Reflection

What did you enjoy about this project? What surprised you about this project?

The thing I enjoyed most about this project was being able to learn how different athletes were before the professional circuit. Players such as McKinley could compete in tournaments such as Wimbledon and still maintain their amateur status. These days, competing at the highest level like this while still earning a university education is impossible. This was also the most surprising part of the project because I had never heard of the amateur tour that came before the professional tour. I simply figured that tournaments such as Wimbledon were always professional tournaments.

What was the most challenging aspect of the project, and how did you manage it?

The most challenging aspect of the project was digging up the information about how exactly McKinley balanced his lifestyle. Because he is known most for his tennis accomplishments, information about his student life seemed to have not been reported. To get past this, I relied mostly on interviews with people such as his brother and teammate, both people that knew McKinley personally and could give insight to his life as they knew it.

If you could start over, what would you do differently?

I feel as if I waited too long to get my interviews, leaving me with somewhat selective pool of information. If I had to do the project again, I would look for more interviews, earlier. This way I could build on information I previously found and possibly use this information to form more specific questions in later interviews.

What did you learn about history and/or the historical process through this project?

Through this project, I have learned that history does not happen all at once. In the same way that the amateur tennis tour was the building blocks for the professional tennis tour that we know today, Chuck McKinley was a building block for the Trinity University that we know today. One piece from my interviews that I recall, but didn’t use, was that Butch Newman constantly spoke about how Trinity was not as academically superior as it is today. It took important pieces such as Chuck McKinley to put Trinity on the world map and attract top athletes and academics.

What did you learn through this project that can be applied to life outside the classroom?

The idea that one person can indeed be a major building block to form something special is something that I have learned from the project.  Along with this, after researching McKinley, I have learned that a humble, hard-working attitude is what is needed to become the best in one’s craft in whatever one does. The non-stop drive that McKinley seemed to attain is something that I would like to translate into my own life in order to become a better student, athlete, and future professional.