ESPN broadcaster, former Gamecocks football coach to address students at Dec. 17 ceremony
Dr. Lou is coming back to Columbia.
Lou Holtz will speak at USC’s winter commencement ceremony next month, the university announced Thursday.
Holtz coached USC’s football team from 1999 to 2004, starting with a rocky 0-11 season before earning National Coach of the Year nods from “Football News” and “American Football Coaches Quarterly” in his second season and a pair of AP top-25 finishes. He’s also gained notoriety as a head coach at Notre Dame, which he led to a national championship in 1988, and as a broadcaster on ESPN.
Holtz and his wife Beth also created an endowment for USC’s Thomas Cooper Library, which added new materials and resources to the library for undergraduates, according to a university release.
On Dec. 17, he’ll come back to South Carolina to address graduates from USC’s eight campuses at the Colonial Life Arena and receive an honorary doctorate of education.
Cathy Novinger, a retired executive vice president of SCANA Corp., and Wenliang Wang, chairman of Rilin Enterprises Ltd., a global construction and logistics firm based in Dandong, China, will also speak at USC’s commencement exercises.
The other graduation speakers including Novinger, a philanthropist and Midlands consultant, will be given an honorary doctorate of public service at the event. Wang will receive an honorary doctorate of business administration; he’s a major benefactor of higher education programs that focus on U.S.-China relations, including at USC, according to a university release.
The hooding ceremony for the university’s doctoral graduates will take place at 1:30 p.m. at the Koger Center for the Arts, and Dean Peggy Hewlett, of the USC College of Nursing, will speak at the event. The Columbia campus plans to confer 1,912 degrees at the ceremony next month, according to a university release. The other USC campuses are expected to give another 836 degrees.
The announcement follows a controversial slate of speakers at the university’s spring commencement, which featured a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration leader, a J.P. Morgan Chase regional chairman, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission chairwoman and three USC professors. The lack of a big-name headliner drew criticism from graduating seniors.
Afterward, the university promised to seek more input from students, including with a newly established committee of them, though Student Body President Kenny Tracy said that wasn’t much of a factor for this graduation, because Holtz “has been lined up for some time.”
The university has also sought more nominations for speakers, Tracy said, and Holtz had been suggested by a number of people, said USC spokesman Wes Hickman.
Over the summer, Hickman added, the board of trustees office sought more input from student groups. Tracy said that the increased emphasis on getting student opinions will play a more prominent role in deciding on the May graduation speaker. Still, Hickman said, the speaker picked is dictated in large part by prospects’ availability, though “finding people that students want (and) that students will react well to” is a top priority.
“No one wants to hear from Wes Hickman,” Hickman said.