You might call it the final act of the MLK 50 observances around our city this year. With very little fanfare at the start of Tuesday’s city council session, the council honored T.O. Jones, the leader of the union representing city sanitation workers and the leader of the 1968 strike by those workers. Jones was a pivotal figure in the strike who soon after lost his position with the local union in the internal politics of AFSCME as the local became a powerful political symbol.

2. Missouri Coach Odom’s Rant Giving Team an Edge - Wednesday, July 25, 2018

After a 51-14 loss to Auburn in the fourth week of the season, Missouri was 1-3 and had lost three home games. The lone victory? A blowout – and meaningless – win over an FCS team.

This was not the logical point for Missouri head coach and former University of Memphis defensive coordinator Barry Odom to bow up and defend himself and his team after it just got run off its own field. But that’s what he did, showing an intensity usually hidden behind closed doors.

3. Tigers’ 2018 Football Slate Includes Trip to Missouri - Saturday, February 17, 2018

The 2018 University of Memphis football schedule is out and includes seven home games, five on Saturdays, and a road trip to Columbia, Missouri, to play Barry Odom’s Missouri Tigers.

4. Tigers’ 2018 Football Slate Includes Trip to Missouri - Thursday, February 15, 2018

The 2018 University of Memphis football schedule is out and includes seven home games, five on Saturdays, and a road trip to Columbia, Missouri, to play Barry Odom’s Missouri Tigers.

5. Latest SEC Football Rankings: 1. Sexton. 2. Saban. - Friday, December 8, 2017

Fourteen schools play football in the SEC. Six of them, or 42.9 percent, now have a different man coaching their football team than they had at the start of the season.

That’s a lot of turnover. It suggests coaching in the SEC is often a battle against personal extinction.

6. Tigers Savor AAC West-Clinching Victory and Move Up in the Polls - Tuesday, November 21, 2017

The obvious benefit to the University of Memphis beating SMU 66-45 Saturday at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium was winning the American Athletic Conference West Division title. Getting to hold that trophy high in the air. Achieving something no one can ever take away.

7. In No-Nonsense Business Of SEC, Bottom Line is Bottom Line - Friday, October 6, 2017

That red Pontiac Fiero. Texas A&M football coach Kevin Sumlin had one back in the day.

“Remember those things?” Sumlin said before the season, answering a question about his job security and recalling his career’s humble beginnings. “They caught fire in the back and all that other stuff.”

8. Deadspin Likes Memphis More Than AP, Coaches Polls Do - Wednesday, September 20, 2017

As great as the 48-45 victory over then-No. 25 UCLA was, as nice as it has been to hear the University of Memphis getting national mentions, the Tigers have work to do. Maybe more than you’d imagine.

9. Looks Like Another 8-4 Season for Tennessee - Friday, August 25, 2017

Oops. I goofed last year. So did lots of other people who thought Tennessee’s football team would win the SEC East Division and go to the league championship game for the first time since 2007.

10. Last Word: Gentrification, ServiceMaster's New CEO Speaks and Gateway Resolution - Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Gentrification in Binghampton? The g-word is a term that can start a real debate in Memphis these days. But those leading the hard fought redevelopment in Binghampton say a tax increment financing district there would mean an immediate capital infusion of $332,000 that would help to ward off the possibility of gentrification.

11. Former U of M Assistant Barry Odom To Try To ‘Fix’ Problems He Inherited at Missouri - Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Barry Odom’s first season as coach at Missouri did not go like he envisioned. A former defensive coordinator at the University of Memphis (2012-2014), Odom’s first Missouri team led the SEC in total offense last season (500.5 yards per game) while finishing last in total defense (479.7 ypg).

12. SEC Hot Seat Index: From Saban to Sumlin - Friday, July 21, 2017

When it comes to Southeastern Conference football coaches, there are three kinds of seats – hot, hotter and hottest.

There is, of course, one exception. You guessed it.

Nick Saban. To quote the late ESPN anchor Stuart Scott, Saban’s seat is as cool as the other side of your pillow.

13. Sports Notebook: Grizz Moves Bring Tyreke Evans Back to Memphis - Monday, July 10, 2017

The Memphis Grizzlies continued changing their roster for the upcoming season by agreeing to a one-year contract with free agent guard Tyreke Evans.

Evans, according to ESPN, will make $3.3 million on the one-year deal. Evans, 27, played one year for the University of Memphis and then was the fourth overall pick in the 2009 draft by the Sacramento Kings.

14. SEC Ready to Tee Up Media Days; UT’s AD Raises the Bar - Monday, March 6, 2017

It’s almost time to kick off the 2017 college football season. And by that we mean that SEC Media Days should again be flagged for encroachment on summer.

The conference has not yet jumped in front of the Fourth of July, but SEC Media Days in Hoover, Alabama, continues to move ever closer to summer’s signature date.

15. Memphis Football Bigger Than One Coach Or QB - Friday, December 16, 2016

As we count down to the University of Memphis playing in the Tuesday, Dec. 20, Boca Raton Bowl, I find myself recalling what athletics director Tom Bowen said when pressed about why Arizona State offensive coordinator Mike Norvell was the Tigers’ choice for head coach.

16. SEC Grades: ‘A’ for Alabama; UT, Ole Miss Should Be Grounded - Friday, December 2, 2016

Even as the Ole Miss football program was reeling from an NCAA investigation that gained momentum on the night of the NFL Draft when a former player said he received money from a staff member, optimism about the season ahead was still high.

17. Brick by Brick, UT’s Season Falling From Rocky Top - Wednesday, November 2, 2016

When Butch Jones arrived at Tennessee, he adopted a “brick-by-brick” mantra for describing the building of the Vols program. And the bricks did appear to be getting stacked higher: five wins in 2013, seven wins the next year, and nine last season.

18. Bama Best, Auburn on the Rise, and Houston a Mere Pretender - Wednesday, October 26, 2016

The first College Football Playoff rankings come out on Nov. 3, after Week 9. The final ranking is issued on Dec. 6. After eight weeks, we don’t know what the four-team playoff will look like, but we have a pretty good idea what it won’t look like.

19. Looks Like 10-2, SEC Title Game, Orange Bowl for UT - Monday, September 5, 2016

Editor’s note: Nashville sports correspondent Dave Link has been accurate in predicting season outcomes for the Tennessee Vols in recent years. His 2016 season predictions, released just before press time, culminates with an SEC Championship appearance. Here’s his take on the season…

20. Safe to Scorching: SEC Coaches Feel the Burn - Friday, August 12, 2016

There are two kinds of football coaches in the Southeastern Conference: those that have gotten fired and those that haven’t gotten fired – yet.

This is a conference in a constant state of flux for football. The average tenure at their current schools of the 14 SEC coaches is 3.57 years. That’s right: Just making it through a full four-year recruiting cycle is tough.

21. Too Big To Ignore: The SEC and Its Ever-Growing Football Media Days - Saturday, July 16, 2016

HOOVER, Ala. – The SEC football preseason always has been loud. More than 30 years ago, the noise came via the Skywriters Tour and the rattle and roar of a DC-3 propeller plane carrying rumpled, hardworking – and often hard-drinking – sports writers to the 10 Southeastern Conference campuses for essentially unfettered access to the league’s coaches and players.

22. The Right Fit - Saturday, December 12, 2015

It was the middle of the season and the Tigers were rolling along at 7-0. They had climbed to No. 16 in the national polls and Paxton Lynch was being talked about as potentially the best quarterback in next spring’s NFL Draft.

23. Memphis Tigers Football Hitches Hopes To Young Mike Norvell - Tuesday, December 8, 2015

He was Mr. Joe College, the star wide receiver on the football team at Central Arkansas. She was the roommate of a girl on the basketball team that was a friend of his.

Mike Norvell was supposed to take the ballroom dancing class with the basketball player. Didn’t exactly work out that way.

24. Memphis Football Hitches Hopes to Young Mike Norvell - Friday, December 4, 2015

He was Mr. Joe College, the star wide receiver on the football team at Central Arkansas. She was the roommate of a girl on the basketball team that was a friend of his.

Mike Norvell was supposed to take the ballroom dancing class with the basketball player. Didn’t exactly work out that way.

25. Memphis Football Hitches Hopes to Young Mike Norvell - Saturday, December 5, 2015

He was Mr. Joe College, the star wide receiver on the football team at Central Arkansas. She was the roommate of a girl on the basketball team that was a friend of his.

Mike Norvell was supposed to take the ballroom dancing class with the basketball player. Didn’t exactly work out that way.

26. Memphis Football Hitches Hopes to Young Mike Norvell - Saturday, December 5, 2015

He was Mr. Joe College, the star wide receiver on the football team at Central Arkansas. She was the roommate of a girl on the basketball team that was a friend of his.

Mike Norvell was supposed to take the ballroom dancing class with the basketball player. Didn’t exactly work out that way.

27. Memphis Football Hitches Hopes to Young Mike Norvell - Saturday, December 5, 2015

He was Mr. Joe College, the star wide receiver on the football team at Central Arkansas. She was the roommate of a girl on the basketball team that was a friend of his.

Mike Norvell was supposed to take the ballroom dancing class with the basketball player. Didn’t exactly work out that way.

28. Memphis Football Hitches Hopes to Young Mike Norvell - Saturday, December 5, 2015

He was Mr. Joe College, the star wide receiver on the football team at Central Arkansas. She was the roommate of a girl on the basketball team that was a friend of his.

Mike Norvell was supposed to take the ballroom dancing class with the basketball player. Didn’t exactly work out that way.

29. Norvell Is Tigers' New Football Coach - Friday, December 4, 2015

When the University of Memphis hired a largely unknown offensive coordinator out of Texas Christian University he was just 35 years old. Only college football insiders knew and appreciated who Justin Fuente was and what he might become.

30. College Football’s Coaching Carousel Is Still Spinning - Friday, December 4, 2015

In an ideal world, a kid climbs aboard a carousel and it’s all fun and good times. But the reality is, sometimes the experience is dizzying – even nauseating.

And so it goes with the current college football coaching carousel.

31. College Football Notebook: Memphis Coaching Search a Waiting Game - Wednesday, December 2, 2015

As this is being written, the University of Memphis coaching search is a game of wait and see. Athletic director Tom Bowen & Co. apparently remain fixed on Missouri defensive coordinator Barry Odom, who served in the same position for three seasons at Memphis before going to Missouri before the 2015 season.

32. Search Underway For New Memphis Football Coach - Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Justin Fuente is officially the new football coach at Virginia Tech, and at the University of Memphis the search for his successor has officially begun.

33. New Deputy Memphis AD Mark Alnutt Has Power Five Aspirations - Thursday, September 24, 2015

Looking back, Mark Alnutt always was an inside guy.

As a kid, this wasn’t by choice. His asthma was so bad that flare-ups would have him spending several days in hospital oxygen tents.

Not until he was in the sixth grade, when inhalers were readily available, did Alnutt get to play little league football.

34. College Football Notebook: Preseason Spotlight on Memphis Tigers Defense - Tuesday, August 18, 2015

The University of Memphis lost eight starters from a defense that played a huge role in last year’s 10-win season.

But they also lost coordinator Barry Odom, who returned to alma mater Missouri as defensive coordinator.

35. Alabama Still Team to Beat, Tennessee On the Rise in 2015 Football Season - Friday, August 14, 2015

Dak Prescott, the best returning quarterback in the Southeastern Conference, isn’t buying the national narrative that the league is “down” because the first College Football Playoff title game featured Ohio State beating Oregon.

36. College Football Notebook: Nick Saban Needs a Quarterback - Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Another season at Alabama and another battle for quarterback.

Last year’s runner-up, Florida State transfer Jacob Coker, returns for a second shot at the job after losing out to Blake Sims in 2014. Redshirt freshman David Cornwell showed enough last spring to become a contender, and the race may be wide enough open to go beyond these two if neither can assert himself as the leader of the offense.

37. Missouri Still Overlooked Among SEC Teams - Wednesday, August 5, 2015

You can take the football team out of the Big 12, but you can’t take the Big 12 out of the football team.

Or at least that’s how it looks when one considers that the University of Missouri is still being overlooked in the Southeastern Conference despite having won consecutive SEC East Division championships.

38. Odom Leaves Tigers for Missouri Coaching Job - Saturday, January 3, 2015

Barry Odom, who had been defensive coordinator and safeties coach at the University of Memphis, is returning to the University of Missouri to become defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, and again work for Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel.

39. Odom Leaving Tigers For Missouri Coaching Job - Monday, December 29, 2014

Barry Odom, who had been defensive coordinator and safeties coach at the University of Memphis, is returning to the University of Missouri to become defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, and again work for Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel.

40. This Year: Accomplished - Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Late in what already was an improbable and wondrous season, University of Memphis linebacker Charles Harris was talking about the contrast between life before Justin Fuente became the Tigers’ head coach and life after Fuente became head coach.

41. Tigers’ Progression Dependent on Solid Defense - Tuesday, August 5, 2014

When the Tigers’ 3-9 season was done, there were not a lot of statistics to point to with pride. But the University of Memphis did finish the 2013 college football season ranked 12th nationally against the run, and a respectable 39th nationally in total defense.

42. Methodist's Marshall to Serve On American Heart Association Board - Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Barry S. Marshall, administrator of Clinical Business Development and Cardiovascular Service Line at Methodist University Hospital, has been named to a three-year term on the board of directors of the Shelby County Division of the American Heart Association. Marshall joined Methodist in 2004 as the director of the Transplant Institute at Methodist University Hospital.