Senior Nathan Peavy wears No. 31 to help carry on the dying legacy of a local basketball legend.
Some remember this man as perhaps the greatest prep player ever to come out of Dayton. Others remember him as a drug-addicted low-life. But to Nathan, he was a mentor and a best friend whom he worshipped like a superhero.
This man was his late father, Terry.
By wearing No. 31, Nathan - who's expected to be one of the top players on Miami University's basketball team this upcoming season - pays tribute to the Terry Peavy that he knew: the fun and caring person who was his favorite playmate on a sunny afternoon.
Nathan never knew of the darker life his father lived, a life stricken by a crippling addiction to pipes and needles. In 1997, Terry overdosed and was found dead in his car. Nathan was only 13.
Shortly after his father's death, Nathan's mother, Nila, sat her son down and explained the family's long kept secret: Terry had been addicted to crack cocaine, heroine and other drugs throughout Nathan's life.
Terry had good days and bad. On the good days, he'd take Nathan to the park to walk the dogs or to the local recreation center to shoot hoops.
On the bad days, Terry disappeared, keeping the promise he made to Nila - who divorced him when Nathan was 2 years old - to never mix drug life with family life.
If his addiction took hold of him when Nathan was around, he'd have to drop him off at his mother's or at another family member's house. This was the family rule.
Nathan never knew, never once had any suspicion of his father's debilitating disease.
To Nila's surprise, the shocking event left Nathan neither traumatized nor begrudged. Instead, it provided him with a newfound drive to succeed. He thought that if he flourished on the basketball court and stayed out of trouble, he could restore the honor of his father's name.
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
In the coming years, he sprouted to 6-foot-8 - four inches taller than his father - and made the Chaminade-Julienne varsity basketball team in his sophomore year.
He still wore No. 31, but no longer as the proud child of a local sports hero. He had become a living, breathing likeness of his hero-turned-fallen father: He walked like his dad, talked like his dad, and dazzled high school gyms all over Dayton just like his dad did 30 years earlier.
In his senior year, Nathan earned second-team all-state honors, captaining the Catholic school powerhouse to a 22-4 record and a district championship.
But that year, tragedy struck again as his stepfather died of complications from a liver transplant.
In 2003, after losing his second father-figure, Nathan left his family in Dayton for Miami University.
From day one, Nathan - sporting No. 31, of course - was a pivotal cog in the paint for the RedHawks. Last year, he averaged 11.7 points and a team-leading 6.9 rebounds.
His dreams of playing in the NBA will likely not come true (his father had a brief stint in the NBA in the 1979 and 1980); but his talent will probably allow him to play professionally in some capacity, either in the U.S. or overseas.
Nine years removed from his father's death, Nathan doesn't like to talk about his dad's drug addiction.
He'd rather revisit memories of those many sunny afternoons they spent together.
Sure, some may have considered his father to be a low-life. But even in his dying days, Terry always found time for his son.
He was a true father-figure, something that's considered a luxury in the African-American community.
Through Terry, Nathan is now well-equipped to become a father himself one day.
According to Nila, Nathan is already showing paternal instincts with his 13-year old nephew.
"He has a girlfriend already? He's way too young for that," Nathan said, in reference to his nephew.
Above all, Nathan knows that a good father doesn't have to be perfect in the eyes of others, just as long as he's perfect in the eyes of his child.
This is why Nathan wears No. 31.
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.