Tuohy (Irish: Ó Tuathaigh[3]) is of Irish descent and was raised Catholic.[4] Tuohy is the son of Mida (Michell) and Edward "Skeets" Tuohy, a basketball coach at the Isidore Newman School,[5][6] in New Orleans, Louisiana, where the Tuohy Gymnasium is named in his honor.[7][8] Tuohy graduated from Newman. Out of high school, Tuohy was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds to play baseball, but turned down the offer to attend college. With sports as his "meal ticket" through high school and college, Tuohy left New Orleans for the University of Mississippi on a basketball scholarship.[9][10][11]
College
Tuohy attended the University of Mississippi where he was a member of the Mississippi Alpha chapter of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, played basketball, and also met his future wife Leigh Anne.
Tuohy led the Ole Miss Rebels to their first SEC men's basketball tournament championship in 1981. As a player at Ole Miss, Tuohy was named All-SEC in each of his four seasons. He was named to the All-Century SEC team and is the only basketball player in the history of the SEC to lead a statistical category for four years, as he did with assists. Tuohy holds the record for single season assists in the Southeastern Conference with 260. Tuohy is only the fourth basketball player ever chosen to the Ole Miss Sports Hall of Fame.[12] Drafted by the NBA's New Jersey Nets with the 218th pick (Round 10)[13] in 1982, he opted to continue his career overseas before returning to the U.S. to be with his father in his final days.[14]
Tuohy has also been a broadcaster for the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA since 2001.[12] He has seven years of experience as an analyst for radio broadcasts at Ole Miss, as well as national broadcasts for Westwood One and CBS Radio.
Tuohy and his wife are also the co-authors of the book, In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving, which was released in 2010.[16]
Personal life
Tuohy married his wife, Leigh Anne, in 1982 and the couple have two children together. They have one son, Sean Jr., who played guard for the Loyola Greyhounds. They reportedly adopted former NFL player Michael Oher when he was 17.[17] They have one daughter, Collins, who was a state champion as a pole vaulter and cheerleader at the University of Mississippi.[18] Tuohy and his wife live in Memphis, Tennessee.
In August 2023, Oher filed a lawsuit alleging that Tuohy and his wife did not adopt him and tricked him to signing a conservatorship.[19] Tuohy's confirmed it was a conservatorship. He stated they did not trick Oher. Instead, it was done to ease the NCAA's concerns over Oher wishing to attend the University of Mississippi, a school where the Tuohys were boosters. He called the claims "insulting" but also said despite the allegations made by him, they still love Oher.[20] A judge ended the conservatorship and declined to dismiss the lawsuit in September 2023,[21] and the Tuohys later told the court they would remove all mentions to Oher being adopted from their website and public speaking advertisements.[22]