Posts Tagged ‘sports’
Pontiac athletic director Tarlton Small made mark as humble, professional leader
By Mick McCabe, Detroit Free Press
Had he been almost any other athletic director, Tarlton Small would have retired as planned last June.
After beginning teaching in the Pontiac district in 1969, it would have been so symmetrical for him to retire in June 2009.
But that isn’t Small’s style.
Before he could call it a career, Small, 65, had one more task to complete. He had to oversee the merger of Pontiac’s two public high schools — Northern and Central.
They might as well have asked him to negotiate a peace treaty in the Middle East.
Edwin Jackson named National League Player of the Week
SOURCE: MLB.com
Arizona Diamondbacks starter Edwin Jackson, who pitched a no-hitter on Friday, June 25th, has been named Bank of America Presents the National League Player of the Week for the period of June 21-27, 2010. Bank of America, the Official Bank of Major League Baseball, is the presenting sponsor of the National League and American League Player of the Week Awards, which reflect Bank of America’s long-standing tradition of promoting and recognizing higher standards of accomplishment.
In his only start of the week, Jackson tossed the fourth no-hitter of the 2010 season as the Diamondbacks defeated the Tampa Bay Rays, 1-0, at Tropicana Field. The hard-throwing righty recorded six strikeouts in 9.0 innings of work while his eight walks were tied for third-most in a no-hitter all-time, less than only the 10 walks issued in Jim Maloney’s game for the Cincinnati Reds (8/19/65 at Chicago) and the nine from A.J. Burnett in his no-no for the Florida Marlins (5/12/01 at San Diego). The 2009 A.L. All-Star threw 149 pitches in the game, marking the highest pitch total in a no-hitter all-time and the most by a single pitcher in a Major League game since the Nationals’ Livan Hernandez threw 150 pitches on June 3, 2005 vs. Florida. The no-no was the fourth ever recorded during Interleague play and the second by a D-backs pitcher (the first was Randy Johnson’s perfect game, 5/18/04 at Atlanta). Jackson also became the fourth pitcher since 1950 to throw a no-hitter against one of his former teams. This marks Jackson’s first career weekly award.
Hall of Famers Henderson, Rice got a push toward baseball
by Phil Rogers, Chicago Tribune
Twenty years ago, Los Angeles-based scout John Young persuaded Major League Baseball to fund a program to reintroduce youth baseball programs to inner cities.
Three years ago, MLB’s Urban Youth Academy opened in Compton, Calif., in response to the continuing decline of African-American players in the big leagues, and already it has been credited with a can’t-miss prospect: outfielder Aaron Hicks in the Minnesota Twins’ system.
While applauding the corporate endeavors, it’s worth remembering what a difference well-meaning individuals can make.
Read the rest of this entry »
High School Rugby Team Breaks Down Barriers
by Will Bardenwerper, New York Times
The rugby practice field at Hyde Leadership Public Charter School bears little resemblance to the manicured lawns of the English boarding school where the sport was born. It is more brown than green, and sirens sometimes drown out the shouts of players. Then there are the occasional interruptions, like when play was briefly halted during a recent practice as a man darted about wildly on a nearby street, calling football plays and evading imaginary tacklers.
But this patch of mud and grass is more than the home of what is believed to be the nation’s first all-African-American high school rugby team. It is also where a growing number of students have been exposed to a sport they once knew nothing about and to parts of society that once seemed closed to them. Read the rest of this entry »
Denzel Spearheads Plan To Save Mount Vernon Sports
The rallying cry in Mount Vernon is “save our sports.”
And Sunday is the deadline to raise $300,000 in order to put fall sports teams on the field.
With help from a generous Hollywood star, it looks like the goal will met.
Football coach Ric Wright knows a lot about winning – and even more motivating young people. Lately his team has needed pep talks – more than usual.
“Yeah, it’s just been real stressful not knowing if we’re gonna have sports or not,” said athlete Andre Gaynor.
For Gaynor and his teammates it has been a summer of uncertainty. Will they take the field this fall?
The sports funding crisis began in June, when Mount Vernon voters defeated the school budget not once, but twice. The district responded by eliminating funding for sports – every team, from tennis to track.
A race against the clock began to save sports through private donations.
Film director Jeff Cooney kicked things off by donating $25,000 – and he doesn’t even live in Mount Vernon.
“I think if the tables were turned, you’d feel the same sense of loss, of desperation. Would you want your kid turned away from an athletic program?” said Cooney, who resides in Bronxville.
Now, a famous Mount Vernon native is stepping up to the fundraising plate.
Denzel Washington.
Pike’s new baseball coach is eager
by Nat Newell, Indy Star
New Pike High School baseball coach Michael Ruth took a few moments to talk to The Indianapolis Star about a career that’s been influenced by athletes ranging from Roberto Clemente to Michael Vick. Those experiences and others helped shape his coaching philosophy.
On accepting the job after initially turning it down: “I didn’t think I was ready, since I have a son, Jared, who’s in seventh grade at Lincoln Middle School, and I promised I’d coach him. After the job opened, I went home, prayed, talked with my pastor, Terry Webster, at New Corinthian Baptist Church, and my wife. What my pastor told me was, ‘When God opens a door, you have a good reason to walk through it.’ In a couple years, my son will be with me at Pike.”
On the role religion plays on his coaching: “My dad was a pastor. I was brought up in the church. I will not cuss at the kids. I give respect to the kids, and I’ll get it back. Character is important. Character can take you further than talent. Look at (suspended NFL players) Pacman Jones and Michael Vick.”
On his coaching philosophy: “We’ll put pressure on the defense by stealing bases and bunting. At Indiana State we ran and did all sorts of things offensively. I’ll take that into Pike. They’re young kids and still teachable. We’re going to create enthusiasm for baseball at Pike. Football, track, basketball, soccer . . . they’re all up at Pike. It’s our turn to get this baseball team up and running.”
On growing up a baseball fan: “My childhood dream was to be a professional baseball player. (Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer) Roberto Clemente was my favorite player. Coming out of high school I had some small college offers for football, but I was 5-foot-7, 125 pounds, so baseball was more conducive to my size.”
On being one of two black varsity baseball coaches in the area: “One reason I believe there is a shortage of African-American baseball coaches is that, typically, a varsity coach is a teacher in the school. There are not many African-American males going into education.
“Secondly, you typically coach a game you have participated in and have had some success. African-American athletes tend not to play baseball after middle school. It’s a matter of preference. I enjoyed playing baseball and have accumulated valuable knowledge over the years that will help me be successful in coaching baseball.”
Daugherty one of few African-American NASCAR owners
by Keith Jarrett, Citizen-Times
Black Mountain native Brad Daugherty will become one of the few African-American owners of a NASCAR team in the sport’s top series.
Daugherty, 42, who lives in Fairview, said Tuesday afternoon that he has become a partner in JTG Racing that currently fields two Nationwide Tour cars, and that JTG/Daugherty Racing will have a Sprint Cup Series ride in 2009 with driver Marcus Ambrose.
Ex-Red Sox slugger goes to bat for low-cost housing
by Casey Ross
Boston Globe
Former Red Sox slugger Mo Vaughn, now an affordable-housing entrepreneur, is buying two threatened apartment complexes in Boston as part of his expanding campaign to preserve low-cost housing in communities stretching from Roslindale to Wyoming.
Vaughn and his company, Omni New York LLC, will buy the Florence Apartments in Roslindale and Forestvale Apartments in Jamaica Plain, two developments in danger of losing the government assistance that has kept them affordable for decades.
Before Oscar, There Was Wilma
by Gary Gray
Black Athlete
This month, Oscar Pistorius won his case last week in the Court of Arbitration in International Sports at Lausanne Switzerland. The International Olympic Committee accepted the verdict and implemented it immediately.
This outstanding ruling only pertains to Pistorius and his participation in Beijing the IOC will review each athlete and case by case if this is presented again.
For those who do not know this situation, Pistorius had his legs amputated when he was a child with a debilitating disability that destroyed his legs. He now uses Cheetahs meaning aluminum legs, to run that are attached to the bare knees.
The International Association of Athletic Federation had previously stated that this was an unfair advantage to Pistorius because the Cheetahs give him 15-20 % more pushing power when he runs.
This advantage is reduced dramatically at the starting gate because he cannot use his legs to push off the starting blocks as non-disabled runners are able too. So Pistoius has to catch on with the non disabled field.
He will participate in both Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. This is an historic event for all disabled male athletes all over the world and a victory for disabled sports rights in general. We the disabled seem to be the last American minority group still not recieving full Civil Rights.
It also seems like female disabled athletes don’t have to battle with such barriers and restrictions. The female athletic family does not erect barriers or sustain negative attitudes like the male athletic world.
40 years ago, American Wilma Rudolph made history in complete silence and four years ago, fellow South African Natalie Du Toit would follow in Rudolph’s footsteps.
They both did not have to file such claims or grievances to the International Athletic communities. They were accepted immediately and went to their Olympic games.
Disabled males now will follow both of these wonderful women and compete with anyone in any sport with this astounding legal decision. This decision overturns the IAAF ban of Pistorius three months ago.
The IAAF plans to appeal this month, but I think a united international sports community has spoken. This could be an on-going issue throughout the Beijing Games this August if the IAAF continues to disagree with this landmark legal decision.
This result strikes a blow for victory on the issue of the disabled male athletes being included in the sports world.
After the Court decision, Pistorius left Switzerland for South Africa to train and qualify for the Beijing games with his non-disabled and disabled teammates.
This case reflects how we view the vulnerable and most males are unwilling to look at their own frailties and human weakness and is part of the fierce battle between disabled and non disabled in sport competition.
The male athlete is so perfect in many ways and to lose to a disabled person is crushing to the male ego and psyche. This I feel is why it’s so difficult to be accepted in the disabled community by the non-disabled sports world.
This is the same experience African Americans had playing sports with white athletes in the 1950’s-60’s African Americans had to perform better then their white counterparts and the same circumstances are happening today with disabled male athletes at non disabled sporting events all over the world.
A 200 or even 300 in bowling is a very difficult feat for anybody so when it happens everybody takes notice. When a disabled person achieves this goal you can see the change in eyes of the non-disabled playing besides them.
The change in their body language is prominent. The disabled are not suppose to beat able-bodied people. This is the psyche of America and Americans.
This is tragic because bowling is one of the few sports where the disabled and non disabled could compete on the same plain with their common bowling abilities
Bowling with Cerebral Palsy and a motorized wheelchair is a real challenge.
Our Berkeley, California Bowling team had a three hour meeting with executives from the old (ABC) American Bowling Congress in 1987.
This meeting was to permit me and my teammate Gary Peterson who is also disabled to bowl in any league in America. ABC also said the two of us had an unfair advantage over non-disabled bowling because I used a motor devise to move the bowling ball and Peterson slowed down the game on purpose.
After the meeting and the demonstration, ABC changed the rule in their National Bowling rule book. We just wanted to play league bowling.
The disabled have to change the mentality of Americans on the issue of disability and sports. I love to play sports but was not allowed many times because of my disability.
I think that is a shame because sports teaches you so many other things about life and yourself. It teaches both the disabled and non disabled team work and trust. It teaches self esteem and it also teaches the disabled athlete about losing you cannot win every time but have fun playing.
Another South African Paralympian and Olympian will always be the first amputee to quailify for any Olympic Games. Natalie Du Toit qualified four years ago for the 10-kilometers open water event.
Du Toit, 24, lost her left leg in a motor scooter accident and competed in the 2002 Commonwealth Games and placed fourth in the Open Water World Championship Games in Seville.
She plans to participate in the toughest swimming endurence race of the games, the 10K, and should give the residence of South African much pride. But we all need to turn the page of history to find the mother of the disabled athlete.
The first disabled athlete to compete for the United States was Wilma Rudolph and boy she represented. Rudolph carried the torch for the disabled in complete silence. Nobody discussed disabled rights in 1960. Wilma just ran for country and self.
Rudolph was honored all over the world in Italy she was “La Gazzellia Nera”, the Black Gazelle and in France she was “La Perle Norie”, The Black Pearl. Many continental Africans knew of this wonderful woman and happen to be very proud of her.
Rudolph won three gold medals in Rome the first black woman to ever do so. Not only that but she was the first African American with disabilities to receive any metal in the Olympics.
She would set records in the 200 meters year after year until she retired in 1962.
She continued to coach and speak about her life until her death in 1994. Rudolph inspired many young African Americans woman to attend the Olympic trails.
In her young life polio and pneumonia attacks complicated with scarlet fever almost losing her left leg. Many thought she would never walk again but with her parents and her self determination she not only walk she ran for the United States in 1956 in Melbourne winning a bronze metal.
Rudolph suffered through a very difficult childhood in Clarksville, Tennessee but her parents kept encoring her to participate in physical therapy running everyday. Her mother would take her to the medical center twice a week at Fisk University some 50 miles away.
This little woman could barely walk in her pre-teen years because her gate was so awkward but was outrunning her classmate’s everyday in school. This determination would carry her throughout life.
In high school she would play every sport under the guidance of her big sister. They had 20 children in her family and they all helped in Wilma’s rehabilitation programs.
She went out for the hometown basketball team and the coach Clinton Gray (no-relation) would not put her in games, then in her junior year she scored 8 points a game and was one of the stars of her team.
She would later come back to the same school to become the basketball coach. She later would play basketball and run track at Tennessee State University.
She wrote a book about her life an autobiography called “Wilma: The Story of Wilma Rudolph” She died fighting just as she lived in 1994 losing the battle with cancer at home in Tennessee.
Wilma Rudolph was always a hero of mine and now that the media is stating that Mr. Pistioruus is the first disabled Olympian but they are SO wrong and so incorrect, Wilma Rudolph will always be first disabled Olympian.
Natalie Du Toit will be the first amputee to participate in the games and Oscar Pistious will be the first male disabled Olympian.
Maybe now the American media will get it right.
Gary Norris Gray is a writer for Gibbs Magazine and author of “The Gray Line”. He can be reached via e-mail at garyngray@blackathlete.com .
Batters up: Reggie Williams pitches baseball, lessons to African-American youth
by Jesse F McClure
Tri-State Defender
When Reggie Williams played baseball in the 1980’s for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cleveland Indians, he was one of many African Americans in the major leagues. Today, less than eight per cent of major league baseball players are African American and interest in baseball seems to have greatly declined in the African American community.
Williams, who is a vice president of the Memphis Redbirds Triple A baseball team, runs two programs designed to get inner city youth interested in baseball again.
STRIPES (Sport Teams Returning in the Public Education System) Program supports baseball and softball programs in inner city middle and junior high schools in Memphis. The baseball program is for boys and the softball program is for girls.
In 1992, the city school system discontinued baseball and softball programs in junior high and middle schools. Six years later, the Redbirds – the only professional sports team owned by a community based non-profit foundation – began the STRIPES program as part of the team’s mission. During the 2007 school year, almost forty schools fielded teams in the STRIPES program and involved nearly 1000 students.
Williams also leads the RBI (Returning Baseball to the Inner City) program, which focuses on summer baseball and softball. The Redbirds began the RBI program in 1998 as part of a nationwide effort to restore interest in baseball within inner city communities.
During the first year of operation, the program involved six sites in inner city Memphis and had nearly 250 youngsters on teams. In 2007, the RBI program operated on 15 sites and had more than 1,000 children on teams.
When Carver High School won one of the Memphis City Schools baseball championships this year, head coach Steven Bratcher said the team won in part because so many of his players had participated in the RBI program.
This year at least six students who participated in the STRIPES and RBI programs will attend college on baseball or softball scholarships. Last summer one of the RBI teams participated in the regional RBI tournament in Houston.
Williams said that while developing baseball and softball skills are important, the most important part of his programs is “the efforts to instill sound values in the young people in the programs.”
He said an inherent part of the programs is encouraging young people to pursue their educational goals along with baseball and softball.
Williams is an example of how baseball and education can be combined. Growing up in South Memphis, Williams was a star pitcher on the Southside High School baseball team. His nickname was “Black Magic” because of the way he dominated opposing batters.
After high school, Williams enrolled at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., but the former Memphis star did not make the college’s baseball team during his first year.
“I cried like a baby when I didn’t make the team,” he said.
Rather than quit school or give up baseball, Williams decided to work harder in school so he would be ready if his dreams of playing major league baseball did not come true. He committed himself to taking his baseball skills to a higher level.
The decision and commitment worked. He led Southern University to two baseball championships, graduated cum laude and the Los Angeles Dodgers drafted him.
When his professional baseball playing days ended, Williams returned to his hometown and earned two masters degrees from the University of Memphis. He became a teacher in the Memphis City Schools system and prior to joining the Memphis Redbirds, was an assistant principal.
For Williams, his position with the Redbird’s is another way “to work with young people. I believe that I can make a real, positive impact on the lives of youngsters.”
Williams knows the important role baseball has played in African American history.
“After Jackie Robinson integrated baseball in 1947, it was one of the first places where African Americans competed on an equal basis,” he said.
Baseball is an important part of the history of African Americans in Memphis. The Memphis Red Sox were a major part of the scene during the heyday of Negro League baseball. Martin Park was the place to see and be seen in African American Memphis. The Memphis Red Sox team was one of the few Negro League teams that owned its own stadium.
Recently, Williams hosted a television show on WKNO-TV with former Memphis Red Sox player Joe Scott that highlighted the importance of baseball in the African American community in Memphis and around the country.
Williams said the biggest challenge he faces today with the RBI program is finding good coaches. He needs men and women who cannot only teach the skills of baseball and softball, but who can be role models for the youngsters.
Williams also wants coaches who will help youngsters discover baseball can be fun and exciting. And while coaches receive a small stipend, “Coaching in our programs has to be a “labor of love,” he said.
Olympic hopeful Golden leads by example
by Marlen Garcia
USA Today
Golden believed he could make the 2008 Olympic team and wanted to train with renowned coach Kevin Mazeika. Mazeika, who runs Houston Gymnastics Academy, coached the silver-medalist USA men’s team in the 2004 Games and will lead this year’s Olympic squad.
Golden wasn’t sure Mazeika wanted him. “He told me up front I wasn’t guaranteed a spot,” Golden, 24, recalls.
The uncertainty had his mother, Patricia, in tears as she left Houston on a plane for the family’s hometown of Camden, N.J. “I left him not knowing what was going to happen next,” she says.
The risk was worth it for Golden, who will compete in the men’s VISA national championships Thursday and Saturday in Houston’s Reliant Park.
The meet is part of the selection process to make the Beijing Games along with next month’s Olympic Trials in Philadelphia, though the six-member team will be finalized in July. Golden (5-5, 150) competes on vault, floor exercise and still rings.
Golden has big dreams. His tight-knit upbringing allowed him to dodge the dangers of Camden, known for its crime rate, but its troubles bother him. He wants to attract more African-Americans to his sport and envisions opening a gym and a community center. “There’s so much talent,” he says. “I’ve seen it in the inner city. I would like to expose that.”
Those are long-term goals. Short term, he wants to become the fifth African-American male gymnast to make the Olympic team, following Ron Galimore (1980), Charles Lakes (1988), Jair Lynch (1992, ’96) and Chainey Umphrey (1996).
Moving to Mazeika’s gym was pivotal. He won over the coach, but making ends meet financially was a lot tougher. He lived with a friend and says he often ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because the ingredients were stocked in the gym’s break room.
He earned a few bucks by coaching younger gymnasts, something he has done since he was 14. “I really saw gymnastics was a burden on my parents,” he says. “I could offset costs.”
Coaching for Mazeika kept Golden afloat, just barely, heading into the 2005 Winter Cup in Las Vegas, a vital qualifier to make the national team. He says he paid for his plane ticket on a credit card and ate off the dollar menu at McDonald’s in the Excalibur Hotel on the city’s famous strip.
The meet was a bust for him, and he considered quitting amid rising debt. Mazeika told him to stick around.
“I said, ‘Sean, this is just the beginning of your career,'” Mazeika says. “He had tremendous raw talent. I knew he had the ability to be a world-level athlete.”
Golden broke through in summer 2005, winning vault and still rings and finishing third in floor exercise at the VISA championships. He made the national team, which allowed his training to be subsidized by the team and sponsors.
Last year he had the team’s highest vault score at the world championships in Germany, helping the U.S. finish fourth.
“Oh, man, he’s improved so much,” Mazeika says.
Nevertheless, there is a tight race among about 15 gymnasts to make the Olympic team. About the only sure bet is defending Olympic all-around champ Paul Hamm.
Golden has an apartment with fellow hopefuls Sean Townsend, a 2000 Olympian, and Raj Bhavsar, a 2004 alternate. Golden shares some of their exploits in video clips on his website, seangolden.com.
He’s always on the go even as a child. His mother once asked a doctor how to control her energetic son. He offered two suggestions: hyperactivity medication or a sport. The latter worked perfectly.
Now Golden is a role model, which he doesn’t take lightly. He looks up to Tiger Woods for his charitable work and talks about opening gateways in gymnastics for disadvantaged children the way Woods has in golf.
Golden will never have Woods’ bankroll, but he’s already doing his part.
Since fall 2006, Golden has been in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. He spends many Sundays with 13-year-old Makis Palmer, whose family relocated from New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina. Whether they’re fishing or working on homework, Golden wants his optimism to resonate with the teen.
“I always believe there’s opportunities,” Golden says. “I just have to go after it.”
Spike Lee To Do Film On NBA Great Michael Jordan
by Wilson Morales
Black Voices
With the Jackie Robinson story going to be film with Robert Redford, Spike Lee will focus on doing another sports film, with this project hopefully a little easier to get off the ground.
Spike Lee is set to shoot a feature-length documentary about Michael Jordan. Helmer told a Cannes crowd that he hopes to bring the basketball legend to the fest with the pic next year.
According to Variety, the NBA is financing the docu, with Lee’s 40 Acres & a Mule Filmworks shingle producing.
The Jordan documentary will include extensive unseen footage shot by NBA cameras during the final two years in Jordan’s career, the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. Lee and Jordan previously collaborated on a series of Nike TV commercials.
‘Mike wants to come to Cannes, so hopefully we will be here next year,’ Lee said.
Lee’s upcoming film, ‘Miracle at St.Anna’ comes out this October.
Putting is deaf Hall’s biggest worry in Tour debut
by Morgan Kelly, USA TODAY
Kevin Hall has a handicap, but deafness isn’t it. Hall, who makes his debut on the PGA Tour in the U.S. Bank Classic in Milwaukee today, has been deaf since age 2.
He didn’t let that stop him from becoming valedictorian of his high school or leading Ohio State to a Big Ten title, and he says he won’t let it interfere with his goal to become a regular on the Tour.
“I was able to overcome this loss and not allow it to be used as a handicap or prevent me from doing what I wanted to do in my life,” he says in an interview conducted via e-mail. “My parents (Percy and Jackie) are a big reason for this.”
Hall became deaf after being diagnosed with H. flu meningitis at 2. He treated it as a mere bump in the road.
Hall, 22, has played competitively for 12 years. He began at 9 when his bowling coach, Don Barnes, asked if he could teach Hall the game.
Hall attended the St. Rita School for the Deaf in Cincinnati from age 3. Since St. Rita did not have a golf team, Kevin’s parents petitioned to allow him to play for the local public high school, Winton Woods. He was a four-year letter-winner at Winton Woods and valedictorian at St. Rita.
Hall then became the first African-American to play golf on scholarship for Ohio State.
“I knew that after four years at Ohio State I would know if I was ready to play on the PGA Tour or not. Getting a scholarship while realizing that dream was truly a blessing,” he says.
Now that those four years are over, Hall says he is ready, particularly after playing three events on the Nationwide Tour.
Today, Hall will be less concerned that he can’t hear the crowd cheering or may have trouble communicating with caddie Ryan McDaniel.
“I’m worried about making putts,” he says. “I have been on and off with my speed on the greens, and I have been missing putts by inches.”
Hall will play on a sponsor’s exemption this weekend.
“My goal is to make cuts on the PGA and Nationwide tours, gain experience that is valuable for the years after this year,” he says, “I want to improve every time I tee it up and to use this year as a springboard to get ready for a solid season in 2006 and on.”
Hall is blunt about his motivation: “Being black and deaf motivated me the most because there are some people who don’t believe that black people and deaf people have the tools needed to succeed in today’s society. It motivated me to prove those people wrong.”
The First African-American NASCAR Driver: It Wasn’t Wendell Scott
By Rebecca Gladden
Most sources that document the early history of stock car racing list Wendell Scott as the first African-American NASCAR driver, and understandably so.
Scott was a true racer – the first and only African-American driver ever to win in the Grand National/Winston Cup series.
That victory came in 1963 at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida, in a race which also featured Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett, David Pearson, and other top NASCAR stars of the day.
Over the course of his 13-year career, Scott competed in 495 Cup races from 1961 to 1973. He posted 20 top-5 and 147 top-10 finishes including his win, and finished in the top 10 in points three times – sixth in 1966, and ninth in both 1968 and 1969.
Wendell Scott was the first African-American NASCAR driver to race at the Cup level on a long-term basis, but historical sources which dig a little deeper typically list Charlie Scott (no relation to Wendell), as the first African-American driver ever to compete in a Cup race.
A 2008 article on NASCAR.com states, “Charlie Scott will go down in history as the first African-American driver to make a NASCAR race. He competed on the Daytona Beach road course in 1956 in a Kiekhaefer Chrysler. When the checkered waved, Scott found himself in 19th place, earning $75 dollars for his efforts.”
That was Charlie Scott’s only race, and it occurred on February 26, 1956.
I recently came across an interesting bit of information that may change NASCAR history: A page from the August 1, 1955, edition of the San Mateo (CA) Times newspaper, with an article about that weekend’s NASCAR race at Bay Meadows Speedway.
The 250-lap Grand National Series race was held on July 31, 1955, on the one-mile San Mateo dirt track. It featured several NASCAR stars of the time, including Lee Petty, Marvin Panch, Buck Baker, Ed Negre (making his Cup series debut), and Tim Flock — the race winner, who also won the Grand National title that year.
Finishing 28th that day in a field of 34 cars, in front of 15,000 fans, was Elias Bowie, making his first and only NASCAR Cup appearance.
Elias Bowie was African-American.
According to relatives, Mr. Bowie was something of a pioneer in areas besides racing. He owned several transportation companies in Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, CA, primarily jitney buses and taxi cabs, at a time when it was still rare for African-Americans to own businesses.
The race in which Bowie competed was marred by several accidents, though no serious injuries resulted. “(The) most spectacular crash came when a tire hurtled from the car of Carl Hammill of Sacramento as it went into the south turn,” reads the article. “The car flipped over and spun helplessly like a turtle on its back. Hammill crawled out unhurt.” Additionally, “Bill Amick of Portland, Ore. and Allen Adkins of Fresno both went through the fence early, but were unhurt.”
Mr. Bowie, by all accounts a colorful character who loved Cadillacs and always wore his fedora when he drove, proved to be just as entertaining in the NASCAR race according to the newspaper account. “He had the largest pit crew, topped by a lanky double-jointed chap in green fatigue uniform. He also had provided a full tank car of Mobil Oil gas. In spite of (or because of) these precautions, Bowie completed the race.”
Bowie’s name, credited as Eliso Bowie, and race participation is listed on the authoritative racing statistics website, Racing-Reference.info, which contains the results from every Strictly Stock, Grand National, Winston Cup, Nextel Cup, Sprint Cup, Busch Series, Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series race ever run.
Interestingly, Bowie was a descendent of James Bowie, free man of color (1795-1832), whose story can be found here: www.jamesbowiefmc.com.
While neither Charlie Scott nor Elias Bowie achieved the success or longevity of Wendell Scott in NASCAR racing, the 1955 San Mateo Times newspaper article seems to indicate that it is, in fact, Elias Bowie who deserves at least a mention as the first-ever African-American NASCAR driver.
SOURCE: Inside Racing News
Robinson’s wife a guiding light
NEW YORK — Rachel Robinson sits near the desk in a spacious corner office now inhabited by the foundation that bears her famous husband’s name.
Stacked on ceiling-to-floor shelves that cover the far wall are books, largely written about Jackie Robinson, and various awards. The picture window offers a view two floors below to Varrick Street, which was once a warehouse district in Manhattan’s lower west side.
The foundation was established 35 years ago, a year after Jackie Robinson died from complications of diabetes at the age of 53. On the eve of the 61st anniversary of Robinson shattering the sport’s racial barrier when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, she is asked to define the inspiration behind founding the non-profit entity.
“Education,” she tells MLB.com during a rare and wide-ranging interview, “because I feel, and all of the founders felt, that education is the key to a decent and full life. If we’re talking about developing leaders, we have to educate them. We see the results, because they’re tangible. These children come to us as raw material and leave us ready to take positions in society.”
The nearly 86-year-old diminutive, but powerful widow is on a brutal pace of appearances that will conclude Tuesday with a tour of the nearly constructed entry to Citi Field, called the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, and later the focal anniversary celebration staged prior to the Mets game against the Nationals.
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The new Mets home is slated to open in 2009 and replace Shea Stadium, which is in its 45th and final season. The Mets are the expansion stepchild of the Giants and Dodgers, who both fled to the west coast after the 1957 season leaving their ballparks — the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field — to the whims of the wrecking ball.
Jackie Robinson played his first game in Flatbush on April 15, 1947, after starring in four sports at UCLA — football, baseball, basketball and track. He was always bullish on education, says Rachel Robinson, who owns an undergraduate degree from UCLA and a Master’s degree in psychiatric nursing from New York University. But there was never any discussion of setting up a foundation in his name before he passed.
“We talked about education a lot,” she recalls. “But he never would have thought of [the foundation]. Seeing him on the field you wouldn’t know it, but he was really a very humble person. He would have never thought of saying that, ‘you need to set up any sort of thing to memorialize me.’ That wasn’t part of his thinking.”
She has been educating young, underprivileged adults ever since and raising money to put them through school. Though she has handed over the day-to-day operations of the foundation to Della Britton Baez, its president, her influence is still felt all over the organization.
“It’s got to be tough for the founder to let go,” Britton Baez says. “But in every way she has been very gracious and wise. She certainly has stepped up in the area of fund raising. When somebody wants to meet Rachel, she’s there.”
To that end, on Tuesday, Major League Baseball offered a helping hand by donating $1.2 million over four years to pay for college scholarships.
Each scholarship awarded by the foundation — 271 of them right now to underprivileged minority kids attending 93 colleges and universities — cost $10,000 on an annual basis. The foundation is also granting graduate fellowships and sending students overseas, “because the world is global now and they have to learn how to deal with it,” Rachael Robinson says.
MLB’s 30 teams will sponsor a scholarship a year, totaling $300,000 per annum for the next four years. That’s in addition to 11 teams that on their own have donated or have committed to donations, including long-time support from the likes of the Mets, Yankees, White Sox and Dodgers. The Los Angeles edition of Jackie Robinson’s team is in the midst of a 10-year, $105,000 a year commitment.
Derek Jeter, the Yankees’ captain and shortstop, remains the lone Major League player who sponsors a $10,000 a year scholarship.
Rachel Robinson says she’s proud of MLB’s long-term commitment to the foundation — $10 million in aid since 1996 — and its attempts at wooing African American children back to playing the game.
Like the black community in Memphis where MLB has staged its first two Civil Rights Games at the close of Spring Training, she’s concerned about the drop off in African American players at the Major League level.
In the decade after her husband jumped over the color line and scores of fine players flooded in from the Negro Leagues, the participation of blacks in the Majors rose as high as 27 percent. It’s now at 8 percent, precluding blacks of Latin American descent.
“I know they have the resources,” Rachel Robinson says about MLB. “I know they have the resources and an internal pressure within the organization to do something about it. It’s not for me to say, nor should I say, what they should do. You have to analyze the problem and then after you analyze the problem you have to say, ‘Where do we start?’ And get going. You can’t just ring your hands and say it’s an insoluble problem.”
The Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program, the Compton, Calif., Youth Academy and the Breaking Barriers essay program are all significant and necessary efforts. But it shouldn’t stop there, she added, noting that there are many more avenues for black athletes to take toward professional sports these days than there were when her husband was in his formative stage.
In the 1940s, pro football wasn’t open to blacks, the National Basketball Association wasn’t established until 1947, and track was purely an amateur sport, leaving baseball as Jackie Robinson’s only viable outlet.
“Now, there’s a lot of competition for their interests, but at least baseball is getting going,” she says. “We’ve talked to [Commissioner] Bud Selig and [MLB president] Bob DuPuy and we know they’re concerned about the problem. They’re not looking the other way at all. We know that, considering the Commissioner’s background, this is a very significant issue for him. It’s complicated, as all such issues are, but the things they’re doing are all important and attractive ways to re-engage the black community.”
Re-engaging the young African American community in baseball, though, is not really Rachel Robinson’s prime focus. Educating them is. Since its inception, the foundation boasts a phenomenal 97 percent graduation rate, about twice the national average for minority students. And under her guidance, more than 1,100 of the foundation’s charges are now active in the professional community.
She loves them all, she says, but she’s worried and saddened about the attrition rate of minority students at every level of education. At present, as many as 50 percent of minority students are dropping out of inner city primary and secondary schools.
“Oh, the lack of support for public education is very, very troubling,” she says. “The failure of kids to graduate even from high school is very troubling. There are a lot of problems.”
The foundation, she is aware, is certainly doing its part, but it can always do more. The great man himself would want it that way.
“If Jack’s looking down now,” she says, “I’m sure he’s proud.”
SOURCE: MLB
Six White Sox to wear No. 42
CHICAGO — Three White Sox players, two White Sox coaches and manager Ozzie Guillen will wear jersey No. 42 during Tuesday afternoon’s home game against the A’s in tribute to Jackie Robinson.
“It’s an honor any time a legend like that can be a part of something that is so special,” said White Sox designated hitter Jim Thome, who will wear No. 42, along with Jermaine Dye, Nick Swisher, Guillen, first-base coach Harold Baines and third-base coach Jeff Cox. “It’s just a pleasure.
“I never, personally, got to watch him play. But just what he stands for in this game is something that should make every player want to wear this [uniform].”
Robinson became the game’s first African-American player in 1947, with his first appearance coming for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field on April 15. At the 50-year anniversary in 1997, Major League Baseball retired the No. 42 but still gave players the chance to wear the uniform on this special day.
White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, a Brooklyn native, was at Robinson’s first game. Reinsdorf admitted he didn’t know what Robinson was going through at the time until after he retired, pointing out that he simply was more interested in if Robinson could play as a young but true Dodgers fan.
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Introduced in 2004, Jackie Robinson Day was created to honor the enduring impact of Robinson and his legacy as the first African-American player to break the Major League Baseball color barrier.
Robinson’s memory lives on today in initiatives such as the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which was founded by Rachel Robinson in 1973 to provide education and leadership development opportunities for minority students with strong capabilities but limited financial resources, as well as Breaking Barriers, which utilizes baseball-themed activities to reinforce literacy skills, mathematics, science and social history in addition to addressing critical issues of character development, such as conflict resolution and self-esteem.
His historic impact on the game will be recognized around baseball on Tuesday, including at U.S. Cellular Field.
“There’s no question he set the bar for a lot of African-American players today,” Thome said.
“Awesome — real special for everyone,” Guillen added. “He went through a lot of difficulties to make this game better. The best thing is to remember him every year.”
“He’s given African-American players a chance to play in the Major Leagues,” Dye concluded. “He paved the way for us. What a way to pay tribute to a guy who has done a lot for this sport.”
SOURCE: MLB
Major League Baseball’s Civil Rights Game
Most of his players now dressed and gone, New York City’s first black Major League manager stood alone in his office at Tradition Field, whittling away the hours of another afternoon. Beside him, various charts broke down his current roster of Mets. There were decisions to be made about that roster, and preparations to complete for the upcoming season. But right now, more pressing issues vexed him.
“Think about it,” Willie Randolph said, in a tone more amazed than confused. “I’m the first African-American manager in New York. You wouldn’t think that, really. People talk about how far we’ve come. That just shows that we still have a long way to go.”
The issue is deeply personal to Randolph, whose very livelihood has depended on a man he’s never met, and a battle he’s rarely had to fight. By the time Randolph was old enough to fully understand the scope of the civil rights movement, its greatest injustices had already been repaired. Randolph never had to drink from a separate water fountain or sleep in a separate hotel. Yet the fight is not complete, and so Randolph still burns.
He often considers what it would have been like to grow up in that era, when his skin alone would have transformed so many aspects of his life. He cringes at the thought. That’s why for Randolph, this Saturday’s Civil Rights Game has become so charged with meaning. There, in Memphis, at the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, Randolph will be forced to pause and consider a past he never had to endure.
“It’s going to be an education for all of us,” Randolph said. “It’s something that should be very interesting to go there and get a little knowledge about really what it was like, and to feel it and see it. That’s for all my players — African-American, Latin-American players that we have here. It should be something that we should look forward to.”
Randolph’s only exposure to King came from the dusty pages of textbooks and the grainy frames of documentaries. That wasn’t much. Yet the more he began to discover what this world was all about, the more he realized how much that one man meant, how much that one man’s life affected his own. Born into some other era, into some other culture, Randolph might never have seen his big league dream come true.
Standing here in Florida, in his bright blue Mets jacket, Randolph can visualize all that, but he can’t help but feel some sort of disconnect. Here, he can open his eyes and see an empty office, some chairs in the corner, the names of his players hanging on the wall. Here, he can consider the past, but snap back to the present whenever he sees fit.
Not in Memphis this weekend, when a different sort of reality will engulf him.
“It’s going to be kind of emotional for me to be there, and, in my mind, think about what it must have been like being there back then,” Randolph said. “I try to transform myself in my mind, and I think that once I get there, I’ll get a better sense for that.”
His Mets will travel to Memphis on Friday (3/28/08), in preparation for what’s now become an annual event. Created last spring to help honor the movement in which baseball played a noteworthy role, the Civil Rights Game — scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. ET with live coverage on MLB.TV and a pregame show on BaseballChannel.TV beginning at 4 ET — will take place this year between the Mets and White Sox, two teams brimming with minority players and personnel.
Randolph’s role in all that remains significant. More than three years ago he became the first black man ever to manage a New York baseball team — Yankees, Mets, Giants and Dodgers included — and he’s since become an ambassador of sorts for a game that’s lost a foothold in the black community. Young blacks are turning to baseball at decreasing rates, and that’s a problem Randolph does not take lightly.
When the sport chose to honor Jackie Robinson, its own civil rights leader, last April on the 60th anniversary of his breaking the sport’s color barrier, Randolph filed one of the first requests to wear Robinson’s No. 42. He spoke that day of what the honor meant to him, of how he hoped that today’s children would continue to follow the path blazed by one of baseball’s foremost icons.
This weekend will give Randolph, along with the rest of baseball, another outlet to express those sentiments. Taking the opportunity to escort his interested players to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Randolph will view the weekend trip quite differently than he does any other game. This one, clearly, is not about baseball. It’s about an issue that has been central to the entire world for centuries, and that will continue to burn long after the Mets pack their bags and fly back to Florida for Opening Day.
“It’s something that should be acknowledged and honored and brought to the forefront,” Randolph said. “But it should always be there. It shouldn’t just be periodically, we just kind of do it and then OK, we wait a little while and do it again. It’s something that should always be in the consciousness of people.”
Randolph has fixed it in his consciousness more than most, which explains why he’s so eager to take part in this game. Why he hopes to find some young black fans in Memphis, to talk to them and attempt to spur their interest in baseball. Every little bit helps.
“I think it’s part of my obligation,” Randolph said. “It’s not about really carrying a torch or anything like that. But I do feel a sense of being a part of Jackie’s legacy, and, in a different way, Martin’s, because of the impact he made on the society. We’re trying to inspire young people to achieve, and to grow and to work toward their goals.”
He waved his hands as he spoke, emphasizing the point. Here in his office, amidst tangible proof of his success, Randolph hasn’t forgotten what these issues mean to his own life. He worked for this, yes, but he also had an opportunity that other black men never had. That’s something he won’t soon forget.
“I’m a living example of hard work and perseverance and really just dreaming about what you want,” Randolph said. “Martin talks about his dream. I had a dream too, and it came true. It really came true.”
SOURCE: MLB.com
“Black Magic” gets rave review from Washington Post
From one angle, the excellent ESPN documentary “Black Magic” is about the three degrees of separation between James Naismith, who invented basketball in the 1890s, and Avery Johnson, coach of the Dallas Mavericks more than a century later. If you find such an apostolic succession intriguing, you will revel in the four-hour film that airs in two parts tomorrow and Monday.
The two halves flow together like a basketball game, telling the parallel stories of the American civil rights movement and the rise of African American basketball players.
The film is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson and Wynton Marsalis — with additional commentary by historians Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cleveland Seller.
Read the entire article at the Washington Post
20 most influential African-Americans in sports
St. Pete Times lists sports’ 20 most influential African-Americans:
1. Jackie Robinson
2. Muhammad Ali
3. Jim Brown
4. Jesse Owens
5. Joe Louis
6. Michael Jordan
7. Wilma Rudolph
8. John Carlos / Tommy Smith
9. Arthur Ashe
10. Hank Aaron
11. Curt Flood
12. Tony Dungy
13. Don King
14. Althea Gibson
15. Tiger Woods
16. Magic Johnson
17. Jack Johnson
18. Jackie Joyner-Kersee
19. Harlem Globetrotters
20. Bob Johnson
Go to the St. Pete Times to see explanations.
Wayne Edmonds: first black player to win a monogram at Notre Dame
As a sophomore in 1953, Wayne Edmonds became the first black player to win a monogram at Notre Dame (other black players had made the team but Edmonds and Dick Washington were the first to appear in a game). Edmonds helped the Irish to an unbeaten mark in 1953 and won three monograms.
He was used to hostile treatment during games: slurs said across the line of scrimmage while referees pretended they didn’t hear them. He wouldn’t have been surprised if more of the same awaited him at Notre Dame. But it didn’t.
Read more about Wayne Edmonds at ESPN
Black coaches lead the way in the Ivies
Six of the eight men’s basketball teams have Black coaches.
“We basically don’t notice when coaches are hired or fired anymore, but I know that the Ivy League looks like it has opened its hiring practices,” said Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida.
“But I don’t think those Ivy League schools went out and said, ‘We’re going to hire an African American coach,’ ” he said. “There are a lot of talented and experienced up-and-coming African American coaches. The Ivy League was looking for the best coaches.”
Tommy Amaker at Harvard (hired last year)
Sydney Johnson at Princeton (hired last year)
James Jones at Yale (9 years)
Joe Jones of Columbia (5 years)
Terry Dunn at Dartmouth (4 years)
Craig Robinson at Brown (2 years)
Read more at Philly.com
IUPUI’s Ron Hunter to go barefoot for good cause
Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) head basketball coach Ron Hunter will coach barefoot courtside against Oakland (MI) on January 24.
Hunter wants to collect 40,000 pairs of shoes, the number in honor of the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr., to bring to Africa to give to people who are not fortunate enough to have shoes. And for one game he will coach without shoes on himself.
Working with an organization called Samaritan’s Feet, Hunter, who is in his 14th season with the Jaguars, wants to raise awareness of the people around the world without shoes.
“There should be no one in this world walking around barefoot,” Hunter said. “I just can’t even imagine that. I can’t imagine my children doing it.”
Thank you coach Hunter. This single gesture has done more for a such a good organization than any donation he could have given.
Learn more about Samaritan’s Feet
Read more at Yahoo Sports
Black college athletes making important strides in graduation
Though there is always room to improve, more Black college athletes are earning degrees.
the African American football players at the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision schools (the schools in which they are recognized to take part in the 32 bowl games if selected) graduate at a much higher rate than their non-football player [African-American] counterparts; 50% vs. 37%. That in itself is both alarming and a godsend of sorts.
Why the need for improvement? Black football players graduate at the 50% while their white counterparts graduate at a 64% grad rate. The 14% deficit is a gain from the 2006 number but what is truly troubling is the fact that white non-football male students graduate from college at a 61% while the black non-football male students graduate at the 37% mark. That is a 24% differential.
Maybe the Black non-athlete is who we should be focused on.
SOURCE: Black Athlete
Tradition of Excellence 