Tom Brennan is a radio and television sportscaster and former men's basketball head coach, most notably at the University of Vermont from 1986 to 2005.
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Raised in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, Brennan graduated as the all-time leading scorer at Phillipsburg Catholic High School.[1] Brennan graduated from the University of Georgia in 1971, where, as a senior, he received the men's basketball team leadership award.
He began his coaching after graduating in the fall of 1971 as a graduate assistant at Georgia under Ken Rosemond. Sandwiched around a year as head basketball and baseball coach at Division III Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey, Brennan was an assistant under college basketball coaches Rollie Massimino at Villanova, Bill Raftery at Seton Hall and Bruce Parkhill at William & Mary. In 1982 he was named head coach at Yale where he crafted a four-year record of 46-58 including back-to-back seasons of 14-12 and 13-13. At Yale he coached players such as Earl G. Graves, Jr. "Butch" and NBA veteran Chris Dudley.
In 19 years at Vermont, Brennan led the Catamounts to three NCAA Tournament appearances, including the school's first NCAA Tournament win over BIG EAST champion Syracuse in 2005—the America East's last NCAA win to date. Brennan's last four Vermont teams brought unprecedented positive national publicity to the men's basketball program and to the school.[2]. During his last season, Vermont became the first and only America East team to sell out every one of its home games at Patrick Gymnasium. During the second half of the 2004-05 season the Catamounts were the subject of five parts of ESPN's critically acclaimed nationally televised series, 'The Season'. UVM's upset also was nominated for an ESPY award in 2005.
Standouts that Brennan coached at Vermont include Eddie Benton, the 1996 winner of the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award given to the nation's top senior less than 6-feet tall, Matt Johnson, Kevin Roberson, Trevor Gaines, T.J. Sorrentine and three-time All-American Taylor Coppenrath, a finalist for the 2005 John Wooden National Player of the Year Award.
Brennan also co-hosted a morning radio show in Burlington, Vermont called "Corm and the Coach," with radio personality Steve Cormier, which began on WIZN-FM 106.7 FM in 1992. In 1998[3] the pair moved to WCVP-FM 101.3 and WCVR-FM 102.1 until July 2008,[4] when the Coach decided to retire from his position as morning radio personality. In November 2009, Brennan and Cormier teamed up again to bring "Corm and the Coach" briefly back on the air on 107.1 WNMR before moving to its current home on television on WCAXtra TV and on the internet on NSN.net. Brennan delivers Saturday Night Live-style sports reports and his thoughts on basketball, politics, entertainment, local news and psychology. The Coach’s repertoire also included live, pre-dawn wake-up calls to his players and coaching colleagues. In the 2003 and 2004 off-seasons, he also was a co-host on several ESPN national radio shows. He retired from his coaching position in March 2005.
During the college basketball season, Brennan serves as co-host on Sirius XM's College Basketball Today.[5][6]
Brennan and his wife, Lynn reside on Lake Champlain in Colchester, Vermont. He has two children: Kelly, who graduated from UVM in 1993 and Brian who was a standout guard at Indiana (Pa.) University, which reached the NCAA D-II Elite Eight in 2000.
Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
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Yale (Ivy League) (1982–1986) | |||||||||
1982-83 | Yale | 12-14 | 7-7 | 3rd | |||||
1983-84 | Yale | 7-19 | 4-10 | 8th | |||||
1984-85 | Yale | 14-12 | 7-7 | 4th | |||||
1985-86 | Yale | 13-13 | 7-7 | 4th | |||||
Yale: | 46-58 | 25-31 | |||||||
Vermont (America East Conference) (1986–2005) | |||||||||
1986-87 | Vermont | 5-23 | 3-15 | T-7th | |||||
1987-88 | Vermont | 3-24 | 2-16 | 10th | |||||
1988-89 | Vermont | 6-21 | 4-14 | 9th | |||||
1989-90 | Vermont | 13-17 | 4-8 | 5th | |||||
1990-91 | Vermont | 15-13 | 5-5 | T-3rd | |||||
1991-92 | Vermont | 16-13 | 7-7 | 4th | |||||
1992-93 | Vermont | 10-17 | 4-10 | T-5th | |||||
1993-94 | Vermont | 12-15 | 3-11 | 7th | |||||
1994-95 | Vermont | 14-13 | 7-9 | T-4th | |||||
1995-96 | Vermont | 12-15 | 10-8 | 6th | |||||
1996-97 | Vermont | 14-13 | 7-11 | 6th | |||||
1997-98 | Vermont | 16-11 | 11-7 | T-3rd | |||||
1998-99 | Vermont | 11-16 | 7-11 | 6th | |||||
1999-00 | Vermont | 16-12 | 11-7 | 4th | |||||
2000-01 | Vermont | 12-17 | 7-11 | T-7th | |||||
2001-02 | Vermont | 21-8 | 13-3 | T-1st | |||||
2002-03 | Vermont | 21-12 | 11-5 | 2nd | NCAA First Round | ||||
2003-04 | Vermont | 22-9 | 15-3 | 2nd | NCAA First Round | ||||
2004-05 | Vermont | 25-7 | 16-2 | 1st | NCAA Second Round | ||||
Vermont: | 264-276 | 147-163 | |||||||
Total: | 310-334 | ||||||||
National champion Conference regular season champion Conference tournament champion |
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