[390] Ex-NBA Great Bob Love Speaks Up For Speech-Impaired at MTSU

FOR RELEASE: April 12, 2012
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Intercultural and Diversity Affairs Center, 615-898-2831

EX-NBA GREAT BOB LOVE SPEAKS UP FOR SPEECH-IMPAIRED AT MTSU
Former Chicago Bulls Forward Triumphed over Severe Stuttering Problem

MURFREESBORO—Bob “Butterbean” Love, director of community affairs for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, will speak about overcoming obstacles in a free public address at 12:30 p.m. Friday, April 13, in MTSU’s Keathley University Center Theater.

Love, a native of Bastrop, La., and graduate of Southern University, played for 11 years in the NBA, eight of those years with the Bulls. A three-time All-Star, he is ranked third on the Bulls’ all-time scoring list with 12,623 points. In 1994, the Bills retired his jersey number (10).

Following his retirement from professional basketball in 1977, Love struggled to find employment because he stuttered. He was washing dishes and busing tables at a Seattle department store in 1984 when a corporate executive decided to pay for Love to undergo speech therapy.

In 1988, the National Council on Communicative Disorders presented Love with its Individual Achievement Award. The NBA Players Association honored him with the Oscar Robertson Award for achievement outside basketball in 1990. The Bulls hired him as their director of community affairs in 1993.

Love is a motivational speaker and an honorary spokesperson for the National Stuttering Federation of America and serves on the boards of the Chicago Abused Women Coalition, the American Cancer Federation and the National Brain Injury Association of Illinois.

This event is sponsored by MTSU’s Intercultural and Diversity Affairs Center. For more information, call the center at 615-898-2831.

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