His Collegiate Decision and Leading Up to His Freshman Year

Months before the playoff loss to Yates, Gerhardt’s Stratford team played in a tournament in December that was hosted at Trinity University (Gerhardt, 2020). They won the consolation championship game and the head coach of Trinity at the time, Duane Henry (Graham, 1986), took note of Gerhardt’s ability. He wrote Gerhardt a letter inviting him back to the campus and expressed interest in recruiting Gerhardt to play basketball at the university (Gerhardt, 2020). Gerhardt was hoping to walk on at a university better known for their basketball program, such as UNC or Texas A&M, since he was not receiving any athletic scholarships from these universities (Gerhardt, 2020). After the season ended in late March, he decided to go to San Antonio with his father to visit Trinity and see if it was a good fit for him (Gerhardt, 2020). After seeing the Trinity men’s team practice, Gerhardt was pretty confident that he had the skill to play for the university. His collegiate decision came down to whether he wanted to attend a university like Trinity and receive plenty of playing time, or attend a bigger university, enjoy the atmosphere, but risk not being able to walk onto a team (Gerhardt, 2020). While Trinity had a great academic reputation, Gerhardt was more concerned with playing the sport he had grown to love. After giving it some thought, Gerhardt decided to give the small university a chance. By April, he committed to Trinity University and it became official. He was going to be a Tiger (Gerhardt, 2020).

By the time Gerhardt committed to Trinity University, the basketball team was in a state of uncertainty. Since 1972, Pete Murphy had been the head coach of the team until he passed away in 1986 (Graham, 1986). Over the previous 14 years, Murphy produced mixed results by accumulating seven winning seasons and seven losing seasons under his tenure (Team W-L Records, n.d.). Duane Henry, who was Murphy’s assistant coach since 1982 (Lawless, 1982), was coming off his first season as the Tigers’ head coach and wound up with a pitiful record of 6-20 (Team W-L Records, n.d.). Despite the head coaching change and the murky direction the team was heading in, the 1987-1988 season was set to open with a sense of excitement. Pete Almquist, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder from the previous year, opened preseason stating: “We have a better bench and a lot more experience than last year. We play a much more intense [brand of basketball]” (Hart, 1987). Coach Duane Henry shared those sentiments remarking how intense the team looked during practice and felt positive that this year’s team could overcome the issue of playing against schools with athletic scholarships (Hart, 1987). Although there was still much uncertainty, anticipation was starting to build for the 1987-1988 season.

Heading into his freshman year of college in 1987, Gerhardt, much like the men’s team, was in a state of uncertainty. He felt intimidated by the academic standards at the university and was very reliant on his parents for much of his upbringing. These aspects did not serve him well in regards to being on his own, especially in a new city (Gerhardt, 2020). Being on the university’s basketball team is ultimately what helped him overcome this difficult adjustment period he was going through. He was able to establish social connections with his teammates early on in the academic year and he looked up to some of the older players. Almquist, for example, Gerhardt described as: “…The big brother I never had. I always felt safe going anywhere with him, because no one was going to mess with a guy who’s 6’5, 225” (Gerhardt, 2020). While Gerhardt was still adjusting to college life academically and socially, the fall semester was rapidly moving towards the start of the season for him and the rest of Trinity’s basketball team.