The Trawicks: A Family of Troy Legends
The day Troy set an unbreakable record, it was clear the other bench was in on the scoring bonanza. (In fact, that’s the whole point of the infamous Jon Bois video.) It’s almost like Troy had an inside man working for them.
George Trawick left Polk Community College in Winter Park, Florida in 1989 to start the DeVry basketball program. He took his pregnant wife Bridget across the state line, leaving their home for the last four years and setting up a new one in the Atlanta area.
Bridget Trawick gave birth roughly a month before the college basketball season started.
George told the Atlanta Constitution he “wanted a new challenge,” and that’s exactly what he got. The ragtag Hoyas had no gym, no scholarships, no shoe deal, no team bus… and no managers to wash their uniforms.
The Hoyas lived in Division II… of the NAIA.
Over the next three seasons, they played anyone that would invite them, becoming first-ever opponents for small-school teams like Life University and Clayton State.
George and the Hoyas became all-too familiar with the footnotes of college basketball history. On January 12, 1992, they again found a spot in the record books, acting as the real-life Washington Generals to Don Maestri’s Trojan Globetrotters.
In several later articles for Troy athletics, George is mentioned as an alumnus of Troy University. The 1996 alumni directory lists two George Trawicks, and neither of them line up with information about the DeVry coach.
NOTE: we’ve been unable to verify this one part of the story, but it was included in an interview with Trawick’s son so we’ll choose to believe it. We’ll link to that interview later in the story.
For Trawick, that unbreakable game was a two-fold win: it not only put his alma mater on the map, it gave DeVry notoriety too. In fact, the only other proof of the Hoyas’ existence was the daily sports section of the Atlanta Constitution.
That December, the Constitution published what would be the epilogue to the DeVry program’s history, and seemingly, the highest-scoring basketball game ever.
That one word did a lot of the heaving lifting: “may.” The obvious answer is that DeVry basketball as we know it was done.
George returned to the working class shadows, his career of college basketball infamy complete. He didn’t stray too far from the game though, working for DeKalb County Schools in 1996 and as recently as 2014. George was a high school counselor, helped athletes get into college and even took over as a girls’ basketball coach for one season.
On the other hand, his son Brynden’s career has taken place almost exclusively in the spotlight. Brynden was first mentioned in the Atlanta Constitution in 1997.
Brynden Trawick was running track in Cobb County when he was eight, and ten years later, he returned to the sports pages as a football star in high school. Brynden was ranked among the top safeties in the country by Scouts and Rivals, and he made two all-region teams for SuperPrep and PrepStar.
Trawick signed with Michigan State, redshirting his freshman year. In his sophomore year, his football career nearly ended.
Brynden Trawick was caught up in a dorm room fight on campus. Nine of his teammates were charged, but he wasn’t. After taking a suspension, Brynden transferred to Northeast Mississippi Community College.
In his Wikipedia article, an uncited quote says Brynden took that time to get back on track.
“My heart just wasn’t in it,” Trawick said of his time as a Spartan. “I got focused on what wasn’t important, and I needed to switch it up and get refocused again.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brynden_Trawick
At NEMCC, that’s exactly what Brynden did. The safety recorded 58 tackles, nine for loss. He broke up six passes, recovered two fumbles and took his only interception 67 yards to the house.
Brynden Trawick was ready for another shot at FBS football. A year and 25 days after he was suspended at Michigan State, Brynden Trawick signed with his father’s alma mater.
Just like that, the Trojan legacy became a Trojan legend in his own right.
In 2011, Brynden Trawick became just the second Trojan in the FBS era to record 100 tackles in a season. (The others are Boris Lee and Carlton Martial.) The first-team all-Sun Belt safety picked up 75 tackles on his own, 2.5 for loss and one sack. He deflected two passes, forced one fumble and recovered another.
The next year, Brynden turned in another dominating performance. He recorded 83 tackles, made 5.5 for loss and picked off three passes, returning one for a touchdown against Arkansas State. He repeated as a first-team all-Sun Belt selection.
Twenty years and about a thousand feet from where his father led DeVry in a historic losing effort, Brynden Trawick wrote his own chapter of Troy sports history.
Brynden signed with Baltimore after going undrafted, playing three seasons with them before heading out west to Oakland. 2016 was his best year in the league, picking up 24 tackles and an interception.
The next year, Brynden returned to the South, signed with Tennessee, and achieved his highest honor yet: a Pro Bowl selection. Only two other Trojans have that distinction: DeMarcus Ware and Osi Umenyiora.
Brynden returned to the Ravens in 2019 before hanging up the cleats.
The true epilogue of this story involves the following tweet, posted by a random Ravens fan. He caught George supporting Brynden at the Ravens-Falcons game during the 2015 preseason. Ol’ Sharp Shooter here grabbed a pic with the elder Trawick.
Hiding in the background is a random Auburn football helmet. Being Atlanta, I could guess several reasons why that helmet is there, but by all accounts, it should be a Trojan helmet hiding in the background.
After all, Troy University, the backdrop of this family’s careers, is the stage where George and Brynden both became legends.
Special credit to Liz Balkcom, who wrote about this connection for the Athletics Department in 2011.