Andy Minton

Andrew Minton was born in January 1949 in Salem, Virginia. He transferred to Albemarle High School in November of 1965, first completing the football season at Andrew Lewis High School in Salem, Virginia. He also ran track. In 1967, he entered the University of Virginia on a football scholarship. He points out that not every high school or college athlete during the 1950s and 1960s was paying attention to the civil rights movement. Some were distracted by things like the Kent State strikes and others were watching from the sidelines as Jerry Kunstler and the Chicago Seven threatened to burn down Carr’s Hill. Minton remembered: “We were forbidden as athletes to participate in anything, or they threatened us with taking our scholarships.” He pointed out how much student athletes devote to being athletes and confessed: “I’m embarrassed that I wasn’t more attuned to what was going on at that particular time. Being a fourth year, [I was] just thinking about finishing up.” Minton is now a jeweler with his own store in Charlottesville.