This is the continuation of a series of Body, Mind & Soul stories that highlights member student-athletes, coaches and administrators of Conference Carolinas.

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. - When it comes to sports in the state of North Carolina, auto racing and college basketball rule the roost.

That’s where Alex Hayden has got things covered. Perhaps one of the rare few in the country who broadcast both NASCAR and college basketball, he is a particular anomaly for the University of Mount Olive Trojans.

But he doesn’t stop there. Hayden is a sports announcer for all seasons. As the Trojan Sports Network Anchor, the 51-year-old Goldsboro, North Carolina resident also has called Mount Olive baseball, softball, men’s and women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer and field hockey.

“I think the only sports he hasn’t done are cross country and golf,” smiles Ryan Smith, the school’s Director of Athletic Communications and Hayden’s broadcast partner on many broadcasts.

According to Smith, Alex is a bit of a sportsaholic. He’s never seen a sport he doesn’t like to broadcast. In fact, the Trojans’ PR man recounts a particular week last month that illustrates just how crazy Hayden is about sports.

“He called the Daytona 500 for MRN Radio (Motor Racing Network) on a Sunday, maybe the biggest event of the year in racing, and I got a phone call the next day,” said Smith. “It was Alex, asking me, ‘Hey, you got any games this week?’ I told him we had men’s and women’s basketball games against Chowan on Tuesday and a softball doubleheader against Wingate on Thursday. He flew in and did all four games before leaving for L.A. on Friday for another race.”

To fully understand how the Trojans’ multi-faceted broadcaster got to this point, one might want to cue up The Beatles, because Alex Hayden certainly has taken “The Long and Winding Road.” Even at the age of six, something told you little Alex wasn’t going to be a boring child. Let Hayden tell the story:

“At the time, it was pretty harrowing, but now it’s kind of funny,” he begins the tale. “It was my first day learning how to ride a bicycle. My mom’s outside and my older brother is whipping around on his bike. My dad is holding the seat of my bike--we don’t have any stinkin’ training wheels!--and then let me go. I went two blocks before an older woman backed her car out of the driveway.” 

Then Hayden’s play-by-play gets even better. 

“She hammered me. I mean she knocked me all the way across the street! The bike got jammed under the axle of her car and pretty much mangled the handle bars. I got scraped up some but I didn’t cry.

Understandably, the woman and his parents were shaken up over the frightening incident. Young Alex, however, was having no part of it.

“Initially, I didn’t want to wait to get a different bike,” he shared. “I was fired up because I had already gone a couple of blocks before the crash, so all I wanted to do was get back on the bike.” So while everyone else was traumatized, Alex pulled the mangled bicycle from under the lady’s car and took it for one final spin.

“The wheels were fine but the handlebars were all twisted up,” he chuckled. “Every time one of the pedals went back down, it would hit the concrete so I had to stop. Now, it’s become one of those stories of family lore!”

While that childhood memory is now more than 40 years old, it was only the first of many stories about Hayden’s irrepressible and adventuresome spirit that has guided him to unpredictable heights.

Born in Muncie, Indiana, the home of the Ball Canning Jar factories and Ball State University, Alex was introduced to the sport of auto racing at a young age. His late father (Ed) was a photographer for the Muncie Star newspaper and was often assigned to shoot car races, including the iconic Indianapolis 500.

Add the fact that his grandfather would compete in race car events in Indiana, and it’s no surprise that Hayden’s life and NASCAR were on a collision course. 

Alex and his family moved from Muncie to Goldsboro, North Carolina while he was in middle school when his father took a new job with the Goldsboro News-Argus.  

While attending Eastern Wayne High School there, Hayden--whose mother was a hospital administrator--became interested in a future of medicine. He dreamed of one day becoming a trauma surgeon. At age 16, he found a paying job at the local hospital.

“I didn’t really have any duties, per se. They just knew I was interested in the medical field so they created a job for me. I wore scrubs every day and followed doctors everywhere.”

While Hayden had every intent of pursuing that medical career when he enrolled at East Carolina University, it became clear soon thereafter that he was not cut out to become a doctor.

“I was kind of a lost college student,” he now admits. “We have our own fraternity.”

Knowing his nephew was struggling at ECU, Alex’s uncle (Peter Smith) suggested he spend a summer with him in Orlando, Florida, where Smith was an executive at Universal Studios Florida.

“While he made no promises, he said he could get me a couple of auditions to act at the theme park,” Hayden said. “I had zero acting experience, not even drama classes in high school. But I knew I was a talkative rat, so why not?”

His first audition was for a boat captain character on a new ride called Jaws. He was given the part on the spot, and before he knew it, he was part of the grand opening which featured the movie’s top stars Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfus, and legendary director Stephen Spielberg.

Then the fun began.

“The boat ride lasted eight minutes, so we killed Jaws six times an hour,” Hayden said, tongue-in-cheek. “Then we would have a 10-minute break before killing Jaws again six more times!”

Although there’s nothing left from that Jaws ride today--a Harry Potter theme replaced it--Alex still appreciates that period which gave his young life some meaning.

“I got the bug after that,” he said. “I got to interact with 50 different people on every boat ride and it was fantastic!” 

The studios, which also housed Nickelodeon, were a hotbed for acting opportunities. It led to more opportunities for Hayden.

“They were always looking for actors,” he added. “While I was changing in and out of my boat captain costume, I would see postings for other work all the time.”

He soon added Marty McFly--the role made famous by Michael J. Fox in the movie Back to the Future--to his resume. He drove a DeLorean time-machine car around the theme park and would join the Doc Brown character in delivering a six- to eight-minute spiel to the adoring park customers, before posing for fan photos.

Hayden remained in Orlando for almost three years and also acted in a few TV commercials. While his acting career ended after those experiences, some of his fellow Universal Studios actors became big stars. Two young men who got their acting starts at Universal’s Beetlejuice Monsters Revue eventually became members of the Backstreet Boys (Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson).

While Alex had thoroughly enjoyed his time at Universal Studios, a chance meeting at the theme park with John McMullen, executive producer for the national Motor Racing Network, dramatically changed the arc of his career.

“Having grown up near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I’m a racing guy,” he explained. "John and I hit it off right away, so I asked him how I might get involved in race car announcing. He told me to find a local short track and ask if I can work there to get some P.A. and play-by-play experience.”

Hayden did just that, seeing an advertisement for a public address job at the now-defunct Wayne County Raceway in March of 1996. He was one of 14 candidates to show up for the audition and he got the job.

The race season opened a month later and Alex honed his announcing skills every Friday night through the summer. But doing P.A. once a week wasn’t going to pay all his bills, so he found a part-time job with Nike Tennis.  

“It was mostly administration work, plus I would go to the tennis tournaments and lay out Nike clothing for their tennis clients like Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier.”

While providing much-needed supplemental income, Hayden realized he was “not a locker room attendant” and needed to find a way to work full-time in race car events.

As luck would have it, he bumped into the owner of another small race track while doing his customary race at Wayne County Raceway one Friday night. He was offered a job to work at his speedway on Saturday nights for triple the pay. Then before long, he added yet another stadium P..A. gig. Between the three announcing positions, Hayden was beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.   

Then things got even better. Unbeknownst to him, Teresa Richardson–a marketing executive at Wayne County Raceway–secretly recorded his P.A. work at one race. She packaged it up and mailed it to the Motor Racing Network with a note that said: “You’ve got to hear this guy!”

A few days later, it was none other than John McMullen--the man he once met at Universal Studios--who called Alex after listening to Richardson’s recording.

“He said, ‘I like what I hear. I appreciate you taking my advice and getting some experience...'”

In January, 1997, Hayden officially became a MRN employee and is now celebrating his 26th season calling NASCAR events.

But that’s only half of the story. Back in the early 2000’s, the owner of Goldsboro’s Time Warner community cable TV channel hired Hayden to do play-by-play for local high school sports. With Mount Olive only 20 minutes down the road, Alex wondered why the station wasn’t carrying any of the school’s basketball games.

“The owner said he had never considered it, assuming there might be rights fees or other network contracts that would prohibit it. We reached out, and in 2010 I started doing Trojans basketball games on the local cable channel.”

And when Mount Olive decided to launch the Trojan Sports Network streaming service in 2017, Smith already knew who the anchor should be.

“I had been aware of Alex’s work on the cable channel,” Smith said. “I saw him at one of our games and asked if he would be interested in our new venture. He jumped at the chance.”

Smith says that “sports broadcasting is Alex’s life,” and his weekly schedule is hectic with NASCAR races each weekend across the country and Mount Olive sporting events on weekdays and weeknights.

The Trojans’ athletic communications chief also credits Hayden as a generous educator for young broadcast hopefuls attending the university.

“We have a formal class involving field training and a mini internship for our students wanting to pursue a broadcasting career,” Smith said. “They must complete 120 hours in broadcasting, including prep work and on-air experience. Alex might be paired with them for a game. He’ll take notes and we’ll talk once a week about what our students are doing well or areas of improvement. What I love about Alex is he’s willing to come into the office and consult and mentor them. He’ll even listen to tapes while he’s in a hotel on the road before a big race.”

If you talk with Alex, you know he wouldn’t have it any other way.

"It’s so rewarding,” he said. “Broadcasting can be a cutthroat business where everybody wants your job. The first thing I tell our students is you’ve got to figure out who you are and be yourself. Don’t copy someone else. You can take a drawing and place a piece of paper over it and trace it all you want. But when you finish, are you going to be proud of it? It’s fun to watch them figure out their broadcast style and get better. When they get it, a light comes on. Just great to see.”

Mount Olive sportscasts, especially men’s and women’s basketball, and partnership has led to a great friendship.

“He is one of my best friends, even though we may be far apart in age,” said Smith. “We will poke fun on the broadcast--he will call me ‘The Professor’ since I teach a class. We are both grown kids. I can confide in him about anything. We’re both very honest. I rely on him a lot.” 

Although Smith admits that Hayden can be a little quirky at times, especially when it comes to airline frequent flier miles. Like the time he flew to Anchorage, Alaska and back home in one day last December.

“You need to reach 140,000 miles each year to get Diamond Level status on Delta Air Lines and I was 5,000 miles short,” Hayden said with a shrug. “I flew from Raleigh to Seattle to Anchorage and back. Took an Uber to see around town, then had some great salmon at a restaurant adjacent to the airport and right on the water. You could see the fishermen bringing the fish right off the boats. I think I stayed about eight hours in Anchorage before boarding a flight home.”

Of course, anyone who knows Alex does not seem surprised by this. His life is full of surprises.

From being hit by a car and bouncing back up as a six-year-old, to wearing scrubs and shadowing surgeons in a hospital at age 16, to acting in TV commercials and playing a boat captain at Universal Studios at 22, to broadcasting NASCAR on a national radio network for over a quarter century, to hosting his own network radio show on the NASCAR channel on Sirius XM, to becoming an integral part of Mount Olive athletics for nearly a decade, Alex Hayden fears no sport or any challenge.

“You can’t learn how to do something if you’re afraid to try,” said Hayden, who, for the first time recently, served as the first tee announcer in introducing pro golfers at the PGA’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. “Sports is my happy place.”

Bob Rose is a longtime sports public relations executive who has worked for the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, the NFL Cardinals, Cal, Stanford and other organizations. Bob works with Assistant Commissioner for External Relations Brian Hand and the entire Conference Carolinas office to help tell the stories of the tremendous student-athletes, coaches and administrators in Conference Carolinas.