More Information:

About Edwin Court Huster Jr.:

January 26, 2004
A tribute to Edwin C. Huster
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Dyer
Special to VolQuest.com

(By Mark Dyer, former colleague of Ed Huster at the Vol Network, now an executive with NASCAR)

My good friend Ed Huster left us suddenly on Saturday. If you ever listened to the Big Orange on radio, he was your friend too.

In fact, the Husters were to the Vol Network what the France family has been to NASCAR. Edwin C. Huster, Sr., lit the torch when the Vol Network was started in 1949, and Edwin C. Huster, Jr., picked things up in 1970, and with John Ward as a partner, took the network to the pinnacle of college sports broadcasting.

It is amazing to consider that Sunday night?s Tennessee vs. Louisville basketball broadcast was the first in 55 years without a Huster at the helm of the network.

For decades, Ed traveled the state, embracing radio stations managers and network sponsors with his warm and charming personality. Ed built relationships that stood the test of time. If you did business with Edwin, you knew he cared about you and you could trust he would always do the right thing.

I think gameday was Edwin?s favorite time, though. He loved the Vol Network, and fretted over every single minute of air time and every detail involved to make the broadcast the best in college sports.

Although Edwin had terrific people skills, he did not have the gift of gab from a broadcasting standpoint. It didn?t bother him. He was very happy and satisfied to work behind the scenes as John Ward and Bill Anderson became icons in the Volunteer State. It was a sad day for all of us when John and Bill retired, but I think it was especially tough for ?E.C.,? because he and John had been together for so long.

Edwin was a lifelong Tennessean, and a lifelong Knoxvillian. He had friends that would fill the total spectrum of fame, wealth and power, but he truly didn?t care about your station in life as long as you had a positive outlook and were fun to be around. It also helped if you loved the Vols like he did.

He and his beautiful wife Julia were a great team. To be invited to the Huster home was as good as it got on the west Knoxville social scene. Not because you got to rub shoulders with prominent people, but because Edwin and Julia were the people everybody wanted to be around. Everyone had a good time in the presence of Ed Huster.

Any of Edwin?s friends know that you had to put up with a good amount of needling from him, but it was all in fun, and he could take it as well as dish it out.

Edwin called me a couple of weeks ago to get my new address and send me an invitation to his daughter Courtney?s wedding. He told me how well she was doing and how much he liked her fianc?, and how proud he was of his ?Court-Court? as he called her when she was a child.

The Vol Network and the University of Tennessee family has experienced a great loss. It will go on with the leadership of Bob Kesling and the Host Communications staff regulars Steve Early and Glenn Thackston, but it will be a tough day for all of us who loved Ed Huster when the Vol Network signs on next August for a new football season without him.

Finally, I think the true mark of a terrific person is one who leaves you feeling better than you did before you met them. Ed Huster probably did that better than anyone I?ve ever met.

Until we meet again, farewell my good and faithful friend.

*****************************************************************

By CHRIS LOW, Staff Writer

Edwin C. Huster Jr., a Vol Network patriarch and one of the driving forces in the statewide expansion of UT television and radio broadcasts, died suddenly Saturday at his home in Knoxville. He was 60.

As general manager of the Vol Network, Huster oversaw the day-to-day operations for the last 34 years. He took over in 1970 from his father, Edwin C. Huster Sr., who along with famed announcer and UT alumnus Lindsey Nelson helped to establish the Vol Network in 1949. ''I had as much confidence in Edwin Huster to do his job as anybody I've been associated with in all my years at the University of Tennessee,'' said Doug Dickey, former UT athletics director. ''He was an absolute pro at what he did in maximizing our statewide TV and radio potential. He played such a big role in what we did here.'' Bob Kesling, UT's director of broadcasting and the radio play-by-play voice for football and men's basketball, said Huster was the ''heart and soul'' of the Vol Network. ''His first priority was his love for UT, its fans and the great radio stations that carried the broadcast across Tennessee,'' Kesling said. ''I will miss him, not only as a leader of the Vol Network, but more so as a close friend.''

As technology evolved, Huster guided the Vol Network's scope from radio into television, home videos and other communication and marketing outlets. He was especially instrumental in the creation of the Best of the Big Orange video series. The Vol Network was merged in 1989 with Host Communications, a sports marketing entity in Lexington, Ky. In Host's corporate framework, Huster's title became vice president and general manager Host Communications/Vol Network.

''Under Edwin's leadership, the Vol Network has become one of the largest and most innovative college networks in the country,'' said John Ward, former Voice of the Vols. ''Now, game broadcasts and TV shows appear on Internet sites throughout the world.'' Tennessee Athletics Director Mike Hamilton said the entire UT family was shocked and saddened by Huster's death. ''While he was a sound thinker from a business standpoint, he had a unique feel for the wishes of Tennessee fans in terms of providing programming that appealed to them,'' Hamilton said.

A Knoxville native, Huster attended St. Andrew's School in Sewanee and the University of Tennessee until called into U.S. Army service in 1967. He rose to the rank of second lieutenant and served as a company commander. Huster was a member of St. John's Cathedral, Cherokee Country Club and the Men's Cotillion. He was an avid tennis player. Survivors include his wife, Julia Bedinger Huster, and a daughter, Courtney Huster of Memphis.