The Greensboro Sports Council announced that Clemson University Football Coach Dabo Swinney will be the speaker for the 2020 Fred Barakat Sports Dinner on May 13 at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Swinney led the Clemson Tigers to two of the last three College Football Playoff national championships. He has been the coach at Clemson since 2008 and has had 122 wins and 30 losses during that time.
The annual Fred Barakat Sport Dinner, presented by the Carroll Companies, will raise funds for the Matt Brown Learn-to-Swim program, which aims to teach every second-grade student in the Guilford County School System how to swim.
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Commissioner John Swofford said, “Dabo Swinney will be an outstanding keynote speaker at the 2020 Fred Barakat Sports Dinner. This annual event continues to one of great significance as it brings together the Greensboro community to celebrate Fred’s life and raise money for the Greensboro Aquatic Center’s Learn-to-Swim Program – a very worthy cause that benefits our entire city.”
Barakat joined the ACC in 1981 as supervisor of men’s basketball officials. He later became assistant commissioner and was then promoted to associate commissioner and director of men’s basketball. For 16 years he served as the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament director. He died in 2010, and in 2011, the Greensboro Sports Council named its annual dinner in his honor.
The sports dinner highlights the ACC and has had many significant guests including Duke University Men’s Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski, ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale, best selling author John Feinstein and ESPN college basketball analyst and former Duke player Jay Bilas.
This year the Fred Barakat Sports Dinner raised over $30,000 for the Learn-to-Swim program.
The Fred Barakat Sports Dinner is open to the public and tickets are $125 or $1,000 for a table of 10. Corporate partnerships offering access to the VIP reception are also available.
The Carroll Companies, which is presenting this dinner, also owns this publication.
