Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said Joe Hall was willing to give a younger coach like him advice. (SEC Photo)
Before Auburn hosted Kentucky last week, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl joined a long list of college coaches praising former UK coach Joe B. Hall.
“I would be remiss if I did not once again tell you what a wonderful man Joe B. Hall was,” Pearl said after Hall’s passing at age 93. “Not only did he do an amazing job, he was a good person and he loved his players, cared about his staff.”
Pearl won the Adolph Rupp Coach of the Year Award when he was the head coach at Tennessee. He still remembers Hall reaching out to congratulate him.
“He was also very willing to provide advice as an elder statesman,” Pearl said. “I couldn’t believe how much he knew about me and he knew about our team and he even had some advice for me, so I’ll cherish that.”
At the Kentucky team hotel in Auburn, the video message board the night before the UK-Auburn game had a salute to Hall also.
Maybe it was just coincidence but a week after Hall’s passing, Pearl announced on his postgame radio show after the win over Kentucky that a banner will be raised at Auburn honoring former coach Sonny Smith. He was the head coach at Auburn from 1978-88 and went to the NCAA Tournament five straight years from 1984-88.
Pearl said the honor was long overdue for the 84-year-old Smith, who has been the Auburn Radio Network analyst for several years. Early in his career Smith also was a high school coach in Kentucky.
