Letterwinner Shoutouts

We welcome the opportunity to highlight the accomplishments of our letterwinners and happily celebrate in their (your!) successes.  If you have a personal recognition you would like to share with us, please send us an email and tell us about it.  Join us as we congratulate these letterwinners on their noteworthy accomplishments.

 

Demond “Tweety” Carter- Basketball (’07-’10)

Tweety Carter is coming back home to Baylor!  But, you can just call him Coach Carter, now that Head Coach Scott Drew has hired his former floor general to be the new Director of Player Development.  

The first McDonalds All-American in program history, Carter played 131 games with 89 starts for Scott Drew from 2006-10. He led the Bears to an Elite Eight appearance in his senior season, averaging 15.0 points

and a Big 12-leading 5.9 assists per contest.

Carter returns to Baylor after a 12-year career in professional basketball, most  recently playing for Start Lublin of the Polish Basketball League in 2021-22. He began his professional career with the Oklahoma City Thunder’s G-League affiliate, then gained overseas experience in Israel, Latvia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Lithuania, Poland, Greece and Portugal.  During his time overseas, Carter had eight seasons averaging double-figure scoring, including a career-best 20.7 points per game with Bnei Hasharon in Israel in 2011-12.

A 2010 Baylor graduate, Carter and his wife Brittney have four children – Kiylah, Michael, Alani and Yilianna.

 

 

Grant Teaff- Former Head FB Coach (1972-92)

McMurry University will host a statue dedication of former Baylor head football coach, Grant Teaff, on Friday, April 22, near the university chapel on McMurry campus.  Teaff played football and served his first head coaching stint at McMurry. The statue will celebrate Teaff’s legacy, highlighted by a major life-changing event that occurred in 1963, while serving as McMurry’s head coach. 

On September 28, 1963 – after a close loss at Northeast Louisiana State – the McMurry team (28 players and three coaches) were on board a DC-3 airplane for the return trip to Abilene from Monroe, LA. The plane had difficulty taking off and damaged its landing gear and electrical system on two failed landing attempts trying to return to Monroe.

A decision was made, instead, to send the plane to nearby Barksdale Air Force Base, considering the damage the aircraft had sustained and with a full load of fuel on board.  The plane would be forced to make a crash landing on its belly at Barksdale AFB. The airplane was a mangled wreck by the time it finally came to a skidding-stop that evening in Shreveport, but all 31 McMurry players and coaches – along with two pilots and a flight attendant – walked away from the wreckage relatively unscathed.

Afterwards, head coach Grant Teaff had cards made – listing all who were aboard the plane that night – and inscribed with Romans 8:31, “What shall we then say of these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”  They also adopted the acronym B.I.B.L.E. for their “club”: the Brotherhood of Indian (as McMurry teams were nicknamed at the time) Belly-Landing Experts.

Survivors of the crash went on to enjoy many successful careers.  Coach Teaff not only coached at McMurry, but also Angelo State and Baylor (where he was a six-time Southwest Conference, and once national, Coach of the Year). He also went on to serve as the executive director of the American Football Coaches Association.

For those interested in attending, the dedication ceremony will take place on April 22 at 1:30 pm, next to the University Chapel on the campus of McMurry University, 1400 Sayles Blvd, Abilene, TX 79697.  There will be a reception for Coach Teaff immediately following the dedication.

 

Sic ’em Baylor Letterwinners!

 

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