This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Less than a month before bouncing basketballs and shrieking whistles signal the start of his 19th season as head coach of the Utah Jazz, Jerry Sloan heard another sound this week.
Wedding bells.
In a private ceremony in Salt Lake City, Sloan married Tammy Jessop, of Herriman, on Tuesday.
"Everyone in the Jazz organization is thrilled for Jerry and Tammy," vice president of communications Linda Luchetti said Friday. "We are so happy he has found somebody to share his life with."
Former Jazz coach Frank Layden brought Sloan to Utah in 1984 as one of his assistants.
"I'm very happy for him," Layden said. "I think it's wonderful. We wish him nothing but the best. . . . I've met [Tammy] and she is just a super lady."
Sloan's first wife, Bobbye, died on June 18, 2004, after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
High-school sweethearts from the small southern Illinois farming community of McLeansboro, Jerry and Bobbye Sloan were married for 41 years.
Sloan, 64, is the longest tenured head coach in professional sports. With 984 victories, he is the sixth winningest coach in NBA history.
A former player and head coach with the Chicago Bulls, Sloan became coach of the Jazz on Dec. 9, 1988, the day Layden resigned.
Sloan guided the Jazz to their first trip to the NBA Finals in 1997, about the same time Bobbye Sloan was diagnosed with breast cancer.
By all accounts, Jerry and Bobbye Sloan were comrades-in-arms during her public battle with breast cancer, which she seemed to have beaten.
After going to the doctor because of flu-like symptoms in January 2004, however, Bobbye Sloan was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Her death six months later caused an outpouring of love and respect in the Sloans' adopted home of Salt Lake City and throughout Utah.
Jerry Sloan has three children and eight grandchildren.
One daughter, Kathy, works for a pharmaceutical company in Omaha, Neb. Another daughter, Holly, is a junior high teacher and coach in suburban Chicago. His son Brian, who played basketball for Bobby Knight at Indiana University, is an emergency room doctor in Indianapolis.