Jesse Owens stuns Hitler at Munich, The Bronx Bomber, The Say Hey Kid, Hammering Hank, Float Like a Butterfly Sting Like a Bee, Baseball Free Agency, Wilt the Stilt, Earl the Pearl, Sweetness, The Sky Hook, Magic, MJ. These are terms, people and events that are engrained in the American Lexicon, not just in sports but also in our society in general. What do these terms have in common, they are all products of the Black Athlete.

Before WWII it was primarily the Black community who celebrated the Black Athlete; The Negro Leagues, the Black college stars etc. But after the war, things began to change. The color line was broken in professional sports and the Black Athlete became ingrained in the American Culture. When this line was broken the landscape of American Sports was changed dramatically. It was transformed from a dry pencil sketch to a colorful vibrant landscape watercolor. Without the Black athlete there would be no Author Ashe or Althea Gibson who bought color to the game of Tennis, no Sky Hook, or Show Time, No Celtic Dynasty, with Russell, Sam and K.C. Jones, no Wilt the Stilt who changed the role of big man in the NBA. Think of baseball of the 50’s and 60’s Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Ernie Banks if Robinson had not broken the color line none of this players would have been on display for the general American Public, how frightening is that proposition.

The integration of Black players into college sports has transformed those sports into major moneymakers, with March madness and the BCS. Would these sports be as popular without the Black athlete? I doubt it. But the men and women who were pioneers in these sports paid a heavy price to open up this lucrative world for other athletes of color, teams, schools, and promoters. Jackie Robinson suffered immeasurable verbal, emotional and physical abuse in those early years with the Dodgers. These abuses that Robinson endured paved the way for baseball stars Aaron, Mays, Bonds, Griffey and other African American’s in every major sport. Even after Robinson broke the color line, there was insurmountable pressure. The great Elston Howard, for many years the only Black New York Yankee, endured many pressures and humiliations like all of the black players of his day, he was not able to stay with the team during spring training because of the South’s Jim Crow Laws, but still went on to have a MVP season in 1963. Like Robinson, Howard. Paid the price and was dead at 51. Another baseball pioneer, Curt Flood risked his promising career by refusing a trade to the Philles. Flood challenged the Anti-Trust Laws of Baseball and was blackballed for his trouble and was never ever to jumpstart his career, but every major leaguer after Flood benefited. From his challenge.

In Boxing Muhammad Ali saved Heavyweight Boxing in the 60’s with his combination of speed, power and flamboyance. A sport rife with controversy and seedy characters, Ali infused freshness and excitement into the game and along the way made Howard Cosell a household name and challenged the Selective Service system because of his strong religious and moral convictions. In the midst of all of this he became arguably the greatest champion of all time.

Next, look at the Black athlete and their role in Olympic Track and Field. Starting with the aforementioned Jesse Owens and continuing with the great decathlete, Rafer Johnson, Long Jumpers, Bob Beaman, and Michael Powell, sprinters Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, Hurdlers, Edwin Moses, Greg Foster and Alan Johnson. Female athletes have also led the way in track, Wilma Rudolph, Evelyn Ashford, Jackie Joyner Kersey and Flo-Jo to name a few. And who could ever forget the image of Tommie Smith and John Carlos giving the Black Power Salute on the Medal Stand at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics as a young child watching on TV. It was a surreal and powerful moment. Without these great and courageous athletes it is very doubtful that America would lead the in the total of medals won in the Summer Olympic Games.

Also would the N.F.L, as we know it today exist without the African –American Players that redefined the game beginning in the 1950’s and moving into the present; included pioneers like Marion Motley, who played for the Cleveland Browns in the now defunct All-American Football Conference. Early Hall of Farmers like Jim Brown, Bobby, Mitchell, Lenny Moore, Charley Taylor; league record holders like Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Emmitt Smith and Reggie White. Great Players and Gentleman such as, Alan Page and Willie Davis. Names like the Fearsome Foursome, the Purple People Eaters and the Steel Curtain, would never have been heard was it not for the contribution of the Black Athlete.

In the now international game of basketball, Blacks may have made the greatest contribution, The Harlem Globetrotters helped to spread the love of the game of basketball many years before NBA Commissioner, David Stern got the idea to make the NBA a global enterprise. Globetrotters like Marcus Haynes, Goose Tatum, Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal bought the fun and excitement to the world through basketball, well before the dream team, and opened the door for NBA stars like Connie Hawkins, Doctor J, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, LaBron James, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant and the rest of the Modern NBA players.

Additionally, in the sport of Golf we immediately think of the great Tiger Woods who will probably one day be considered the greatest golfer of all time. But Tiger never would have gotten the chance to be great if it were not for earlier men who arrived on the golf scene just as Jim Crow was exiting the country. Players the likes of Curtis and Charlie Sifford, Calvin Pete and Lee Elder, Elder being the first African-American golfer to be invited to play the Masters at Augusta. Early in these players careers they were not even able to play at every PGA tournament event because many of the golf courses where the tournaments were held had covenants and restrictions that that banned black golfers from playing on their courses. Despite this roadblocks these players pressed forward won tournaments and opened the doors for players like Woods.

Let us never forget the role of the Black athlete in American Sports. All that they have accomplished despite the hardships and difficulties that were thrown at them. But it is unimaginable to envision the sports landscape without them. A parallel to this situation would be the play, ”Day of Absence” by Douglas Turner Ward. Which sarcastically portrayed a Southern town on a day when all the Blacks have mysteriously disappeared creating panic and disaster in the small town. Now imagine what would have happened if the Black Athlete had never appeared on the American Sports Scene. What a disaster that would have been.