Clipping 1 from Running through Time: Former Student Athlete Panel

Clipping 1 from Running through Time: Former Student Athlete Panel

1 minute, 28 second clipping from "Running through Time: Former Student Athlete Panel." The panel was a Zoom video conference discussion between three Black Tennessee Tech student athlete alumni and one athletic training graduate assistant about their experiences at Tennessee Tech and advice for current students and athletic employees. In the clipping, Morris Irby describes his nervousness about being the only Black student athlete on the baseball team in 1967.

For the full audio recording of the panel, click here.

Transcript of the clipping:

Morris Irby: I can remember the day I came on campus to sign my scholarship. Sid Hatfield got my signature and then he looked at me and he said “Morris, I want you to know that you’re, you’re, you’re going to be the only Black kid in the program.” Now, then you talking about knees starting to shake. That was scary. And again, Cookeville was home, but Tennessee Tech was a completely different, different place. It created some anxieties for me. And again, knowing that I was the first, the kind of the trailblazer in baseball, it created some anxieties. But the one thing that I did learn was that in getting into the athletic environment, with a lot of the guys, you know, we were there to play baseball. And I can say that the teammates that I was associated with, they helped to make things a lot easier. And, which helped to resolve some of my fears at the time. But then again, I had this big environment on campus that I was going to have to navigate and that in and of itself was still a different story.

Student Affairs records, Office of Multicultural Affairs records, 30th Anniversary Events folder

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