Back in the early 1970s, when Tom Losh was a young University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assistant basketball coach from Mason, Ohio, and Herbert "Book" McCray was a slightly younger Mocs player from Louisville, Ky., Losh would sometimes give McCray a ride to or from the Derby City as he drove to or from Ohio.
"We'd be in a car together sometimes for five or six hours, and basketball might never come up," McCray recalled late this past week. "We'd talk about schoolwork, or growing into manhood, or making our parents proud. It's been 45 years, and I still remember those drives like they were yesterday."
Everyone who has ever cheered for the Mocs in any sport should be proud of the speeches McCray and Losh gave at separate UTC commencement exercises Friday and Saturday inside McKenzie Arena.
Speaking to those receiving graduate degrees Friday afternoon, McCray passionately implored them to "number one, leave a legacy. Number two, pay your dues."
Addressing those receiving undergraduate degrees Saturday, Losh - who became the first member of his family to attend college when he arrived on campus with a basketball scholarship in 1967 - asked the class of 2018 to "first, surround yourself with supremely creative and happy people."
"Second," he added, "please get involved in some activity outside of your job. Take advantage of the opportunity to give back."
They have both been giving back to this community at large and UTC in particular since the days they graduated.
Losh has done everything from junior college basketball coach at Cleveland State to high school principal at Bradley Central to national alumni chairman for the entire UT system to private businessman.
McCray has been an elementary school teacher and principal, and the Independent Youth Services Foundation he founded has provided a beacon of hope for more than 5,000 of this city's less fortunate boys and girls over the past 25 years.
Not that either one of them expected one day to be addressing commencement exercises at their alma mater.
"I would have said you were off your rocker," McCray said when asked what he would have thought if someone on one of those long drives with Losh had said the two of them would land such a gig.
"I would have thought you were an alien," Losh replied to the same question.
But McCray also admitted, "Back then I'd have had no way of knowing the twists and turns my life would take that would lead the alma mater that I love so much to entrust me with a commencement address. I am truly humbled."
Said Losh: "They have to have had a lot of turn-downs to call me. I'm usually a pretty gabby fellow, and when they told me they wanted me to speak at commencement I was speechless. It's beyond an honor."
The sport they love - the sport that earned each a scholarship, a diploma and later a master's degree - hasn't been viewed with much honor of late. In his infinite ability to pass the buck, NCAA president Mark Emmert even has formed a commission headed by former Secretary of State Condolleeza Rice to find cures for all that ails college basketball.
And it no doubt needs some tweaking, if not an outright overhaul.
But Losh, 69, and McCray, 64, also represent the great value of college athletics, of its ability to dramatically change lives for the better.
"You can't imagine the impact that UTC has had on my family," Losh said. "I have a 50-year connection with this university - when I first signed here, it was still the University of Chattanooga - and most of the successes I've had in my professional life have some connection to someone I met through this school."
McCray has a similar view of his 45 years in the Scenic City.
"I wouldn't trade these years for anything in the world," he said. "The thing I think I got most out of my time here as a student was the relationships I made here."
That desire to honor those relationships led him to work more than 40 hours on his 15-minute commencement speech. It is that kind of dedication to any task thrown his way that led Losh to say of McCray: "Book was one of those people who never drew attention to himself on the basketball court, but he was the ultimate team player.
"Whatever you needed done to win a game - hit a shot, get a rebound, defend the best player on the other team - Book would take it on and never let you down. You'll never meet anybody who doesn't like and respect Herbert McCray."
Returning the favor, McCray said of Losh, "Tom is a very, very special person in my life. Even though he's not much older than me, he was someone I always looked up to, always respected when I played here."
They aren't only great alums, of course. They're devoted husbands and fathers and friends and church members. But what they learned in college never leaves them.
"Before I signed here, Coach (Ron) Shumate was giving me a tour of the campus," McCray recalled. "At some point he stopped, looked at me and said, 'If you'll just do two things, you'll be fine.' Those two things are to always do what's right and always treat people right.'"
If any two former Mocs are the perfect examples of those ideals, if any two UTC student-athletes almost certainly have made their parents proud as they navigated life, it would surely be Losh and McCray.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com