to become the Head Coach at Campbell Kirk followed him there. He eventually became as assistant coach and arrived at Pfeiffer in 1995 from Central Michigan. He coached one season and was replaced by Dave Davis. Earlywine would become the HC at Eastern Washington.
6. Dave Davis is the winningest coach in the history of the Pfeiffer and is a member of the institution’s Hall of Fame as in Tom Childress-Bobby Lutz. He was the coach from 1996-2010. Prior to coming to Pfeiffer as Head Coach he was at Barton. One of the assistant coaches that Dave had at Barton was Matt Painter the current head coach at Purdue. Dave left Pfeiffer and coached for seven years. He left Newberry and became an Associate Coach at Winthrop, College of Charleston, and VMI before retiring in January 2024.

Dave Davis