By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
From the time she was a young child growing up in Zachary, Louisiana, Tyra Perry had one career objective. Her dream profession had more to do with thermometers, needles and blood pressure cuffs than it did with bats, balls and gloves.
The small city in East Baton Rouge Parish—residence to actress Donna "Elly May Clampett" Douglas, and Super Bowl quarterback Doug Williams—also was the home for dozens of Perry family members.
"It was a great childhood from the standpoint that all of my aunts and uncles knew each other," Perry said. "When you see pictures of birthday parties and different events, both sides of the family are in attendance. They've known each other for a really long time."
Around 1970, Perry's parents—Vincent and Paula—were members of the first class to integrate Zachary High School. Tyra and all of her younger siblings—Bryant, Taryn and Brittney (13 years younger than Tyra)—all followed in their footsteps. They also inherited their dad's athletic talent and starred in Zachary's athletic arenas.
It may be surprising to learn that the sport in which the University of Illinois's fifth-year coach now specializes wasn't the favorite of the three in which she competed. Volleyball was her first love.
She admits now, though "I just wasn't quite tall enough to make the sort of impact that I would have wanted to make."
Tyra's most natural sport was softball, helping lead the Zachary Broncos to a pair of Louisiana state championships.
"I felt I had more opportunity with softball and it was a better fit," said the 2007 Zachary High School Hall of Famer. "I joke around and say I played the outfield so that I could hit."
Attracted by Nicholl State University's nursing curriculum, Perry signed to play with the Colonels in Thibodaux, just an hour-and-a-half south of Zachary. She sparkled as a freshman, hitting .402 during her rookie year. NSU won conference championships twice, drawing attention from other schools to Colonels coach Cathy Compton.
After returning from competition in the 1995 NCAA Tournament, Compton made an announcement to her team that she had been hired to start a softball program at Louisiana State University.
"She asked me and another sophomore to go with her," said Perry. "At first, I said no. I was in nursing and I was just a class away from completing my pre-reqs. LSU's nursing school was in New Orleans (not Baton Rouge). Meanwhile, my dad was in my ear the whole time, 'Are you sure about this? Are you sure about this?'"
Perry decided to take a summer class at LSU and she gradually became more comfortable with the idea of transferring.
After sitting out one season, Perry lettered in both 1997 and '98, where she was joined on the team by her sister, Taryn. During her first campaign with the Tigers, Tyra led the team in multiple hitting categories, including a .345 average and 11 home runs.
Still focused on becoming a nurse, Perry graduated from LSU with a degree in kinesiology. She also was able to earn a master's degree in sports administration, yet, to accomplish her original objective, she faced five more years of school.
LSU approached Perry about staying on with a department position in compliance, but she hesitated.
"I know it's not fair to say that compliance is anti-sports, but it was a completely different mindset for me," Perry said. "I figured out in a hurry that I didn't like dressing up and wearing stockings and dress shoes."
With the lure of athletics tugging at her heartstrings, Tyra visited her brother, Bryant, at a Joe Dean basketball camp. She introduced herself to Joe, who had just been hired as the athletic director at Birmingham Southern College, a small private school in Alabama. Eventually, Dean asked Tyra if she would have an interest in coaching the softball program the school was starting.
"So I'm 23, first time moving away from my family, out of state," Perry said. "I was pretty excited, but I knew it was going to be tough."
In Perry's fifth year at Birmingham Southern, a new president took over.
"He didn't like Division I sports and proposed to cut athletics to Division III," she said. "A lot of my athletes left and I knew I had to find something else."
In 2008, Perry took over as head coach at Western Kentucky University. In season six, she led the Hilltoppers to a Sun Belt Conference title and a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Ball State hired Perry in 2014 and in her two seasons in Muncie the Cardinals won a pair of Mid-American Conference championships.
Then, in June of 2015, came a call from then Illini athletic director Mike Thomas. Success followed quickly, with Illinois qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in each of Perry's first two seasons. A third trip to the nationals occurred this past spring.
As the Big Ten's only African American softball coach, Tyra Perry admits that being a pioneer for her race in the sport brings certain responsibilities to add others.
"I make sure that, whenever we're out on the road recruiting, I try to connect with as many of the minority coaches as possible," Perry said. "I'm very determined to work toward being on the biggest stage at the college World Series. It would mean a lot to have an African American there. You have to have more African American kids playing to have more African Americans coaching. I think that's starting to happen."
Perry is confident that her Illini program is heading in the right direction.
"My staff and I are focused on consistently finishing at the top of the Big Ten," she said. "We have some of the most storied coaches in the sport right here in the Big Ten. I'm excited about that and proud of that. (Illini athletics director) Josh Whitman is helping us get on a level playing field in terms of resources, so we're going to do our part in using those resources to win."
