By Kelly Chambers, TTU Crawford Alumni Center
COOKEVILLE -- Jim Wilhoite (`79 industrial technology) knows what quality baseball facilities can do for players, coaches and a program. Wilhoite, who played baseball for the Golden Eagles under Coach David Mays, recently made a significant commitment to Tennessee Tech's indoor hitting facility or "hack shack."
"As I've gotten older, I've started reflecting on the past," Wilhoite said. "And I realized that baseball has done a lot for me. It was the best four years of my life. The friendships that I built, the camaraderie I had with the other players – that was what made my college experience outstanding. Athletics made me feel like I was part of something. It instantly gives you a family. In college, it's not easy to walk in and be around 10,000 people you don't know. But baseball gave me friends right off the bat. The minute you make the team, you have 25 friends who are pulling for you and have the same aspirations as you do."
Wilhoite had two uncles who majored in engineering at Tech, and they inspired Wilhoite to do the same.
"I was a farm boy," Wilhoite said. "I was always interested in hands-on projects, and industrial technology gave me the opportunity to be hands-on. It was a common-sense engineering field, and I've never regretted choosing it as my major."
Wilhoite says he would have attended Tech even if he hadn't played baseball, but he was grateful to Coach Mays for a scholarship that helped pay his tuition. During Wilhoite's time, Tech's baseball team beat the University of Tennessee four out of the eight times they played them.
"That's a pretty good record," Wilhoite said. "My freshman year, we beat them nine to nothing. That was one of the highlights – to compete against ranked schools and beat them."
After graduating from Tech, Wilhoite worked for Milliken and Company and Cottrell Inc., then started his own business – a lawncare and landscaping business which later evolved into a business building and renting warehouses.
Today, Wilhoite lives in Gainesville, Ga., with his wife and two sons. Several years ago, when a local Gainesville high school – the high school his sons would later attend – needed new facilities, Wilhoite stepped in to help.
"This high school had one of the worst baseball programs in the state," Wilhoite said. "The kids only had a batting cage out in the weather. Kids were changing clothes in their car because there wasn't a locker room. The rival school was winning the state championship every other year, but they had an indoor hitting facility. I knew that with a nice hitting facility, batting cages and locker rooms, they could turn things around."
Wilhoite worked with local businesses and individuals to raise money for a new facility. Since then, the high school has won two state championships.
"Everyone will tell you it could not have happened without those new facilities," Wilhoite said. "It drew in a quality coach. A coach sees a quality hitting facility and thinks, 'I can train my athletes.' I know the value a hitting facility brings to Tech. If I'm a high school student looking to develop as an athlete, I want to attend somewhere with good facilities."
