Hiring of Bob King
King graduated from Millsaps College, in Jackson, Mississippi, and began his career there as the Millsaps College Athletic Director. Trinity and Millsaps were actually in the same conference (the College Athletic Conference or “CAC”) during his stint at Millsaps College. At the time, Millsaps was the dominant baseball program in the conference and routinely prevented Trinity from winning any conference championships. The two schools were bitter baseball rivals.
On a visit to Trinity to watch a baseball game, he observed the Bell Center under construction and was amazed at something so impressive being built at a Division III school. He appreciated the commitment from the Trinity Administration to the athletic program and decided he had to become the Athletic Director here. Given King’s own baseball background and success (he is a member of Millsaps Athletics Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a baseball player), he was determined to improve the baseball program at Trinity as well.
I also found an article on the hiring of Bob King from 1993 that was helpful because it gave me some background knowledge before I interviewed him. In the article, King claimed, ”Trinity University has a national academic reputation. The student athletes are a valuable asset to the campus. One of my goals is to show how academics and athletics can blend together… Some of the programs (in the SCAC) are already competitive nationally and we want to expand that.” (King, Trinitonian, 1993) This led me to realize it was King’s connection to Millsaps College, who was already in the SCAC, to allow Trinity to join the conference and eventually flourish. Of all the teams that were in the SCAC when Trinity joined, only Trinity remains, as the rest of them, including Millsaps College, left the conference in 2013.