View the photo gallery from the football team's trip to the Civil Rights Memorial Center

Hear Senior Wide Receiver/Punter Bert Green's Comments on the trip

Hear Sophomore Defensive Tackle Brandon Murray's Comments on the trip

X’s and O’s were thrown out the window for Friday morning and the McMurry football team received a history lesson at the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Birmingham, Ala. The team took a break from the rigors of a long preseason and took in the sights and history of the streets that Martin Luther King, Jr. once walked and the city where Rosa Parks once refused to give up her bus seat to a white man.

The group of 60 men that will take the field in their season opener Saturday against Huntingdon College, took a brief tour of the Civil Rights Memorial Center and then headed to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Martin Luther King, Jr. was once the pastor.

The team also saw the Alabama State Capitol building where over 25,000 supporters of the civil rights movement once marched after a five-day trek covering over 12 miles a day.

At the memorial center, the team was able to view exhibits and a short video that conveyed the movement’s progress and told the story of 40 martyrs that died in the cause for civil rights. The players, coaches and travel party also had a chance to add their name to a digital “Wall of Tolerance” making a pledge to keep an open mind and continue to seek justice for every kind of person and every race. The names of those on the board will remain in the rotation on the board as long as the center is open.

“When we planned this event, I thought it would be an opportunity to give our kids an experience that they may never get again in their life,” said head coach Donny Gray. “I think it made all of us think and appreciate some things. I think the experience helped us come closer together as a team because it made everyone appreciate the relationships that they have with each other.”

The stories, the knowledge and the monuments that they observed throughout the morning touched many of the players.

“That’s going to be one of the best things that [Coach Gray] is ever going to be able to present to us,” said senior wide receiver and punter Bert Green. “I think sharing it with the football team was a bigger deal for me than if I had just gone some time by myself or with family. We get so many different perspectives … it was definitely an experience that I will cherish and never forget.”

“I thought I pretty much knew all there was to know about the civil rights movement,” said sophomore defensive lineman Brandon Murray. “But as I got more into it, it really opened up my eyes to appreciate what people went through so that my and my teammates can do what we do today … and be around each other all the time without people looking at it in a negative way.

“I think as a team that is brought us closer together,” said Murray. “We learned that we can be brothers without having to worry about someone saying ‘oh you’re white’ or ‘white guys can’t hang out with black guys.’ There’s no color now. We’re just all here and we’re people and here together. I think that’s what I took from it and what the whole team took from it.”

The morning tours of the some of the historical landmarks of the civil rights movement provided a segue into Friday afternoon’s walk through. The team will kickoff with Huntingdon at 1 p.m.