Former Pioneer great Mix answers call to ‘Hall’
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But the former Pioneer and MTSU Blue Raider will achieve a measure of immortality this fall, as he receives what he terms his biggest honor to date — an induction in the Blue Raider Hall of Fame.
“It’s fabulous,” Mix said of the honor, which was announced on Sunday and will be bestowed this September. “Making history at the university you attended, being part of it forever… Out of my lifetime of athletics, this is the proudest moment I can experience.”
Mix, who now lives in Nashville and works as a salesman for Boral Brick, graduated from Warren County in 1979. Although still known these days as one of the all-time Pioneer greats, Mix admits football wasn’t a high priority in his life until new coach Bobby Newby saw a spark that led to a Hall-of-Fame career.
“When he first got there, I wasn’t the starter, and as a matter of fact I had quit the previous two years,” he recalled. “Bobby told one of the coaches ‘I like how he runs to the football, and we need to find a spot for him.’
“They put me at middle linebacker, and I ended up making all-district. Coach Newby gave me the opportunity, but I can’t take any credit away from (defensive coordinator) Dana Winningham, Steve Mitchell, Gary Rankin and all my coaches. They’re all part of my success, and the rest has been history.”
A member of legendary MTSU coach “Boots” Donnelly’s first recruiting class, Mix was converted to defensive end with the Blue Raiders, and the awards poured in during his collegiate career.
Mix was named a second-team All-American in 1982, as well as a first-team All-Ohio Valley Conference selection in both ’81 and ’82, when he was runner up for the conference’s Athlete of the Year award.
But next to his current honor, Mix said his previous awards pale in comparison.
“Those (other honors) were all like wallpaper, but they really don’t sink in the same way as when your school recognizes you for life,” he said. “It’s a lifetime achievement. It all comes together now, and kind of gives you cold chills all over you.”
“Through all of my youth sports and college sports, you really learn about giving back,” he added. “I owe it all to my coaches, through high school and college. They gave back what they knew, and now I have the opportunity to give back what I know.”
And Mix currently “gives back” by coaching a parochial league Catholic school youth football team, St. Henry’s. Last season, he had the opportunity to take his young players to a Blue Raider football game, where they visited the Hall of Fame.
“They kept asking me, ‘Coach Mix, where are you at?'” he said. “We looked around, and they had a picture of me with four or five other players in there, so I said ‘There I am.
“This year, I can take them back, and show them I’m in there for real now.”
Mix’s induction will take place the weekend of Sept. 16-17, on the MTSU campus, where he will enter the Hall along with Roland McGhee, a nine-time All-American track star, and Tim Sisneros, the seventh-leading scorer in Blue Raider basketball history.
A pre-induction celebration will take place on that Friday, beginning at 6:30 p.m., in the Kennon Hall of Fame Building. All three inductees will be in attendance for the celebration, which is open to the public for a cost of $25.
The Hall of Fame Induction will then take place Saturday, Sept. 17, at 1:30 p.m., on the south pavilion in front of the Kennon Hall of Fame Building, prior to the 4 p.m. kickoff against Akron. The induction ceremony is free and open to the public.