Bryant McMurray [3], 2017 January 18

File

Identifier: OH-MC0595

Staff Only

Bryant McMurray oral history interview 3, 2017 January 18

Go to file

Scope and Contents

In this third installment of a series of interviews, Bryant McMurray discusses the evolution of stock car racing from a hardscrabble, do-it-yourself sport to a multimillion dollar industry with highly paid celebrity drivers and lucrative corporate sponsorships. He describes his professional and personal relationships with drivers like Richard Petty and Bobby Allison, the tragic fates of Tim Richmond and other hard-living motorsports luminaries who met untimely ends both on and off the track, and the lively culture of parties and carousing that surrounded the sport. McMurray also touches on the role of women in stock car racing as drivers and as beauty queens, the experience of African-American drivers in NASCAR, and his own long and fruitful relationships with fellow sports photojournalists like Pal Parker.

Dates

Creation: 2017 January 18

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.