Teresa Phillips is retiring as Tennessee State’s athletic director, a job she’s held since April 2002.
Phillips announced her decision Thursday in a letter to Tennessee State posted on the school’s athletic website. She says she told Tennessee State President Glenda Glover of her intentions in August, and her retirement will be effective June 30, 2020.
Phillips, who played hoops at Vanderbilt, originally was hired as Tennessee State’s women’s basketball coach in May 1989, a job she held for 11 seasons. She led Tennessee State to the women’s first Ohio Valley Conference regular season and tournament titles in 1994 along with the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth. They won the OVC tournament again in 1995 with a second NCAA Tournament trip.
As athletic director, she also became the first woman to coach a Division I men’s basketball team in February 2003.
Phillips also was the head women’s basketball coach at Fisk University. She was first black female athlete at Vanderbilt and the 61-year-old Phillips started her career as an assistant coach with the then-Lady Commodores in 1981.
