Game pits husband against wife

Updated: Thursday, 05 Jan 2012, 5:53 AM CST
Published : Wednesday, 04 Jan 2012, 9:06 PM CST

TAMPA - Coach Tom Jessee did not wish his wife, also a college basketball coach, "good luck" Wednesday night.

That's because his University of Tampa Spartans took on her St. Leo Lions, with inner-household bragging rights on the line.

Officials with both programs have looked into this, and neither can find another NCAA game that put wife against husband in a head-coaching matchup.

"Neither of us wants to inflict pain on the other and the fact is, only one of us can come away with a win and both teams really need a win right now," said Tom Jessee, whose Spartans defeated the Lions 61-30.

The couple have a young daughter, Rudi, who was likely torn between who to cheer for. Nikki is a former assistant of UT before becoming the head coach at St. Leo. She told FOX 13 she didn’t wish Tom “good luck” before the game, either.

“Right at this second, I hate him,” Nikki joked after the game. “I’m just kidding. No, I still love my husband. I’m excited that we were apart of it, and we’re just blessed … unfortunately, one of us has to lose and it was us this time.”

“It is neat to have been first at doing something, I guess,” Tom said after the game. “To have been husband and wife, the outcome of the game is not the first outcome. The husband and wife is, so we’re excited about that as a couple. We hope we can grow it. We’ve talked about it: We would love to play for a regional championship someday against one another and a conference championship, so we hope it grows into that, too.”

Click on the video to watch Chris Fields' story on the Jessees.