Burwell Towns "B.T." Harvey, Jr. (b. 1892 d. 1971) was a chemistry and physics professor at Morehouse College, but he is most known for his remarkable wining record as the athletic coach. Harvey's coaching of the three athletic teams made a record for Morehouse that was unrivaled by any other Negro college during that time. Harvey's record was phenomenal with four championships for football, four championships for baseball, and eleven championship titles for basketball. Harvey's contributions extended beyond his coaching achievements at Morehouse College. During his time at Morehouse he founded and edited the Morehouse Journal of Science, which provided information about the achievements and contributions of African Americans in the field of science. Harvey was commissioner of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for 25 years. This association was founded in 1913 to regulate athletic programs among the Black colleges in the Southeast. Also, Harvey founded and published Bench Talk Heard, a weekly newsletter chronicling Black college sports events and professional Black athletes.

This small collection about B.T. Harvey, Jr. dates from 1900 to 1973, with bulk of the materials spanning the period 1953-1971. The collection includes correspondence, programs, photographs, news articles, and publications. Most of the materials within the collection pertain to Harvey's term as commissioner of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. These files contain correspondence from coaches requesting information about players and rules and discussing conflicts within the Conference. Other materials in the collection are copies of Bench Talk Heard, as well as documentation related to Harvey's affiliations with other sports organizations. Of interest among the photographs in the collection are those of Morehouse College sports teams. The collection also includes a genealogy of the Wynn and Harvey families prepared by Harvey's wife, Edna Wynn Harvey. Also, there are two published speeches by Burwell T. Harvey, Sr., a Baptist minister and school teacher.