The one and only student organization to have more than one African American present in the Mirage, the Trinity yearbook, between the years of 1965 and 1968 is the “T” Association. In order to be a part of the “T” Association, one must be a varsity letterman on one of the university sports teams. Because athletes were very busy with their own respective sport, they decided to bring their sports teammates together to be in their own “social club” (Pritz, 2016). The “T” Association was reactivated in the fall of 1967 and had features of both a social and service club (“’T’ Association men treat handicapped,” October 1967, p. 4).
The president for the newly reactivated “T” Association was no other than Marvin Upshaw (“’T’ Association men treat handicapped,” October 1967, p. 4). Upshaw was not just a leader on the football and baseball field, but was also a social and service leader on campus and in the community.
The “T” Association started competing in intramurals in 1967 and quickly rose to number one overall for both men’s and women’s events. Ron Pritz, class of 1969, had the opportunity to play on the “T” Association’s flag football team and shared that “the entire football team, including Marvin, came out and watched every game," (Pritz, 2016).
A neat event the “T” Association participated in under Upshaw was the annual singing competition, “Sing Song,” (Pritz, 2016). The group consisted of around fifty guys total in 1967-68 and included the only African Americans to go on stage that night (Pritz, 2016). Pritz (2016) goes on to add that: “We sang what were then termed ‘Negro Spirituals’ like ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ and other songs.” The reaction from the audience was quite surprising as the “T” Association was the only group to get an instant standing ovation (Pritz, 2016). This showed that the Trinity student body was embracing the rights of the African Americans and accepted guys like Upshaw and the “T” Association as a whole.
