Thai Floyd always knew she wanted to go to an HBCU.

As a high school student, she handed her dad — a Florida State football alum — a list of her final schools.

“My dad said no to every single thing on the list except for Florida State and Florida A&M, and I was like, ‘Oh, okay,’” she laughed.

“I decided to go to Florida A&M because of the culture, the richness, because I knew that I would learn so much more about curriculum, I would learn so many things that extended far beyond the curriculum, about me as a woman, and all of the different things that an HBCU gives you.”

After graduating as a Rattler, Floyd’s set to give back to HBCUs in a trailblazing way.

She was recently announced as the next play-by-play voice for Alabama A&M’s football team in Huntsville, making her the first woman to serve as a full-time voice for an HBCU football team.

“I knew that it was going to be big, but I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation,” Floyd told AL.com. “Even when the announcement was made last Saturday, it was people saying, congratulations, so many shares, so many likes, but it really hit me in the feels when there were people — especially young women — saying, ‘This is iconic. Oh, this is amazing. You’re such an inspiration.’ I was like, ‘Wow, it means even more to me now.’

“The past couple of days have been super overwhelming, and I think that when you hear the word overwhelming, some people would assume it’s bad. I’m overwhelmed with joy and gratitude and excitement for what is to come.”

Sports have always been a part of Floyd’s life, especially with her dad, William “Bar None” Floyd, exposing her to sports at a young age.

The elder Floyd is a member of the Florida State Athletics Hall of Fame after a standout career as a fullback for the Seminoles. A member of the 1993 national championship team, he went on to have an NFL career that saw him win Super Bowl XXIX with the San Francisco 49ers.

He now serves as an analyst for the Seminole Sports Network.

“Every Saturday since I was a kid, I was going up to Tallahassee, sitting in the booth with him while he did the games,” Floyd said. “As I went through grade school, I played sports. I knew that I wanted to be involved in the world of sports somehow, and as a high school senior, it really came down to medicine or journalism. 

“Ultimately, I had a teacher in high school who really believed in me and in my capabilities and knew that I would be great.”

Her experience at Florida A&M provided her with a mix of not just skills and confidence, but an even deeper appreciation for schools in the SWAC and other HBCUs.

“The culture and the traditions are so rich,” she said. “You have to think about how these institutions were created so that Black women, Black men and Black scholars could have access to higher learning when they were denied other places.” 

Currently pursuing her master’s degree at Alabama A&M, Floyd’s work has appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia, HBCU Legends on Sports Illustrated, and ESPN’s Andscape; she has also been on ESPN+ broadcasts both as a commentator and a sideline reporter.

Her transition from Florida to Alabama has been a good one for her, adding that the southern hospitality is “beautiful” in Alabama.

“In Florida, it’s funny, because the more north you go, the more south you get, because you’re touching Alabama and Georgia,” she said.

“The pace of life I love so much, it’s just very calm and relaxing, but it’s also just an amazing city. Huntsville is awesome. My college best friend actually is an engineer, so she got a job up here and I would come visit all the time. I came to watch a game at Alabama A&M when Florida A&M came to town to play and I just really fell in love with the university and the people.”

Among her role models are fellow sportscasters Laura Okmin, Pam Oliver, Lericia Harris, Tiffany Blackmon and Tiffany Greene, who is a fellow Florida A&M alum and became the first African-American woman to serve as a play-by-play commentator for college football on a major network.

“There would be no Thai Floyd if there was no Tiffany Greene, especially when it comes to play-by-play, because she’s the first to do it at a network level, and she’s incredible at what she does,” Floyd said. “Over the years, she’s been giving me that nudge to get into and I’m like, ‘Ah, Tiffany, I don’t know.’ I’m grateful that she’s embraced me so much as I stepped into this role.”

Alabama A&M will open its football season at Arkansas on Aug. 30 before hosting Alcorn State the following week for the Louis Crews Classic.

“We stand on the shoulders of giants, and I think as everything is evolving, there’s going to be more women in all these different aspects of sports,” Floyd said. “For me, I really enjoy being the first, and I’m excited about it, especially at Alabama A&M because the school has been around for 150 years. To possibly be the first in HBCUs as a whole, all of these institutions have been around for more than 100 years.

“For me to be the first is amazing, but it’s kind of interesting, because I wish that there were more, but I hope that by my example and by my career and the things that I hope to accomplish… digital media, having a place on a network, a streaming service, until I can work my way up to the network level and really show what I got, and people can look at me and look at Tiffany Greene and be like ‘Wow, we really can be in the booth and we really can talk about all and we can be in this field.’ I hope that is certainly not going to be just me, or just Tiffany, as the years go on and that there will continue to be a lot more women.”