Bryant McMurray [1], 2016 August 10

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Identifier: OH-MC0592

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Bryant McMurray oral history interview 1, 2016 August 10

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Scope and Contents

Bryant McMurray describes his career as a photojournalist and sports photographer and his lifelong involvement with the motorsports industry. He recalls his upbringing in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and early interest in photography and stock car racing; his first assignments photographing news stories for South Carolina newspapers; and his fledgling efforts to establish a name for himself as a photographer of NASCAR and other racing events. Delineating the pioneering techniques he developed to market his photographs to news outlets, he tells of his rise from a struggling freelancer to a successful professional who served as the track photographer for the Charlotte Motor Speedway and photographed events as diverse as the 1974 Eastern Airlines crash in Charlotte and the visits to Charlotte of Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. McMurray also describes his overseas stint as general manager of the Thunderdome Speedway in Melbourne, Australia, and the new directions his career has recently taken into television production and teaching courses on NASCAR history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Dates

Creation: 2016 August 10

Conditions Governing Access

30 of 31 oral history interviews are in the digital repository. Original audiovisual materials closed to patron use.

Biographical Note

Bryant McMurray was a 69-year-old man at the time of the interview, which took place in his office in Fretwell Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He was born in Rock Hill, South Carolina, in 1947. He was educated at the University of South Carolina and Appalachian State University, and was employed as a photojournalist, sports photographer, entrepreneur, and college teacher.