Today, we are honored to be in the presence of a master storyteller, a historian who doesn't just teach the past-he makes it breathe, shout, and dribble down the hardwood of memory. Dr. Keith B. Wood is a thirty-year veteran of the classroom grind, currently shaping minds in the Social Studies Department at Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, Tennessee. But let's be clear—he's not your average history teacher.

Hailing from Schenectady, New York, Keith grew up in a vibrant stew of cultures and perspectives that planted the seeds for his lifelong devotion to understanding race, sport, and Southern identity. His work is where research meets rhythm-unpacking Memphis' soul through its courts and diamonds, through ballers and batters who carried the weight of Jim Crow on their backs and still dared to win. 

He's the author of Memphis Hoops: Race, Basketball & the Bluff City, a deep dive into the post-MLK assassination era of Memphis State University basketball, where the legendary Larry Finch emerged as both player and coach, helping to heal and redefine a wounded city. 

But Keith didn't stop there. His most recent project, The Memphis Red Sox: A Negro Leagues History, unearths the electric, under-told legacy of Black excellence in baseball-right in the heart of the South. Through this Black-owned team and their very own stadium, Dr. Wood shows us how the game was more than a pastime—it was a platform for political power, pride, and protest. 

Now, he's cooking up Showboatia in Memphis, chronicling the city's unlikely journey to gridiron glory through the upstart USFL. Because if there's a story to be told about race, sports, struggle, and Southern culture-Keith Wood is gonna find it, frame it, and fling it with scholarly finesse. 

So buckle up. We're about to go beyond the textbooks and into the real trenches of American history. This is Students of Life, and today's guest is the truth-teller Memphis didn't know it needed-but most definitely deserves.