FURMAN’S BEAR RINEHART AND “NEEDTOBREATHE” TO PERFORM ON ESPN’S “COLD PIZZA” NEXT TUESDAY

July 20, 2006

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Former Furman football standout Bear Rinehart ‘03 and his band “NeedToBreathe” will make their national television debut next Tuesday (July 25) on ESPN’s live morning show Cold Pizza, it has been confirmed.

The band will perform its hit single “You Are Here” and possibly one other selection depending on time and breaking news constraints, according to ESPN’s Jason Weindruch. Cold Pizza is a two-hour weekday morning show that runs from 10:00 a.m. - Noon on ESPN2.

Led by brothers Bear and Bo Rinehart, South Carolina-based Lava/Atlantic band NeedToBreathe has already earned a fervent following throughout the Southeast and is now in the middle of a non-stop national tour following the April release of DAYLIGHT, the rock quartet’s major label debut that was recorded in England and produced by Andy Green (Keane, KT Tunstall).

As a football player, wide receiver/return specialist Rinehart (1999-02) was known for his consistency, clutch play, and savvy — three qualities that contributed significantly to Furman posting a 38-13 record and two Southern Conference championships during his career. The nearby Seneca
(S.C.) High School product caught a Furman season record 70 passes in 2002 and averaged 14.9 yards per punt return — the second highest average in school history— on the way to capturing the Greenville Touchdown Club’s Banks McFadden South Carolina Player-of-the-Year Award. He finished his Furman tenure as the program’s all-time leading receiver with 126 catches for 1,834 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Named in honor of legendary Alabama head football coach Paul “Bear”
Bryant, Rinehart grew up in Possum Kingdom, S.C., where his father ran a local church camp after touring as a trumpet player with country legends Roy Clark and Glen Campbell, and his mother taught piano. In addition to developing his football skills, he also honed his considerable music talent as a guitarist and singer/songwriter playing alongside his brother, Bo (guitar), in a local alternative rock band known as NeedToBreathe, which the duo formed with friends Joe Stillwell (drums) and Seth Bolt
(bass) during Bear’s freshman year at Furman.

For more information on NeedToBreathe: www.needtobreathe.net

NeedToBreathe’s Remaning July Tour Schedule 20 Birmingham, AL WorkPlay Theater
21 Charlotte, NC Amos’ Southend
22 Isle of Palms, SC The Windjammer
24 Philadelphia, PA North Star Bar
25 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
26 Boston, MA Axis
27 Hartford, CT Webster Underground
28 South Hackensack, NJ School of Rock
29 Baltimore, MD Fletchers
31 Norfolk, VA Norva