Special People, Special Place

Spring colors on the Davidson College campus are freshly dyed, vivid and vibrant as an easter egg basket. The leaves on the trees are emerald green, the sky the deepest azure, the tulips a trumpet of red. We need to give credit to the one who paints all these so brilliantly.

This will be short, as I am on the road, attending the Davidson College Board of Visitors meeting. The major responsibility of a member of the Board of Visitors is to be an ambassador for the college. It is easy for me to be an avid supporter of Davidson College, a place that changed the arc of my life and instilled a way of thinking about our responsibilities towards one another in a way that shaped my philosophies and my career. 

When I return for my annual hug of Davidson College, I realize that while this place is special to me, it is the people associated with Davidson that did the work of shaping me. This place, Davidson, is a repository of memories and from those memories come emotions, and most of those emotions are evoked by the people who impacted me here.

Some of the Davidsonians who had the biggest impact on me were not classmates, professors or coaches.

Some of the most important lessons I learned at Davidson were not in a classroom.

I came to Davidson College hellbent on playing for the Davidson Wildcat basketball team. I had been a good enough high school basketball player to get looks from major college basketball programs, including those in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

But when no basketball scholarships came my way, I made the decision to attempt to “walk-on” at Davidson College.

That was a great plan until I did not make the Davidson College basketball team that fall.

I was cut.

The only team I played on that fall of my freshman year of college was the Davidson College Grounds Crew.

My work-study job was a major part of my financial aid package which allowed me and my family to afford Davidson. The first week of school, before classes began, I was assigned to the Davidson College Physical Plant, better known as the Davidson College Grounds Crew.

At first, I was embarrassed and angry at my fate. Every other student at Davidson College awoke, headed off to breakfast, and trudged off to class. I woke up and reported to the Grounds Crew Maintenance Shop at 6:45 a.m., and then was carted off to some section of Davidson College to cut grass or rake leaves or better yet, pick up trash with a broom handle with a nail embedded in one end.

I was embarrassed and humiliated. Here I had come to Davidson College to fulfill the dreams that I had had since I was nine years old, that I would be a major college basketball player. 

Instead, I am stabbing paper cups and beer cans with what I later came to call my “Trashinator” stick.

I quickly learned that the guys working on the Grounds Crew were all wonderful, hardworking people, who gave their all to make Davidson College the most beautiful, well-maintained, well-manicured place it could be. These guys weren’t handed anything – they worked hard, for meager wages. The Grounds Crew team took pride in their work. They sweat the details.

They were wonderful to me.

When the calendar turned to late November, one of the basketball Wildcats suddenly dropped off the team and decided to transfer. This opened up a slot for me, and Davidson’s head basketball coach, Dave Pritchett, invited me on to the team.

The head of the Davidson College Physical Plant, Erwin Brawley, was totally supportive of me seizing the opportunity to be on the Davidson basketball team.

My stats that year were much better playing on the Grounds Crew than on the Wildcats. Statistically, I was perhaps the worst Division 1 basketball player in the country. In my 3 minutes of playing time my freshman year, I had a foul, a turnover, and a missed free throw.

I did not positive on a basketball court.

Two years later, I had given my all to be the best basketball player I could be. I wasn’t handed anything. I worked hard and progressed from a benchwarmer who had played a total of 6 minutes over the course of two seasons, to where I was playing 21 minutes a game. I went from being a walk-on who had mowed the lawns across the Davidson College campus to an honest-to-goodness Division 1 scholarship basketball player who played 30 minutes in a game against the number 1- ranked team in the country, the Duke Blue Devils.

When I would see my former Grounds Crew teammates on campus, a grin would come across their faces.

One of their own was a Davidson College Wildcat basketball player.

The beauty of this place elicits memories of those wonderful men, and that wonderful team…

The Grounds Crew team, that is.

I am grateful for this place, and all the people who taught me so much…

Including those who taught me how to wield “The Trashinator”!