Tougaloo, MS- The Tougaloo College Lady Bulldogs will hold their First Annual Tip-Off Banquet on Saturday, September 20, 2008 in the Kroger Gymnasium at Tougaloo College.  Legendary women’s basketball coach, Van Chancellor, will be the featured speaker.

Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Louisiana State University, Chancellor served for 10 years as head coach of the Houston Comets from 1996-2006. During that time, he was named the WNBA Coach of the Year three times (1997, 1998, 1999) and he led the franchise to the league’s first four titles. Under Chancellor’s direction, the Comets were the only team in the WNBA to make the playoffs in each of the first seven seasons of the league. Chancellor continued his success in Baton Rouge, leading the LSU Lady Tigers back to the Final Four. He guided the program to its third Southeastern Conference regular season title in four seasons.

The event will feature dinner, a silent auction and “grab table,” and a special celebrity appearance. Proceeds will benefit the Lady Bulldogs basketball team. The team is coached by Lee Payton (head coach) and Dawn Brown (assistant coach).

For more information, contact Eric Pilcher, Assistant Sports Information Director, Tougaloo College at 601.977.6161.

Founded in 1869, Tougaloo College is a private, historically black, coeducational four-year liberal arts institution, located on the northern edge of Jackson, Mississippi. Known nationally as "The Cradle of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi," the College is led by its first female and 13th president, Dr. Beverly Wade Hogan. Dr. Hogan is a 1973 graduate of the College and a native Mississippian. Under her visionary leadership, the College has increased its enrollment by 12% and boasts a student retention rate of 68%.

Tougaloo College ranks among the top 50 U.S. institutions whose graduates earn PHDs in science and engineering disciplines and among the top 15 historically black colleges and universities in the graduation of females with undergraduate degrees in the physical sciences. The College has produced more graduates who have completed their PhD degrees through the UNCF-Mellon Doctoral Fellowship Program than any other institution in the nation.

Listed as one of the Best Colleges in the Southeast by The Princeton Review (2007 and 2008 editions), the highest ranking Mississippi HBCU on U.S. News and World Report's list of "America's Best Black College" (2008) and the only Mississippi institution ranked among the top 20 liberal arts institutions in the nation by Washington Monthly (2007), 66% of its graduates enter professional and graduate schools immediately after graduation. Tougaloo College is the leading producer of African American health professionals, including over 40% of the physicians and dentists, practicing in the state of Mississippi. Among its graduates are more than one-third of the state's African American attorneys and educators including teachers, principals, school superintendents, college/university faculty and administrators.