"You Gotta Love It Baby!"

With a gentle push and a mild arc, the cowhide globe hits home:

SALT LAKE CITY (January 20, 2010) – Utah Jazz team president, Randy Rigby, announced today that the team will honor longtime broadcaster Hot Rod Hundley when the Jazz hosts the Sacramento Kings at EnergySolutions Arena on Friday, January 29. The night will feature a halftime ceremony recognizing Hundley's contributions to the Jazz, and will also include dedication of the Hot Rod Hundley Media Center. The media center is used for journalists covering the Utah Jazz on game nights.

“Hot Rod Hundley was an important part of the Jazz franchise for 35 years,” said Rigby. “Though he’s now enjoying retirement, we feel that it is important for Jazz fans and the organization to formally thank him for his years of service and dedication. In addition to raising a banner to the arena rafters in his honor, we see the Hot Rod Hundley Media Center as an opportunity to showcase his passion for Jazz basketball and to be sure his presence remains.”

The remodeled media center will outline Hot Rod’s legendary career from his days at West Virginia University to his final call as a Jazz broadcaster.

The only member of the original New Orleans Jazz staff to remain with the team for its first 35 seasons, he joined the organization prior to the expansion team’s inaugural season in 1974-75 and moved with the team when it relocated to Salt Lake City in 1979-80. Hundley would go on to call 3,051 Jazz games, missing only 14 contests in three-plus decades. Hundley spent the first 31 years of his Jazz career as the play-by-play voice of Jazz radio/television simulcasts before becoming the radio voice for his final four seasons.