UT Martin student Davis Gregory calls the UT Martin versus UT Knoxville football game. | Photo by Dylan Ingram
“That was one of the best experiences of my entire life,” said Davis Gregory, a senior Broadcast major, after calling the UT Martin versus UT Knoxville football game.
On Oct. 22, 2022, Gregory was selected as one of the students from WUTM 90.3 “The Hawk,” the campus radio station, to call the highly anticipated 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 would the atmosphere of Neyland Stadium 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, Gregory says that he’s happy even to have had 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 UT Martin 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,” Robinson said.
Gregory said that the biggest reason he chose UT Martin, 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,” Gregory said.
The world of broadcasting is no stranger to Gregory – 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.
Gregory learned well. He is one of the most decorated students in the Department of Mass Media and Strategic Communication with numerous awards from the Intercollegiate Broadcast System, the Associated Press, the Southeast 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 this spring will not be the end for 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 the chance to call his last few games at UT Martin.
“I’m just trying to enjoy right now because I know that I’m not going to get this back,” he said. “I’m having more fun this year than I think I’ve ever had before.”
