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Trickey and Scott: An everlasting bond





Former MTSU basketball player and track standout Terry Scott, second from left, discusses his experiences at the “True Blue Pioneers” event held Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, in the Student Union Ballroom at MTSU. Scott and seven other of the university’s first black student-athletes returned to campus for a panel discussion about their experiences. Also pictured are Lonnell Poole, far left, Jerry Singleton and J.W. Harper, far right. MTSU photo by Andy Heidt

Former MTSU basketball player and track standout Terry Scott, second from left, discusses his experiences at the “True Blue Pioneers” event held Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, in the Student Union Ballroom at MTSU. Scott and seven other of the university’s first black student-athletes returned to campus for a panel discussion about their experiences. Also pictured are Lonnell Poole, far left, Jerry Singleton and J.W. Harper, far right. MTSU photo by Andy Heidt

ome people are fortunate enough to come across a person who makes a major difference in their life and helps shape their future.

Terry Scott met that man when he was in high school.

How much did that man, Ken Trickey Sr., mean to Scott throughout his life?

“I was the one with him all the way up until his death (in 2012),” Scott said. “I was the one the family asked to tell him, ‘well done, well done. It’s OK to go home.’ I was the guy that did that for the family, and it was very special that they would choose me.”

It all began back in 1964 when Trickey, who was the MTSU men’s basketball coach at the time, drove to Cleveland, Tennessee, to watch Scott play.

Trickey was the first MTSU coach to recruit and sign African American ball players.

Little did either know what type of bond that would develop.

“Well, I was born and raised in Cleveland, Tennessee, and had three siblings,” Scott said. “Coach Trickey had come to Bradley after me and my brother integrated Bradley in 1964. He came to recruit a kid named Derry Cockran. Our tallest player was 6-10, our second tallest players was 6-8 and I was 6-4, but I jumped center. My coach told me later that coach Trickey wanted to see me and he was from Middle Tennessee. I said, ‘where is Middle Tennessee?’ The furthest I had been was Knoxville to see some family members.

Terry Scott while an assistant coach at Oral Roberts University. SUBMITTED

Terry Scott while an assistant coach at Oral Roberts University. SUBMITTED

“I had already decided I was going to Hiwassee (Junior College) and (Trickey) put his arm around me and my mom and grandmother and said you don’t want to go to a school like that. They’ve got a bunch of cows running around on campus. He said I need you to come to Middle. A guy named DW Hogan took me and Derry Cockran over there to visit and the rest was history.

“I went and visited and signed in 1966. Derry committed early and (Trickey) wanted us to be roommates. What he didn’t tell me was we would be the first mixed roommates at Middle Tennessee. It had never happened before and I didn’t know that. He never talked about color. He talked about how he wanted the five best basketball players to play at the same time. That’s what he lived by. I baby sat his kids. We didn’t see things that were happening, but we did hear about them later.”

Former MTSU basketball player and head coach Ken Trickey, a 1956 graduate of MTSU, was elected into the Blue Raider Hall of Fame in 1991. MTSU ATHLETIC COMMUNICTIONS

Former MTSU basketball player and head coach Ken Trickey, a 1956 graduate of MTSU, was elected into the Blue Raider Hall of Fame in 1991. MTSU ATHLETIC COMMUNICTIONS

Scott said it didn’t take long for him to realize Trickey cared more about his players than simply the basketball ability.

“He orchestrated the whole thing and he kept us protected from anything that would hinder our growth,” he said. “He wanted us to graduate and there was no doubt about that.

“He said you won’t play for me if you don’t graduate. He told my mother and grandmother that I would graduate. When he promised them he’d take care of him, I believed it and they believed it. What we signed up for, and didn’t realize it at the time, was a lifetime commitment.”

And the commitment started from day one Scott stepped on campus.

“I had a stuttering problem and I couldn’t talk,” he said. “I was diagnosed when I was young and my mother had it too. When I was in high school, the radio wanted me on with them but I couldn’t do it. (Trickey) put me a speech class when I got there and it cured me, and I was like, ‘wow, he really does care.’

“When I went to Oral Roberts University, and I’m fast forwarding a bit, he (Roberts) had had that, too, so we had a lot in common. We were both stutterers. I’m thankful for the things coach did and I can’t say enough about it.”

Trickey ultimately moved on from MTSU and took the head coaching job at Oral Roberts. The Blue Raiders had played ORU and Roberts enjoyed the style Trickey’s team played.

Meanwhile, Scott continued to play basketball and run track and graduated from MTSU.

“When I joined the track program, coach Dean Hayes needed an extra runner,” Scott said. “My sophomore year I ran track for him, and I got into ROTC so I could be a second lieutenant. Coach (Trickey), who was a military guy, said why not stay and run track and keep your scholarship. I qualified for the nationals my last year in Seattle, Washington. I didn’t win anything, and then I had to be in Fort Bragg the next day for basic training.

“I had been there a couple of weeks, and they said, by the way you flunked your eye test. Well, I knew I had a problem there. They said to stay you’ve got to sign this waver. I asked if I signed the waver where am I going, and they said probably Vietnam. I said I’m not signing the waver, I’m going home.

“I called coach Trickey and said you said if I ever needed to come your way to call you, and I said, well I need, you. I went home a couple of days and he had a ticket waiting for me to fly to Oklahoma.

“I met with Oral and he said he was looking for a faculty member — an African American faculty member, and he said you have the credentials and I’ll pay for your Masters if you’re willing to do that. I took the job and coached and taught classes and have been in Oklahoma since.”

Trickey’s run and gun style was a hit at Oral Roberts, but Scott is quick to point out that he was on his way to doing the same at MTSU.

“When we played at the Alumni Gym, the people would come to the warm-ups to watch us,” Scott said. “We played ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’ like the Globetrotters. Coach had that kind of flair. He was primed for Tulsa.

“We had the three-colored balls and would spin them with our fingers. Dunking wasn’t allowed, but we’d see how high we could jump and throw it down the goal. He brought that same excitement out here and he knew he could do it.”

Trickey’s first two teams at Oral Roberts went a combined 48-9 when the program was in NAIA. After joining the NCAA ranks, ORU went 26-2 in the 1971-72 season and made the NIT quarterfinals.

In 1972-73, ORU was 21-6 and made the NCAA tournament, and the following year it went 23-6 and made the Elite Eight before falling by three points to Kansas to finish just short of reaching the Final Four.

Trickey then went on to coach at Iowa State and Oklahoma City before returning and coaching his final six seasons at ORU from 1988-1993.

“Coach always had a vision and great expectations,” Scott said. “He would always say, ‘we’re going to do this and we’re going to do that.’ It was never ‘I’m going to do this or that.’ We were always in it together.”

Scott would leave Oral Roberts in 1981 and coach track at Booker T. Washington High School. He then became the head boys’ basketball coach at Tulsa Central High School where he won three state championships.

“When the Tulsa Central job came open, they thought I was the person to bring them back. They’d been a little down,” Scott said. “We got to the state tournament 17 or 18 years and won three times. I was taught in Murfreesboro that it was about the gold ball. You always give it 100 percent. I did it with my health, my life and I learned it from that man as a teenager in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

“I’ll always be a Blue Raider an alumnus, and I’m so thankful God gave me the chance to be a part of that.”

Oral Roberts found its magic again in the first week of the NCAA tournament this year as it knocked off No. 2 seed Ohio State and No. 7 Florida to make the Sweet 16. ORU became just the second No. 15 seed in the process to accomplish the feat.

“We’re all excited,” Scott said. “We did a documentary a couple of years ago and it’s on the Oral Roberts Network. It was in the theatres (this week).

“It’s all coming together just like coach Trickey said it would. It’s the most exciting time here in many years. It’s coming back and it’s a story that began at Middle Tennessee.”

When Scott signed at MTSU back in 1966, little did he know what type of bond would be created with the man who brought him to Murfreesboro.

It’s a bond that still lives on today, even though Trickey has been gone for nine years.

“He was a players’ coach and took care of his kids, and he taught me how to take care of my kids,” Scott said. “I know this, a young boy came to Middle Tennessee back in ‘66, and he left a young man.”

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