Morris "Rocky" Whitaker (Addison Verot '25, Fall '23)
Biography
Morris "Rocky" Whitaker was born on June 24th, 1953, in Portsmouth, Virginia. At the age of three, his family moved to Paterson, New Jersey. Here, he attended Eastside High School and participated in several extracurricular activities, including baseball, football, track, youth choir, and boys glee, and was a founding member of a band called the Fantastic Gems. Rocky was committed to Livingstone College, a small Black college in Salisbury, North Carolina, on a track and football scholarship until a former classmate, George Riley '73, made a visit to Eastside to give a presentation for Dartmouth's Admissions Office and swayed Rocky to apply.
Rocky then played with the Dartmouth football team as a walk-on his freshman, junior, and senior years, during the team's five-year, conference title-winning streak from '69-'73. Additionally, Rocky was heavily involved in the music department and was a vocalist in a student band called the Green Dream. He spent his winters in Oakland, California with the Tucker Fellowship and in San Diego, California at UCSD through an exchange program. While in California, he continued studying music and recorded with the Green Dream.
After graduation, Rocky returned to California to continue playing with his band, which then took on the name Mantis. For three years, they traveled the West and Southwest, playing shows and recording music until deciding to go their separate ways. This prompted a move to Washington, D.C., where Rocky became involved with a number of government organizations over the next fifteen years. He worked as a special assistant to the commissioner for the D.C. Commission on Social Services, as the director of human services for the Kenilworth Parkside Resident Management Corporation, and as the supervisor of long-term foster care for Youth Homes Inc.
He moved to North Carolina in 1998, where he founded MC3 Sports and Entertainment LLC, a sports management and marketing firm that primarily works with NCAA conferences. In addition to his professional work, Rocky has served as the president, vice-president, and class agent for the Class of '74, the D.C. representative for the Black Alumni of Dartmouth Association, and on the Alumni Council as a member of the Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee and chair of the Student Life Committee. His many contributions to the College were recognized when he was awarded the Dartmouth Alumni Award in 2010. Rocky now permanently resides in Charlotte with his wife and two daughters.
This exhibit seeks to honor and preserve Rocky’s legacy while contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of Dartmouth's history and broader societal shifts in higher education, diversity, and inclusion. Attached below are the audio recordings and transcript of Rocky's oral history interview.
