By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – It's been a little over a full calendar year since the COVID-19 pandemic changed the very fabric of how people go about their everyday lives. Not only was the world of athletics turned upside down, with the NCAA cancelling all spring competition and making constant adjustments and changes to this year's fall, winter and spring seasons, but large gatherings of people, in general, were quickly put to a halt throughout the country in hopes to prevent the spread of the virus.
With those changes in place last April, the 2020 Tennessee Tech University Alumni Association Awards banquet was officially postponed with hopes to hold a live event in the fall. Recognizing there was still no way to hold a live event safely for everyone involved, it was decided that the six winners would be honored with a video presentation and virtual receptions on the evening of Apr. 9 as part of the 2021 Wings Up Weekend.
As part of the Apr. 9 celebration is not one, but two Tech Athletics' alumni, a pair of Golden Eagles that have had vastly different impacts on the University, but both incredibly important and deserving of their respective honors. Former baseball standout Mike Winchester was selected as one of three winners of the 2020 Outstanding Philanthropy Award while former football student-athlete Jake Hoot was honored as the 2020 Outstanding Young Alumnus.
A 1996 inductee into the Tennessee Tech Sports Hall of Fame, Mike Winchester has been perhaps even more valuable to the Athletics Department and University as a whole after his illustrious career on the baseball diamond, all based on his incredible generosity and love for his alma mater.
Those who followed Winchester's career likely had no doubt he would turn into a renowned success. A 1975 graduate of Tech, he was the first All-American in Golden Eagle baseball history and three-time All-OVC Eastern Division Team honoree. He wasn't just special on the field, however, showing his prowess both in the classroom and community by winning the University's highest honor in the Derryberry Award.
Winchester's name can be found all over the Tech baseball record book. He concluded his career as the program's all-time hits leader with 185 in his four seasons. He also racked up more steals (73) than any other Golden Eagle in history, a mark that still ranks third today.
His .413 batting average during the 1975 campaign marked the third-highest in program history and still ranks ninth today. Winchester's 40 stolen bags in 1975 represented a school record and still comes in as the third-highest total in one year by a Golden Eagle.
After graduating from Tech at the top of his class with a degree in history, Winchester attended the University of Tennessee College of Law and received a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree in 1978. He is the founding member and President of Winchester, Sellers, Foster & Steele, P.C., a law firm concentrating on creditor's rights, banking, commercial, and business litigation in Knoxville and the surrounding areas.
For more than 30 years, Winchester has supported the baseball program, scholarships for history majors, and professional development opportunities for history faculty and students. Since his first gift of $20 in 1986, he has contributed more than $380,000 to the University and more than $175,000 to benefit Athletics and the baseball program.
In 1999, he established the Winchester Lecture Series and Scholarship Endowment to support outstanding history majors and expand and enhance the educational experience at Tech. For over 20 years, the lecture series has brought guest speakers, chosen by the Department of History's faculty, to the University to present ideas, thoughts, and exposure to other disciplines and philosophies that are of interest to students, faculty, staff, and the community.
Hoot came to Tennessee Tech in 2009, looking for an opportunity to play football. He walked onto the team, then worked his way up the depth chart, playing as an offensive lineman with the Golden Eagles through their Ohio Valley Conference championship season in 2011.
While he was a student at Tech, he took part in Open Mic nights at the Backdoor Playhouse, beginning his on-stage career. He graduated from the University in 2013. Hoot became a mainstay performing all over the region at different venues and events, while also taking on a sales position locally at Zimmer Broadcasting.
In the Spring of 2019, he was asked to audition for NBC's The Voice television show. He made it through the opening rounds of auditions to reach the show's televised blind auditions, where he was selected by Kelly Clarkson to compete for her team on the show. Hoot advanced, not only through the knockout battles, but all the way to the finals.
Competing for the show's championship and a recording contract, the former Golden Eagle lineman drew from his OVC championship experience and came out on top, winning the show's entire competition and cementing himself as a local legend in the Upper Cumberland.
Hoot has also been championing several fund-raising endeavors along the way, including the sale of #TeamHoot shirts, with proceeds going to the Upper Cumberland Habitat for Humanity. He showed his gratitude for the University and its role in helping bring awareness to his journey on the show with a free concert in January 2020.
Photos by Tennessee Tech University & Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
