Scoop Jackson, ESPN.com
- “Don,” Dr. Martin Luther King once said to baseball great Don Newcombe, “I don’t know what I would have done without you guys — setting up the minds of the people for change. You, Jackie [Robinson] and Roy [Campanella] will never know how easy you made it for me to do my job.”
That basically says it all.
What do you see when you see Muhammad Ali?
When you look at Jim Brown, Arthur Ashe, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Joe Louis, Julius Erving, Reggie Jackson, Hank Aaron, Bill Russell … what do you see?
Most black folks in America don’t just see great athletes. Our situation is much deeper. Our athletes have most often served a deeper purpose than their sports heroics. We see in them sources of salvation. At times, they make us look at sports as more than fun and games. We look at those who play them as more than athletes whose feats are on YouTube for our kids to watch.
