VT Stories Oral History with Matt Fox, November 11, 2015 (Ms2016-015)

Carmen Bolt: Okay. We can start. What is your name and the date today?

Matt Fox: My name is Matt Fox and it is November 11, 2015, Veteran's Day, a

great day to be on campus.

Carmen: Yeah, a beautiful day to be on campus. We'll start with your childhood.

Where did you grow up?

Matt: I grew up in Manassas, Virginia, in Northern Virginia. I was there from

the time I was born until I came to Virginia Tech, so my whole childhood was in

Northern Virginia.

Carmen: What was it like growing up there?

Matt: Um, suburban America, about forty minutes outside of Washington, DC, so

close enough to the city to be involved in some things in the nation's capital,

but mostly just suburban America. But I liked it, I liked growing up in Manassas

because it had a lot of 00:01:00history with Civil War battlefields, Civil War history

First and Second Battle of Manassas, so yeah, I love Manassas. It's a great

place to grow up.

Carmen: What about your family, were they big influences for Virginia Tech and Hokies?

Matt: Well that's interesting. No one from my family had ever gone to college

before, so I was the youngest of three boys. My parents did not go to college.

All they did was complete high school, and the same with my two older brothers,

so there wasn't much influence there because no one had ever gone to college.

But I had very good grades in school and I applied to three in-state

universities, George Mason, James Madison, and Virginia Tech. My mom strongly

encouraged me to come to Virginia Tech, and one of the best decisions if not the

best decision my mom ever made in my 00:02:00life. My mom was the influence in making

the final decision coming to Virginia Tech.

Carmen: She sounds like a strong-willed lady.

Matt: She is. She has values, her beliefs, her convictions and she felt very

strongly that I would grow up quicker and grow up better if I went further away

from home and just staying local. Like going to James Madison was probably only

a ten or fifteen minute drive away. I would keep the same friends, go to the

same places, do the same things and she didn't think that that was a good idea.

She felt strongly that I should go to Virginia Tech because back then we didn't

have texting. We didn't email. I feel like a dinosaur. It wasn't that long ago,

but when you consider how much technology has changed it really was a long time

ago. When my mom dropped me off at Virginia Tech it's very different 00:03:00when a

single mom drops off a child at Virginia Tech now to start their college career.

It was very different. When my mom dropped me off it was like I got dropped off

on Mars, because you have no connection to where you're from. There was no

texting. There was no email. There were no cell phone, and you know

long-distance phone which you very limited in doing were very rare and that's

really the only connection until you went home on Thanksgiving break or winter

break, so yeah.

Carmen: That is true.

Matt: It's very, you know, when I look back I think I had some disadvantages in

that situation, but I think everything in life has its pluses and minuses. And

you know what? I'm kind of thankful. I used to think it was such a disadvantage

that I got dropped off. I had no car. I had no cell phone. I had no texts. I had

no email, poor me. You think about that, but actually I think compared to today

there were a lot of advantages in that 00:04:00situation because it did force me to kind

of fend for myself, not rely on all the relationships and my mom and things back

home, but to really start a Hokie life and start a life at Virginia Tech. Go out

and meet people in the dining halls. Go out and meet people downtown. Study with

different people from different classes and meet different people from walks of

life, and it forced me to become a well-rounded person very quickly. I feel

sorry for some of the freshmen that get dropped off at universities today

because they don't totally disconnect from their home and totally get consumed

by the university. I think there are lots of benefits to that.

Carmen: Definitely, I know a student whose mom does his laundry every two weeks.

Matt: So you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you're going to drop your

son or daughter off at the University don't allow them to text you every other

five minutes. I mean that's an exaggeration, but you know what my point 00:05:00is. You

should be to me you're becoming a college student. You're becoming an adult. You

should be running your schedule, doing your life during the week and then maybe

a phone call to your parents on the weekend. To me that seems appropriate, but

everybody has their opinion, but I wouldn't be in favor of dropping a son or

daughter off at a major University and then texting and calling every day and

every day. To each his own, right. I bet other people would disagree with me,

but that's what I would think. So when I look back I think that there were a lot

of advantages by maybe not having texts and cell phone and email, because it did

force me to grow up quickly and build relationships.

Carmen: Yeah.

Matt: To me the Hokie Nation what makes us great is all the great relationships,

and we're like family. You know it's more than just like a colleague or a fellow

student. Virginia Tech is like family, so I'm glad 00:06:00that I learned how to build

those relationships quickly.

Carmen: That's wonderful.

Matt: Yeah.

Carmen: Recalling your first day, what was that like to just be dropped off?

Matt: Oh gosh.

Carmen: Did your mom come in and do a tour?

Matt: Well we had come in when I was first looking at Virginia Tech. I came down

with my mom. We drove down. We toured the campus, went on a campus tour and it

was beautiful. It doesn't matter, Virginia Tech, it doesn't matter what time of

year you come. It doesn't matter what the weather is Virginia Tech is a

beautiful place. And I remember that trip and it being very beautiful, but I

remember thinking I don't want to go there because I would be so far from home.

It's just too far away. It's four hours away. I had no car, so even though it

was a beautiful campus and I loved the tour I was against coming here. Now once

we made the decision that I was coming to [Virginia] Tech my first day when my

mom dropped 00:07:00off, I would say that day was very scary, intimidating and you know

it took a while to make the adjustment. But I'm not a high school kid at home

with mom and all my friends. Now I'm a college student at a major university.

I've got to study hard and get good grades to stay here, and I have a lot of

responsibilities that I need to embrace quickly. So yeah, it was a scary,

intimidating, challenging I would say.

Carmen: That first night with a roommate, was it kind of awkward?

Matt: Absolutely. Well, and speaking of that, and to answer the question further

you know, I came from suburban America but very much city savvy. I don't know if

that's the right word, just very familiar with city and just different things in

life. But my roommate was a 00:08:00farm boy from Pennsylvania and a very different

life, and we had absolutely nothing in common. And so that was very difficult

being matched up with someone that not only have you never met them before, but

you have nothing in common with that person and now you're going to live

together for the next year in very small type quarters, so that was also

intimidating and challenging.

Carmen: Did that relationship grow any or was it just bunkmates?

Matt: You know it's funny, we lived together for a year and most of the year we

really weren't friends. We were just roommates because we were so different. He

went his way and took his agriculture courses. I went my way and took my

political science and communication courses. You know we hung out with different

people and did different things. But the interesting thing is you know you grow 00:09:00up and you learn to get along with different people. And even though we really

weren't friends our freshman year, when we got older and we were juniors and

seniors and we didn't live together we would meet up and have lunch and do stuff

together and we became friends. I graduated in [19]92, so all these years have

passed and I still keep in touch with him. I've even gone to his farm in

Pennsylvania and visited him, and I'll definitely do it again when there's time

in the schedule. So yeah, I think that's part of growing up and being a college

student and realizing there are going to be lots of people that you meet that

are different than you, but you learn to adjust and get along with those people,

find some common ground and then the relationship builds. Yeah, I'm really glad

because I don't think I was the best roommate in the world my freshman year. I

had a lot of growing up to do. I think he was a better roommate than I was, so

I'm glad that we're still friends. [Laughs]

Carmen: As you sort of branched into your area of study you found friends 00:10:00 there.

You studied finance?

Matt: I studied political science and communications.

Carmen: Oh, okay.

Matt: Because I had an interest in politics and I had a strong interest in

communications, news reporting, sports reporting, so I think that's where I

probably met the most people where I had things in common with was when I did

communications courses. I met a ton of friends through that because we kind of

share the same interests, yeah.

Carmen: Do you think your interest in poli-sci came from living in Manassas, the

city capital?

Matt: That's a good question. I'm not really sure. I think most of probably my

interest that steered me towards politics and political science when I was here,

my parents divorced when I was very young. I grew up in a single parent home. My

mom worked two jobs. She was gone a lot and I 00:11:00met some people on my newspaper

route and they kind of became like a second family and second parents to me, and

they were very political and they were very involved, had very strong beliefs in

the way they felt things should be handled and done and the way the country

should be run. And because I spent a lot of time with them I think that wore off

on me. They were very big supporters of the country, doing things the right way,

you know, respecting our military and all the values that the country is built

on, so I think that kind of rubbed off on me. And I found a lot of the

conversations that we had very interesting, so I think when I came to college I

wanted to kind of expand on those conversations and learn more about politics,

and maybe leaders that I didn't know much about because they were around like

Kennedy. You hear so much about John F. Kennedy, but he was around 00:12:00when I wasn't

alive. So when I came to Virginia Tech I wanted to learn more about not just

politics, but the history of politics and all the leaders that we had, you know,

who did what to form our country. And you know what were the mistakes that were

made that we don't want to repeat by this leader or that leader and what were

the things that were done well by certain leaders that would continue to grow

the country and make things better. That's probably more of how I became

involved in politics and political science.

Carmen: So tell me more about this family, how did you get involved with them?

Matt: Yeah, it was very neat. They changed my life, and even though my mom

helped me decide to come to Virginia Tech I would give them more credit and more

the reason why I ended up in college to begin with. So I had a newspaper route.

Like I said, we were in a single parent home. There were no extras. My mom made

enough money just to pay for 00:13:00the necessities, the basics. So I had a newspaper

route and I met these people on my paper route and they kind of took me under

their wing. They took me to high school football games, high school basketball

games. They encouraged me to get very good grades. They encouraged me to go to

college. They taught me tennis. They just really, they opened me up to a lot of

different directions in life that my mom didn't even know about or have the time

to expose me to those areas, so I was very lucky to run into them. They

definitely steered me in the right direction into you've got to get good grades.

You have potential. You can go to a great school. Get out and get a good job. Be

a very productive part of society, and so yeah, I'm thankful for them every day. [Chuckles]

Carmen: Did you keep up that connection once you went to college?

Matt: Very much so. Like I said, back then we didn't have email and texting, 00:14:00 but

I would send them letters and notes and she would send me letters and notes. And

I remember all the time going down to the mailbox hoping there was something

there and usually there wasn't, but when there was something there and it was a

note from Peggy who was like my second mom it made my day. It was the greatest

thing, because that was really our only connection while I was away was just

mail, so yeah. And she felt kind of the same way as my mom. She wasn't going to

call me every weekend. She felt like I needed to come down here and start my

life, and really our only connection was letter writing, and that was great. So

we kept our relationship up by letter writing while I was here at the

University, and then when I would go home for breaks I would always go visit

them. The first place I went when I got home. [Laughs]

Carmen: They taught you tennis, which seems to have been a huge impact for the

rest of your life.

Matt: It sure has been. Yeah, they taught me tennis. So I was the newspaper boy

and also they both worked outside the 00:15:00home. They had busy lives and they had a

big black lab dog in a townhouse, so that dog needed exercise and needed to get

out and run. So every day when I got home from school when I was in high school

they would pay me ten dollars a week to take their dog for a walk. I would take

their dog out for a walk every day after school and I would take him out on the

weekends. So I remember on the weekend one morning Gale and Peggy, who were my

second parents, they were up at the local park playing tennis and I took

Tripper, their dog, walking up there and I just sat down on the bench and we

watched them play tennis. Gale just got tired. They had been playing for a while

and he handed me the racket and I thought you know, what is this? I have never

played tennis; I don't even know how to hold the racket. He said, go out there

and hit some balls with Peggy. And so I went out there and it was instant love,

instant passion. It's so much 00:16:00fun. It was a great game to learn. And then I

would play tennis with Peggy, with Ms. Horstel after she would come home from

work on the weekdays, and then the weekends after she would play with Gale I

would hit tennis balls with her. And then I just became addicted to it and they

really opened my eyes and introduced me to a wonderful sport. I would even go

take a bunch of used balls and hit against the wall just for practice, because I

just wanted to get consistent and I wanted to get better. And then I started

saving my money from my newspaper route and taking tennis lessons. I didn't have

enough money for a full hour lesson which was twenty-six dollars an hour, so I

would take a half hour lesson for thirteen bucks. Then I tried out for the high

school team, made the tennis team and I played in the number one spot. I played

the number one spot on my high school tennis team at Stonewall Jackson High

School in 00:17:00Manassas my junior and senior year, and then when I came to Virginia

Tech I played intramural tennis here at Virginia Tech. So tennis sent me on lots

of different routes and avenues and meeting different people. Same thing when I

played intramurals here at Virginia Tech, and then once I got out I continued to

play in city leagues and then eventually got the opportunity to become a

professional tennis umpire which has taken me all over the world. And all that

began with Mr. Horstel handing me a tennis racket and saying, go hit tennis

balls with Ms. Horstel, when I was thirteen years old. So it's hard to believe

that that moment to right now has all happened through tennis.

Carmen: Wow that's incredible.

Matt: It is.

Carmen: It must have been a great way to make friends here too.

Matt: Oh yeah, it's great. Through the intramurals they would have a list of all

these different tennis players. You could go down the list and contact 00:18:00 someone,

normally someone you would have never met. Yeah, I got to meet so many different

people. We had tennis in common. Talking to them about what they're studying,

where they're from and immediately you had a new Hokie connection and it was so

easy. So definitely it was a great way to meet people, people Hokies. It was a

wonderful opportunity.

Carmen: Did you guys have like a coach or was it more student-led?

Matt: Yeah, for intramurals there were no coaches. You were on your own, so you

planned your matches and you brought your best game and you played. You didn't

have any coaching. I guess maybe it's still the same now. I'm guessing the only

coaches that would probably be here for tennis are for the actual Virginia Tech

tennis team. Yeah, anybody who has intramurals they're on their own.

Carmen: Going back to academics, were there any notable advisors or professors

you've had 00:19:00that you feel like made an impact, or just fun to have?

Matt: Oh my gosh.

Carmen: I know, time passes.

Matt: Time passes. Yeah, I had a lot of great professors that really opened my

eyes to just different things in the world, but there was never one specific

professors that had like one major impact on me. I always say that the best

advice I got was from my guidance counselor in high school who said when you go

to college you need to have a plan A and a plan B, because if plan A doesn't

work or falls through you need to have something to fall back on. And so that's

why I decided that not only would I study political science and communications,

but I also studied business and I'm glad I did 00:20:00that because it gave me a plan B

once I got out in the real world. So I think you know, I think with Virginia

Tech all the professors offer something different, but they offer a lot and they

help make you very well-rounded. Yeah, I think all the professors here are

amazing, and they just make you a well-rounded individual. They all offer so

much and I think that's why there's no one that really-- one stands out. I think

they were all very good in what they brought to the table.

Carmen: That's great, I understand there's so many who impart so much knowledge

on you.

Matt: And when you're in your first year too there's so many large classes where

you really don't have much interaction with the professor. I mean those

professors my freshman year that taught the classes in the large auditorium with

two hundred, three hundred people. I don't even remember their face or their

name, because you just have 00:21:00very little interaction with them. But then once you

get to become a junior or senior then you have more smaller classes and have

more interaction with the professor and then they have more of an impact on you.

I remember, you know it's hard to believe now, but back then I had to take a

public speaking course during summer school and I was scared to death to take

public speaking. And I remember that professor being so good in helping us

handle public speaking, relaxing and just being yourself. Now I would have no

problem doing public speaking, but it's all because of that professor at

Virginia Tech who made something that seems so scary, so challenging, so

stressful, so difficult she had ways to teach and make that easy. I was scared

to death to take public speaking, and now I would have no problem public

speaking at all. That came I think from a great professor at Virginia Tech.

Carmen: Yeah.

Matt: Yeah.

Carmen: Do you have any favorite memories of Virginia Tech?

Matt: Oh my gosh, 00:22:00so many, so many. You know I think with every Hokie a lot of

our great memories come at football games because it's such a big tradition

here. It's such a big party. It's probably our biggest and best way we all come

together. Our big rival is UVA and when I was here from [19]88 to [19]92 you

know we weren't at our best time in our football history and I remember year

after year after year losing to UVA. And then I remember it was either my junior

or my senior year, I'm not sure, but we finally beat UVA. I got one of my best

friends that I met and he was a cadet and after half-time I got to go down and

sit with the cadets down by the-- they used to sit at the fifty-yard line, and

very different now. And so I got to sit down at the very bottom of the stadium

by the fifty-yard line with the cadets, great 00:23:00seats. And then when we beat UVA

all the fans started jumping onto the field and celebrating. We finally beat UVA

and I remember we ripped out the goalposts, and then we carried the goalpost all

the way down to Main Street from the stadium. And I look back and I think oh my

gosh I can't believe we did that. But it just such a euphoria, it was amazing.

It was just such an incredible experience. Yeah, I think that's probably-- I

have so many great memories here, but I think that was the first real big one.

Carmen: What was campus like that night, the high?

Matt: Crazy, you know, massive. Wild loud parties everywhere. We finally beat

UVA. We finally beat UVA. And you know now since that game until today we've

beaten UVA in most of the games. I mean, they've only 00:24:00won--that was probably

1991 or [19]92--UVA has probably only won a handful of games since then.

Carmen: You guys started a good trend.

Matt: We did. It all changed that night. You know what, we had a right to

celebrate because that night then changed in the rivalry. So yeah, that was a

great moment. I remember seeing pictures of the goalpost coming down and

thousands of students being down there and I can say, oop, oop, I was there. I'm

one of those people. [Laughs]

Carmen: That's me.

Matt: Yeah, so that was definitely a great memory when I was a student.

Carmen: So you've talked about how classes were different starting your earlier

years from when you became a junior or senior. How was your first year like in

general? Did you quickly adapt to the Hokie spirit?

Matt: No, no. I didn't quickly adapt, because you know like I said, you're used

to being in classes with twenty-five, thirty 00:25:00people and then all of a sudden the

majority of your classes are two hundred, three hundred people. You're used to

having high school teachers that you have a lot of interaction with, and now you

have professors that you have little to no interaction with, so it was a big

adjustment you know. I think I was the kind of student who I would learn, but I

wanted to be able to interact with a professor and be reassured that I was

getting it, I was understanding it, I was going down the path. You know that's

very difficult because you would have a professor that you just don't interact

with and they may have very brief office hours and that's about it. So I think

it was a hard adjustment. I think when I went to orientation we sat in probably

Burruss Hall, maybe McBryde. We were in Burruss or McBryde and I remember

sitting there and they would say, look to your left, look to your right. A year

from now one of you won't be here, because that's how bad the dropout rate was.

I have no idea what it is 00:26:00now and if that's changed, but you know, it was very

very difficult to make that adjustment for a lot of students and I guess about

one-third never made the adjustment and it was not easy for me, so I struggled

my freshman year. High school seemed very very easy to me and Virginia Tech my

first year seemed very very difficult.

Carmen: How did you adjust?

Matt: Well, I met a cadet. To me what happened was my mom raised me very strict,

so I had to do my homework and da da da da da, had a curfew. Then when I came to

Virginia Tech I didn't have a curfew and you know I didn't have any rules. You

know you made up your own rules so you didn't have any rules. I think what

happened was when you go from being in a very structured environment to no

structure it's a huge 00:27:00adjustment and there are lots of mistakes that you make.

And so I became friends with a cadet who had a lot of structure, because he was

in the ROTC program, so he had a lot of structure. He had certain hours where

this is when he goes to the dining hall. This is when he studies. This is when

he goes to sleep. My first day in a communications class he sat right beside me,

and that's probably what saved my college career at Virginia Tech, is meeting

him and then I started kind of hanging out with him, and then being with someone

who had structure in their schedule of we eat here, we study now da da da da,

that really helped give me the structure that I needed to get disciplined and

get my grades up to stay at [Virginia] Tech. So yeah, it was difficult. That's

an easy answer, it was very difficult and I'm very lucky that I met him.

Carmen: Good habits rub off.

Matt: Exactly. Yeah. And it's a life 00:28:00lesson. It's not only a lesson about you

know making your way through college, hanging out with the right people who make

the decisions, have structure and are disciplined, but it's a life lesson

because when you get out in the real world you know a lot about life is the

decisions of the people that you make relationships and alliances with. Learning

that between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two is a huge thing, because when

you get out in the real world, whether it's a neighbor or it's a business or

corporation you build a relationship with the right people you're going to be

successful. You build relationships with the wrong people you're not going to be

successful. I think that was a great thing. That was a life lesson learned early

on at Virginia Tech about building relationships with the right people.

Carmen: Did you have any other really important or influential relationships?

Matt: Umm hmm...

Carmen: Or just fun 00:29:00 ones.

Matt: Yeah. I would say, yeah, David Pyle who was the ROTC was probably the most

influential relationship that I had from a student perspective. And I would say

the only other influential relationship I had was probably my second mom when I

would go home. And my real mom too, because they both wanted to see me succeed

and they would always ask me, how are your grades? How are your classes? So you

felt that pressure that if things weren't going well or you got a bad grade on

the last test, when I get back down to [Virginia] Tech I have to get my act

together. It's got to be better. Because you felt the pressure that you don't

want to come back and say, I failed that class, or, I didn't do well on that

test. So I think those were the influential relationships that I had as far as

affecting me being successful at [Virginia] Tech.

Carmen: Obviously you had to study a lot.

Matt: A 00:30:00 ton.

Carmen: What did you do to cut loose, relax?

Matt: Well, like I said, tennis was a big outlet for me, so I played intramurals

at Virginia Tech. You know, going downtown was always fun. I mean the downtown

is very different now in a lot of ways, but still even then it was great going downtown.

Carmen: The Hokie House.

Matt: Yeah, exactly. I used to play darts at Hokie House, so that was fun. We

played darts at Hokie House. I would meet a lot of people that way. And my buddy

Dave Pyle, he was really big into hiking, so we would go not too far on 460 West

and we would go to Jefferson National Forest. We would go hiking at the

cascades. So there were, even though I didn't have a car at the time there were

lots of ways to branch out and go take advantage of not only what the campus has

to offer, but the great mountains and activities that are around 00:31:00the Blacksburg

New River Valley area. So that was kind of what I did to let loose, was to go

downtown and meet people, play intramural tennis, go hiking, go to the cascades.

So were all I think great opportunities that helped me be well-rounded and have balance.

Carmen: Great, maybe we should move on to what you did after graduation. You

graduated with two degrees in communications and poli-sci and you became a

financial manager. How did that path go?

Matt: Yeah, so it was kind of interesting. Like I said earlier, my high school

guidance counselor told me to have a plan A and plan B. Plan A was definitely

more broadcast journalism, TV news reporter, TV sports reporter, something like

that, and then plan B was business. So I did an internship as a news reporter

for WJLA in Washington, DC, the 00:32:00ABC affiliate, and that was a real eye-opener

being an intern reporter in a big city like that, and so I did that while I was

at [Virginia] Tech during one of my summers. And then when I graduated I moved

to Panama City Florida and I worked at a small TV station and I worked at a

student loan corporation, so I was building basically the plan A and the plan B.

You know on the plan A side I was working at the TV station hoping to grow then,

and then on the plan B side I was working at a student loan corporation to build

up the business side of my resume. And then as time passed the TV journalism

world is very very difficult. It's almost to me like winning the lottery. I mean

very very few people make it. you have to be in the right place, the right face

at the right place at the right time and have the right connection. I mean you

can 00:33:00be so good and so very good, have such a great resume tape but still not get

the job. There are a lot of great people in that industry that never make it, so

I could see as time passed I probably didn't come from a family background that

had the financial resources to back me up when I went through that stage like

maybe some students did. And you know there were a lot of hurdles to clear to

make it in that business, so I was really glad that I had that plan B, so I

built my business side of my resume. I did student loans. I did credit

corporations and then I moved into investments in financial advising and

financial planning. I'm so glad I did that because it gave me a very

well-rounded resume in a lot of different areas of business, and then eventually

I just 00:34:00focused on investments and became a financial advisor and grew that part

of my career and I'm still doing that today.

Carmen: Cool, and all the while tennis never faded in the background?

Matt: Yeah, and that's the wonderful thing about tennis is tennis always has

been a part of my life no matter where I've been or what job I've been doing. I

always made time to play tennis in whatever community I lived in, meet people

through tennis. And then when I played in the St. Petersburg, Florida City

league is when I got introduced to an umpire clinic where they were recruiting

umpires in 1998, and then my path as an umpire began from that period, from that

time. So then I just worked my way up doing small junior tournaments and then

doing some lower tier pro tournaments in college tennis, and then in 2002 I

worked my first U.S. Open in New York, which is the biggest tournament 00:35:00in the

United States, probably the second biggest tournament in the world behind

Wimbledon in England in London. I just worked my way up the ranks and had a lot

of passion, really enjoyed the job. Now to go from 2002 to now, now I've worked

fourteen U.S. Opens, three Australian Opens, four French Opens, and just this

year I did my first Wimbledon, which is the most prestigious tennis tournament

in the world. So I've done what we call the Grand Slam. Once you've done all

four you've completed the Grand Slam. So I've gone from a little tennis player

playing intramurals at Virginia Tech to now I'm a Grand Slam umpire. I've worked

every big tournament in the world.

Carmen: Oh my goodness, have you umpired any big matches?

Matt: I've umpired in a lot of big matches. I've been honored to be just in

September the U.S. Open Final was the number one player in the world, Novak

Djokovic from Serbia 00:36:00versus Roger Federer who many consider the greatest player

of all time from Switzerland, and they made it to the final and I was selected

for the final match.

Carmen: Oh wow.

Matt: So it was a great honor, but a lot of pressure at the same time. It was my

fifth U.S. Open Final, but as far as the name of names of the players that was

probably the most prestigious to be involved in that.

Carmen: What's it feel like to be on the court while doing these big matches?

Matt: Um, it's an incredible feeling of pride that you've worked hard and you've

been recognized and selected to be put in that position, because they are only

going to put the very best umpires in those situations, so there's a lot of

pride and satisfaction that you've made it to that level. But there's also a lot

of pressure in the fact that okay, I've been selected for this situation and

they are expecting me to be at my best and be able to perform at this level so

you feel a 00:37:00lot of pressure. But really, all those emotional things and all the

things that you feel being put in that situation, as soon as you step out on the

court and the first ball is struck you have to block all that out. You can't

think about I came from Little Ben Lomond Park in Manassas, Virginia. The first

time you step on a tennis court, I mean you're human, it's only natural that

those kind of things creep in your mind. And you're just in awe that wow, I'm

sitting in the biggest tennis stadium in the world in the biggest match. There

are twenty-five, twenty-six thousand people here and millions of people

watching. It's easy to get caught up in that. It's just human nature, and you

have to be very professional, very good, very focused and take the concentration

and just put up blinders and kind of block it all out. That's really how the

best perform at their best is the ones who are able to do that and don't let all

those emotional passionate things creep 00:38:00in, because when you step off court

then you can enjoy those emotions and the satisfaction, but when you're on court

you just have to block it all out and be at 100 percent, because a lot of times

99 percent won't be good enough. [Laughs]

Carmen: That's a lot of pressure.

Matt: It is a lot of pressure, because if you're at 99 percent that 1 percent

might be the time when the ball passes through your line and it's very very

close and you weren't ready, so you have to be 100 percent.

Carmen: Have you continued to play as well as umpire?

Matt: I still play. I belong to an athletic club in downtown Tampa called Harbor

Island Athletic Club. Even though I travel all over the world, all over the

United States umpiring tennis tournaments, I'm not at home as much as I used to

be, but when I am home I try to schedule tennis almost every day. But that is

one of the down sides of having a successful umpiring career, is that I travel

so much now to so many tournaments that I'm not 00:39:00home and not able to play as

much as I would like to. So that's part of the trade-off, but yeah, I still play

as much as I can. And when I come to Virginia Tech I usually play. I'm good

friends with the Virginia Tech tennis coach, Jim Thompson. I just met with him

yesterday. So whenever I'm here for an extended period of time I'm usually up on

the tennis courts playing.

Carmen: That's great, so you come to Virginia Tech a lot.

Matt: Yes.

Carmen: Every year you try to.

Matt: Every year.

Carmen: How has it changed in your eyes?

Matt: Oh, it's unbelievable how much it's changed. I think I probably-- You know

I talk to a lot of alumni and I'm probably somewhere in the middle of the road,

because you know I think the younger you are it's just natural, it's easier to

embrace change because you don't everything in the past yet. And I think the

older you are the more you don't want things to change because you want them to

have that same 00:40:00feel when you were there as a student at [Virginia] Tech, and I

think I'm somewhere in the middle of the road there. I like that we continue to

like our motto invent the future, you know, and Ut Prosim. I think it's great

that we continue to look for ways to serve the community, change the community,

improve the community. I like that, but I also like our traditions and I like

some things that are maybe great to maybe leave them alone and not change them.

So I'm just definitely like in the middle there. Yeah, I've seen all the changes

since I graduated in [19]92. I come back just like I did yesterday. I walk the

campus, I see all the construction and I'm just blown away at how much things

have changed. And so I do like all the growth and all the changes that we make,

but I hope that we always hold near and dear our traditions and some things we

leave alone. But that's a difficult balance, it really is. I don't 00:41:00envy the

leaders that have to make those decisions, because you will never make everyone

happy. Because there are going to be some people who are all about growth and

change, and there are going to be some people who are all about tradition, don't

touch that building, leave it the way it is. I like it just the way it looked in

the 1960s and 1970s. So you're never going to keep everyone happy and that's a

really difficult balance. But I think overall at Virginia Tech I think we've

done a great job. But I have to say from an emotional point of view when I come

back, when I see a lot of things changing it's hard, because I think it's human

nature. We have our Hokie experience here, whether you're here as a transfer

student for two years or you're here for four, four-and-a-half as an

undergraduate, your Hokie experience is very much always in the forefront of

your mind. You can always paint a picture, no matter where you are in life you

can paint a picture of what Virginia Tech looks like when you were here as a

student. And I think we all have a part of our heart where we don't want that 00:42:00 to

change. We want that picture to be the same. And so I think it is kind of hard

to come back and see that that picture is not the same. [Laughs]

Carmen: What traditions especially do you want to keep the same, and that you

hold near and dear?

Matt: Yeah. I would say the Drillfield, because that's a central part of our

campus, so please don't even think about building on the Drillfield. There's so

much history there going back to the original first days of Virginia Tech. You

think oh please don't ever touch the Drillfield and you hope they don't. So I

would say that's a big traditional part of our campus. Obviously the War

Memorial with all of our military history, you don't want that to change. The

Corps of Cadets, I'm a big supporter of the Corps of Cadets. I hope we always

keep that tradition. I hope we always have a big ROTC 00:43:00program, because I think

that's the backbone and the heart and tradition of Virginia Tech is our military

background. Yeah, I would say the War Memorial, the Drillfield, our ROTC

program. Obviously the Hokie Stone and the way our buildings look, I hope we

always keep that tradition and I think they've done a good job with that. I

think there's so many traditions that we have, and I hope we keep all of them

because they are such great traditions. It's what makes Virginia Tech great and

it's what I think makes us proud to be Hokies. But I would say of all those

traditions so there's many to go through we could talk hours about all the great

traditions we have. But off the top of my head I think the biggest ones would

probably be our military history, the ROTC program, the Drillfield, Burruss, and

the War Memorial. I think those things I hope no one ever thinks about touching

those things.

Carmen: 00:44:00To wrap up is there any question that you think I should have asked you

or a last story you want to tell about Virginia Tech?

Matt: You know, yeah, there's always something that I like to talk about because

I think it talks about everyone wonders what makes the Hokie nation so great?

What makes the Hokie spirit so great compared to other universities and studies

that have come out? Even though it's--a lot of people say oh that's such a sad

part of our history, but I say no it's not. No it's not, it's a great part of

our history, and that is April 16th and the shootings that happened on campus. I

say that of course it's sad and the tragedy and what happened, but it's great in

how we responded, and I wonder how many campuses around the country if they

could respond and bounce back and rebound the way we did and as strong as we 00:45:00did. So I would say that day changed my life personally, and it definitely

changed Virginia Tech, because I think there is the Virginia Tech before April

16, 2007 and then Virginia Tech after April 16, 2007 and it's two very different

worlds. Very much like United States after 9/11/01 and the United States after

9/11/01. But I would say you know people would not, if someone were interviewing

me they wouldn't know how big of a Hokie I am unless we talked about that. And I

say to me it's not sad to talk about; it's something that we should be very

proud about because of the way we bounced back. And I think we showed not only

our community and our country, but the whole world how strong this place is,

that something that bad could happen here and not only did it not take us down

as a university, it made us bigger, better, stronger. And I'm proud that as an

alum I came 00:46:00back. I met a lot of freshman at the time of the shootings, and all

those kids that I met, that I took out for breakfast or dinner to get their mind

off everything and all the chaos and all the sadness, all those kids now are

like their mid to late twenties and they are little brothers and best friends

for the rest of my life. One of the Hokie freshman kids that I met right after

the shootings actually when I leave Virginia Tech today I'm driving to Northern

Virginia and I'm spending the next two days with him and his family. So you know

what, through the tragedy we've created a stronger, better university and we've

created a lot of great relationships. And out of that horrible tragedy I have

numerous unbelievable relationships including this one with the student that was

a freshman at the time of the shootings. So I think that April 16th is a big

part of our 00:47:00history as Virginia Tech, and April 16th is personally a big part of

my history and it's changed us. But I think it's changed us in a great way, and

I think I'm a better, stronger person because of that day, and I think we're a

better, stronger community because of that day.

Carmen: Thank you so much for talking with me.

Matt: You're welcome.

Carmen: I really enjoyed this.

Matt: Yeah and it's easy for me to talk about Virginia Tech, so I've enjoyed it

too [Laughs].

Carmen: Great.

[End of interview]