“That was one of the best experiences of my entire life,” said Davis Gregory, a senior Broadcast major.
On October 22, Davis was selected as one of the students from WUTM 90.3 “The Hawk,” the campus radio station, to call the highly anticipated UT Knoxville versus UT Martin game. As a student originally from Knoxville, he could not have been more excited.
The game is something that the crew looked forward to for weeks. What the atmosphere of Neyland Stadium would be like? What events would take place for an SEC homecoming game? Maybe most important, how would the Skyhawks hold up against the then-third-ranked Volunteers?
“We tied the game up [7-7] and I don’t know if I have ever been that excited on the broadcast before in my life,” he said.
The atmosphere of Neyland was electric, and the Skyhawks put up a fight but ended up losing 65-24. Regardless of the outcome of the game, Davis says that he’s happy even to have the experience.
“That’s why I chose UTM; you’re not going to get this experience anywhere else. I mean, for me to go back home and call a game at Neyland Stadium … it meant the absolute world to me. I am forever in debt to UTM and Dr. Robinson for allowing me to have that experience.”
Dr. Richard Robinson, the faculty adviser for WUTM, helped play a part of Davis’ recruiting process, scouting him to come to UTM and join the staff at the student radio station, “It was obvious to me that Davis had the desire and drive to be a successful sportscaster. WUTM allowed him to have numerous opportunities to learn and work on his craft.” Davis said that the biggest reason he chose UTM, though, was because students had the opportunity to broadcast.
“For me, that’s such a big thing because the experience of being able to call a game is priceless. And when you come into a situation where you can do that on a weekly basis, it gets you so much farther than others who are just writing stories or going to press conferences,” Davis said.
The world of broadcasting is no stranger to Davis, he knew he wanted to call games ever since he was young and started playing NCAA Football 2005 on the Nintendo GameCube. Through the sports commentators’ prerecorded lines, he slowly began to learn more about the game, different play formations and how to do sports play-by-play. Video games helped him to learn baseball, basketball and football.
Davis learned well. He is one of the most decorated students in the department with numerous awards from the Intercollegiate Broadcast System, the Associated Press, the Southeastern Journalism Conference and the Tennessee Broadcasters Association, to name a few. His awards vary from “Best Sports Play-by-Play” to “Best Sports Talk Show” to “Best Sports News.”
Graduation in the spring 2023 semester will not be the end of Davis Gregory in the sports world, however, as he says that he can’t imagine himself doing anything else. Until May, he is just enjoying his last few games here with UT Martin.
“I’m just trying to enjoy right now because I know that I’m not going to get this back. I’m having more fun this year than I think I’ve ever had before.”