T-CLUB ADDS FOUR HONORARY LETTERMEN
The University Tennessee Lettermen’s “T” Club honored four distinguished members of the Volunteer family during its annual Lettermen’s dinner Friday night, November 18 at The Foundry. A special on-field ceremony was held at halftime of Saturday’s game versus Vanderbilt for the honorees as well.
The club granted Honorary Membership status to Jim Bletner, Retired Director of Concessions and Souvenirs Dr. Greg Mathien, Team Orthopedic Specialist; Karen Minser, Diving Meet Official and Tim Reese, Thompson Boling Arena Manager. Honorary membership to the “T” Club may be bestowed on an individual for outstanding achievement reflecting favorably on the University of Tennessee and specifically its men’s and/or women’s athletic programs. Nominees shall not have been a letterman in any sport at the University of Tennessee and should not have been previously awarded this distinction. The award is considered the club’s highest honor.
JIM BLETNER-Jim Bletner turned a $200.00 dollar a month sport management internship into a full time position and big business for UT Athletics. At the time Bletner was enrolled in the Sports Management program at Ohio University after graduating from West High School and the University of Tennessee in 1971. A requirement for graduation was completion of an internship with a college athletic department. Athletic Director Bob Woodruff filled the bill and from there he was hired full-time in 1974 as Assistant Director for Promotions. One of his tasks was to expand UT’s Souvenirs sales with proceeds going to the T-Club Athletic Scholarship Fund. He pioneered the trademark of the Tennessee logo. In 1982, Bletner was promoted to director of concessions and souvenirs. On a national scale Bletner was highly recognized having served as Director of Souvenirs at Olympic Stadium at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. In 2003 the TSSAA honored him with the A.F. Bridges Contributor of the Year award. In 2005 he served as president of the National Association of Collegiate Concessionaires. He was honored in 1978 as winner of the Lady Vols Outstanding Service Award and 2007 he received a Chancellor’s Citation for Extraordinary Customer Service. The athletic department made a decision to outsource both the concessions and souvenir sales to a national company in 2007. Jim continued to work until 2008 at which time he chose the opportunity to retire. Since retirement Bletner has spent the majority of his time in church and charity work. A true passion for baseball, Bletner has served since 2010 as official scorer for the Vols Baseball games. He and his wife Donna, have one grown son Michael.
GREGORY M. MATHIEN—Dr. Gregory Mathien, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., attended the State University of New York in Syracuse for both his undergraduate and medical degrees. He remained in Syracuse to complete his surgical internship and orthopedic surgery residency. In 1991, Dr. Mathien came to Knoxville for a Sports Medicine Fellowship under the direction of Dr. William T. Youmans. During his fellowship, KOC recruited him to remain as a KOC surgeon and help expand the KOC sports medicine program, enhancing the care of injured athletes. This evolved into an extensive program placing ATCs in all Knox County high schools. Mathien received the Tennessee Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Distinguished Service Award in 2011. Dr. Mathien currently serves as the Senior Team Orthopedic Surgeon for the University of Tennessee athletic programs, which involves caring for both the U.T. Men’s and U.T. Women’s athletes in all sports. Mathien has over 20 years of experience caring for UT athletes, many Olympic medalist and professional athletes. He is an active participant in national sports medicine research, the Multi-center ACL Revision Study. He and his wife, Clara, live here in Knoxville with their two children, Zachary and Rebecca
KAREN MINSER-Karen Minser has over a 17-year career involvement with the University of Tennessee diving program. During this period of time she helped to bring the official judging of diving events on campus from pencil and paper tabulations to a sophisticated electronic automated system with computers, wireless judging consoles and integration with state-of-the-art scoreboards. The current diving facility at the Alan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center has allowed Tennessee the opportunity to not only host dual meet diving but to broaden into hosting national level competitions with Olympic caliber divers. As a diving official since 1992, Karen has coordinated the meet management aspects all of Tennessee home events as well as national competition. She and her husband Billy have two girls, Bethany, a Lady Vol diver 1998-2000 and Kate.
TIM REESE – Tim Reese, a native of Manheim, Pa., graduated from Manheim Central High School in 1972 and Lebanon Valley (Pa.) College in 1976. Reese added a master’s degree to his credentials from Penn State in 1977. After graduation he accepted a student activities position at Wake Forest University where he worked from 1977 until 1981. In the fall of 1981 Reese accepted the position as Director of Student Activities at UT under the direction of Phil Scheurer. In 1986 Reese received a Chancellor’s Citation for Extraordinary Customer Service to the university. With the building of Thompson Boling Arena in 1987 Reese was named to the position of Arena Manager and he has remained the sole arena manager its entire 25 years. Tim works tirelessly to bring quality entertainment to the community and to ensure that various athletic teams practice and perform in the best on-campus facility possible. The University of Tennessee Volunteers have no greater fan or advocate than Tim Reese. He was named On Campus Volunteer of the year but the Women’s Athletics Department in 2004. Reese and his wife Jean have two grown sons, T.J. and Andy, and daughter-in-law Paige.
