Dean of the American Game Smashes Racism in the Mouth

Patrick A. Howell
Aug 25, 2017 · 23 min read

Knee at the Sideline or Black Fist in the Air, Dr. Harry Edwards Underwrote a New Epoch in the Spiritual War — Meditation and Interview

Jai Lennard, 2017, All Rights Reserved ©

LeBron James = Bill Russell

Marshawn Lynch = Dwayne Thomas (Cowboys)

Richard Sherman = Richie Allen (Phillies)

Colin Kaepernick = Muhammad AliDr. Harry Edwards, Dean of the American Game

My advisor status with Kaep — I spent 7 years with Colin Kaepernick at the SF 49ERS and I stay in contact with him and his management team because I want him to know that he has my TOTAL support and that he can call on me should I be able to help him in any way. That falls quite short of being an “ advisor”. Kaep keeps his own counsel and is a very intelligent , clear eyed , and analytical thinker. He needs far less “advice “ than most people apparently presume — from me or anyone else.” Dr. Harry Edwards

http://sportcitychefs.com

LeBron James = Bill Russell

Marshawn Lynch = Dwayne Thomas (Cowboys)

Richard Sherman = Richie Allen (Phillies)

Colin Kaepernick = Muhammad AliDr. Harry Edwards, Dean of the American Game

“My advisor status with Kaep — I spent 7 years with Colin Kaepernick at the SF 49ERS and I stay in contact with him and his management team because I want him to know that he has my TOTAL support and that he can call on me should I be able to help him in any way. That falls quite short of being an “ advisor”. Kaep keeps his own counsel and is a very intelligent , clear eyed , and analytical thinker. He needs far less “advice “ than most people apparently presume — from me or anyone else.” Dr. Harry Edwards

http://sportcitychefs.com

“If you’re going to perform inception, you need imagination. You need the simplest version of the idea-the one that will grow naturally in the subject’s mind. Subtle art.” Christopher Nolan, Inception: The Shooting Script

‘Sports Sociology’

If you think about it, fusing sports together with sports protest is as old as modern America. Jessie Owens did it in his own quiet way, long before there was Hussein Bolt of Jamaica, performing at such a high level at the Munich Germany Olympic Games that he left historic cleat marks all over Adolph Hitler’s face. Jackie Robinson broke the color line in America’s national past time, Major League Baseball, ingesting the Klu Klux Klan toxic racism of an entire nation to create a vision of a future that heralds the coming of George Springer of the Houston Astros as the greatest to ever play the game. There was the towering Bill Russell long before he handed the iconic Lebron James the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award. In Southern California, a young SharkHeart studies Michael Phelp’s, Reese Whitley’s, Caleb Dressel’s and Cullen Jones’ every stroke with an acute interest. And then there is the immortal warrior king of the 20th century, Muhammad Ali, the undisputed Greatest of all Time.

“Regarding the Ravens’/ League’s ( and it is an NFL and not just a club issue) handling of what should be a straight forward football decision , it is my judgement that the time ALREADY expended surpasses anything that would be required to objectively evaluate Kaep’s potential to contribute FOOTBALL-WISE , and all the more so relative to other available QB talent . So they could only be assessing NON-FOOTBALL “ concerns : political biases , media and public relations concerns , and perceived potential “locker room impact”.” Dr. Harry Edwards

However, fusing those thoughts together in an academic discipline was the work of a singular force. The sociology of sports was a thesis for Dr. Harry Edwards at Cornell University. Through activism, he burnished the universal appeal of black athletes with the frame of a man who stands at the height of 6’5” and probably weighs in at 240= 270 lbs — a man who could be confused with prize fighter — say George Foreman’s sparring partner or the genetic precedent to Marshawn Lynch doubled (he later corrects me — he was 6'8 and 280 lbs back in the day). But he was Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley. That takes imagination. ‘Leadership’, ‘vision’, ‘singular focus’, ‘innovator’, ‘freedom fighter’, ‘creativity’ and ‘perseverance’ are all characteristics that pique a persona unique to the American character, particularly as we are just getting geared up for this here 21st century. If Barack Obama is the George Washington of America for the 21st century, then Dr. Harry Edwards is the Benjamin Franklin, underwriting treatises and fusing all sorts of magical social phenomena with a singular focus with purpose.

“If he (Colin Kaepernik) did nothing else but what he has managed to achieve he belongs in the Smithsonian right next to Ali, right next to Smith and Carlos, right next to Arthur Ashe and Jim Brown and Bill Russell. Right next to all of those trailblazers who came through the locker room door in an effort to advance and enlighten us all.” Dr. Harry Edwards in an interview with the Mercury News Elliot Almond on December 2016

Aside from music and Hollywood, sports is the American pastime that defines American culture. And if you believe a young professor Barack Obama, African American Culture is American culture.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

LeBron James = Bill Russell

Marshawn Lynch = Dwayne Thomas (Cowboys)

Richard Sherman = Richie Allen (Phillies)

Colin Kaepernick = Muhammad AliDr. Harry Edwards, Dean of the American Game

“My advisor status with Kaep — I spent 7 years with Colin Kaepernick at the SF 49ERS and I stay in contact with him and his management team because I want him to know that he has my TOTAL support and that he can call on me should I be able to help him in any way. That falls quite short of being an “ advisor”. Kaep keeps his own counsel and is a very intelligent , clear eyed , and analytical thinker. He needs far less “advice “ than most people apparently presume — from me or anyone else.” Dr. Harry Edwards

http://sportcitychefs.com

“If you’re going to perform inception, you need imagination. You need the simplest version of the idea-the one that will grow naturally in the subject’s mind. Subtle art.” Christopher Nolan, Inception: The Shooting Script

‘Sports Sociology’

If you think about it, fusing sports together with sports protest is as old as modern America. Jessie Owens did it in his own quiet way, long before there was Hussein Bolt of Jamaica, performing at such a high level at the Munich Germany Olympic Games that he left historic cleat marks all over Adolph Hitler’s face. Jackie Robinson broke the color line in America’s national past time, Major League Baseball, ingesting the Klu Klux Klan toxic racism of an entire nation to create a vision of a future that heralds the coming of George Springer of the Houston Astros as the greatest to ever play the game. There was the towering Bill Russell long before he handed the iconic Lebron James the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award. In Southern California, a young SharkHeart studies Michael Phelp’s, Reese Whitley’s, Caleb Dressel’s and Cullen Jones’ every stroke with an acute interest. And then there is the immortal warrior king of the 20th century, Muhammad Ali, the undisputed Greatest of all Time.

“Regarding the Ravens’/ League’s ( and it is an NFL and not just a club issue) handling of what should be a straight forward football decision , it is my judgement that the time ALREADY expended surpasses anything that would be required to objectively evaluate Kaep’s potential to contribute FOOTBALL-WISE , and all the more so relative to other available QB talent . So they could only be assessing NON-FOOTBALL “ concerns : political biases , media and public relations concerns , and perceived potential “locker room impact”.” Dr. Harry Edwards

However, fusing those thoughts together in an academic discipline was the work of a singular force. The sociology of sports was a thesis for Dr. Harry Edwards at Cornell University. Through activism, he burnished the universal appeal of black athletes with the frame of a man who stands at the height of 6’5” and probably weighs in at 240= 270 lbs — a man who could be confused with prize fighter — say George Foreman’s sparring partner or the genetic precedent to Marshawn Lynch doubled (he later corrects me — he was 6'8 and 280 lbs back in the day). But he was Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley. That takes imagination. ‘Leadership’, ‘vision’, ‘singular focus’, ‘innovator’, ‘freedom fighter’, ‘creativity’ and ‘perseverance’ are all characteristics that pique a persona unique to the American character, particularly as we are just getting geared up for this here 21st century. If Barack Obama is the George Washington of America for the 21st century, then Dr. Harry Edwards is the Benjamin Franklin, underwriting treatises and fusing all sorts of magical social phenomena with a singular focus with purpose.

“If he (Colin Kaepernik) did nothing else but what he has managed to achieve he belongs in the Smithsonian right next to Ali, right next to Smith and Carlos, right next to Arthur Ashe and Jim Brown and Bill Russell. Right next to all of those trailblazers who came through the locker room door in an effort to advance and enlighten us all.” Dr. Harry Edwards in an interview with the Mercury News Elliot Almond on December 2016

Aside from music and Hollywood, sports is the American pastime that defines American culture. And if you believe a young professor Barack Obama, African American Culture is American culture.

MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP

Former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, left, talks with Dr. Harry Edwards (a consultant with the 49’rs for nearly 2 decades) at Candlestick Park before an NFL game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons in San Francisco, Monday, Dec. 23, 2013 http://www.seattletimes.com

You could say American culture is the world’s culture. So, you could say Black American Culture is world culture. Matter of fact, you could say American culture is America’s most valuable export. By inference, you would say that export is responsible for the immigration of millions of immigrants from around the world. As a matter of fact, Muhammad Ali once said, “I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”

Muhammad Ali, Magic Johnson, Superman, Michael Phelps, Captain America and Michael Jordan. What’s more American than that? Marvel Comic Universe’s Black Panther? Who in the world does not want to be these icons of American culture at some time and point? What All American little boy doesn’t dream of being the Man of Steel or his Air Jordan at some time in their young lives? “Hero” is not black or white. For little brown and peach skinned children, and every skin pigment in between and beyond, “hero” is the light. And black is the absorption of all of the lights. Black is how to be everything that is great that is America. Athletes are the modern day gladiators of the American empire with one foot in reality and another in our collective imaginations. Everybody wants to be like Mike. Every little boy and girl is in their basketball driveway the practicing their tomahawk dunk. Those, afros in California, Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee, and New York? Those are Kaepernick afros. These days, everybody even wants to be Muhammad Ali. Even President Obama looked up to the icon and said, “A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t.”

Everybody, however, does not aspire to be the President- at least not these days. But all Millennials will tell you that they aspire to be Lebron James, Michael Phelps and Hussein Bolt. Where does this power to influence a generation to resistance, revolt and self-affirmation come from? Yes, it is underwritten like a private placement memorandum (PPM) by the Dean of American sports, Dr. Harry Edwards. This year marks the 50th anniversary edition of his timeless The Revolt of the Black Athlete, where he gives the secrets of how an underachieving junior college student went on to become a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to attend Cornell University, earning both an M.A. and a Ph.D. before later joining the sociology faculty at the University of California at Berkeley:

I. Follow your bliss

II. Cultivate the habit of high expectations of yourself and of every effort

III. Respect the challenges and demands of your calling by learning to dream with your eyes open.

IV. Learn to “behave as it.”

V. Commit to a strategy, practice, and disciplined program of hard work.

VI. Persevere, Stay on course by employing a strategy of “living in anticipation of tomorrow”

VII. Learn and abide by the work-rest cycle of your mind and body. Dr. Harry Edwards in the 50th Anniversary Edition of the Revolt of the Black Athlete

http://www.scoopnest.com

LeBron James = Bill Russell

Marshawn Lynch = Dwayne Thomas (Cowboys)

Richard Sherman = Richie Allen (Phillies)

Colin Kaepernick = Muhammad AliDr. Harry Edwards, Dean of the American Game

“My advisor status with Kaep — I spent 7 years with Colin Kaepernick at the SF 49ERS and I stay in contact with him and his management team because I want him to know that he has my TOTAL support and that he can call on me should I be able to help him in any way. That falls quite short of being an “ advisor”. Kaep keeps his own counsel and is a very intelligent , clear eyed , and analytical thinker. He needs far less “advice “ than most people apparently presume — from me or anyone else.” Dr. Harry Edwards

http://sportcitychefs.com

“If you’re going to perform inception, you need imagination. You need the simplest version of the idea-the one that will grow naturally in the subject’s mind. Subtle art.” Christopher Nolan, Inception: The Shooting Script

‘Sports Sociology’

If you think about it, fusing sports together with sports protest is as old as modern America. Jessie Owens did it in his own quiet way, long before there was Hussein Bolt of Jamaica, performing at such a high level at the Munich Germany Olympic Games that he left historic cleat marks all over Adolph Hitler’s face. Jackie Robinson broke the color line in America’s national past time, Major League Baseball, ingesting the Klu Klux Klan toxic racism of an entire nation to create a vision of a future that heralds the coming of George Springer of the Houston Astros as the greatest to ever play the game. There was the towering Bill Russell long before he handed the iconic Lebron James the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award. In Southern California, a young SharkHeart studies Michael Phelp’s, Reese Whitley’s, Caleb Dressel’s and Cullen Jones’ every stroke with an acute interest. And then there is the immortal warrior king of the 20th century, Muhammad Ali, the undisputed Greatest of all Time.

“Regarding the Ravens’/ League’s ( and it is an NFL and not just a club issue) handling of what should be a straight forward football decision , it is my judgement that the time ALREADY expended surpasses anything that would be required to objectively evaluate Kaep’s potential to contribute FOOTBALL-WISE , and all the more so relative to other available QB talent . So they could only be assessing NON-FOOTBALL “ concerns : political biases , media and public relations concerns , and perceived potential “locker room impact”.” Dr. Harry Edwards

However, fusing those thoughts together in an academic discipline was the work of a singular force. The sociology of sports was a thesis for Dr. Harry Edwards at Cornell University. Through activism, he burnished the universal appeal of black athletes with the frame of a man who stands at the height of 6’5” and probably weighs in at 240= 270 lbs — a man who could be confused with prize fighter — say George Foreman’s sparring partner or the genetic precedent to Marshawn Lynch doubled (he later corrects me — he was 6'8 and 280 lbs back in the day). But he was Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley. That takes imagination. ‘Leadership’, ‘vision’, ‘singular focus’, ‘innovator’, ‘freedom fighter’, ‘creativity’ and ‘perseverance’ are all characteristics that pique a persona unique to the American character, particularly as we are just getting geared up for this here 21st century. If Barack Obama is the George Washington of America for the 21st century, then Dr. Harry Edwards is the Benjamin Franklin, underwriting treatises and fusing all sorts of magical social phenomena with a singular focus with purpose.

“If he (Colin Kaepernik) did nothing else but what he has managed to achieve he belongs in the Smithsonian right next to Ali, right next to Smith and Carlos, right next to Arthur Ashe and Jim Brown and Bill Russell. Right next to all of those trailblazers who came through the locker room door in an effort to advance and enlighten us all.” Dr. Harry Edwards in an interview with the Mercury News Elliot Almond on December 2016

Aside from music and Hollywood, sports is the American pastime that defines American culture. And if you believe a young professor Barack Obama, African American Culture is American culture.

MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP

Former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, left, talks with Dr. Harry Edwards (a consultant with the 49’rs for nearly 2 decades) at Candlestick Park before an NFL game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons in San Francisco, Monday, Dec. 23, 2013 http://www.seattletimes.com

You could say American culture is the world’s culture. So, you could say Black American Culture is world culture. Matter of fact, you could say American culture is America’s most valuable export. By inference, you would say that export is responsible for the immigration of millions of immigrants from around the world. As a matter of fact, Muhammad Ali once said, “I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”

Muhammad Ali, Magic Johnson, Superman, Michael Phelps, Captain America and Michael Jordan. What’s more American than that? Marvel Comic Universe’s Black Panther? Who in the world does not want to be these icons of American culture at some time and point? What All American little boy doesn’t dream of being the Man of Steel or his Air Jordan at some time in their young lives? “Hero” is not black or white. For little brown and peach skinned children, and every skin pigment in between and beyond, “hero” is the light. And black is the absorption of all of the lights. Black is how to be everything that is great that is America. Athletes are the modern day gladiators of the American empire with one foot in reality and another in our collective imaginations. Everybody wants to be like Mike. Every little boy and girl is in their basketball driveway the practicing their tomahawk dunk. Those, afros in California, Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee, and New York? Those are Kaepernick afros. These days, everybody even wants to be Muhammad Ali. Even President Obama looked up to the icon and said, “A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t.”

Everybody, however, does not aspire to be the President- at least not these days. But all Millennials will tell you that they aspire to be Lebron James, Michael Phelps and Hussein Bolt. Where does this power to influence a generation to resistance, revolt and self-affirmation come from? Yes, it is underwritten like a private placement memorandum (PPM) by the Dean of American sports, Dr. Harry Edwards. This year marks the 50th anniversary edition of his timeless The Revolt of the Black Athlete, where he gives the secrets of how an underachieving junior college student went on to become a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to attend Cornell University, earning both an M.A. and a Ph.D. before later joining the sociology faculty at the University of California at Berkeley:

I. Follow your bliss

II. Cultivate the habit of high expectations of yourself and of every effort

III. Respect the challenges and demands of your calling by learning to dream with your eyes open.

IV. Learn to “behave as it.”

V. Commit to a strategy, practice, and disciplined program of hard work.

VI. Persevere, Stay on course by employing a strategy of “living in anticipation of tomorrow”

VII. Learn and abide by the work-rest cycle of your mind and body. Dr. Harry Edwards in the 50th Anniversary Edition of the Revolt of the Black Athlete

HTTP://WWW.SCOOPNEST.COM

Tom Jackson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dr. Harry Edwards and Jim Brown, paying their respects to Muhammad Ali.

Sociologist Harry Edwards is a leading voice on the plight of the black student-athlete and on the interconnections between sport, education and black liberation. He was an iconic figure in the social movements of the 1960s that gave birth to black studies but his voice may be needed now more than ever.Dr. Darnell M. Hunt, PhD, Dean of Social Sciences, UCLA College of Letters and Science

That “blueprint” for academic achievement and success is why it is critical to not only understand but appreciate the cultural shift that has taken place in the American culture of sports since the 1960’s and 1990’s. Not so long ago community activist would bemoan “the multi million dollar corporations” that were running on the field of dreams, hard wood floors, and football fields but not giving back to their communities Now, those metaphysical warriors have come home and are the beacons of light. Colin Kapernick’s sacrifice is the most chilling and the most selfless as we witness a supremacist US president lead an NFL league of coward owners to their own tragic downfall. No wonder Adam Silver’s NBA is poised to surpass the NFL as the dejour sport of America and the world. While the NFL took in $13 billion in revenues, the NBA is positioned with $4.8 billion to surpass the NFL with superior marketing, strategy and moral standing. Will Steve Bisciotti, owner of the Balitmore Ravens step into that void and save the NFL from itself? Is Steve Biscoitti the Howard Cosell of the 21st century? Or, is he the marginalized maligned William Benjamin “Ben” Chapman, the racist Phillies Manager who stood only as a foot note to the great sacrifice of number #42, Jackie Robinson? The forthcoming weeks if not days will tell.

“We’re either going to come together and begin to deal with some of these critical problems or find ourselves a society divided against itself and armed to the teeth with over 300 million guns in private hands. We can’t survive like that.” Dr. Harry Edwards in an interview with the Mercury News Elliot Almond on December 2016

It is not so hard to think about when you consider the impact of the NBA, NFL, Boxing and MLB on the global culture. Where music doesn’t sway a soul, American sports will fill in the gaps with thunderous dunks, suffocating 3-pointer, knockout punch, flamboyant touchdown dance or home runs. So, just what is American sports? Is it a piston, a mass market meditation, in American capitalism where “eat what you kill” is the unofficial edict? Isn’t Michael Jordan’s near sociopathological competitiveness celebrated as virtue with at least the same glee as the fictional Gordon Gekko of Oliver Stone’s Wall Street? Is American sports a metaphysical field for black souls and black bodies, the spirit of the American promise to seek completed liberation from the ideaology of racism? Or, is it, perhaps a metaphysical plane upon which we all focus, meditate and come together for a common American cause? The Dean of American Sports has made it clear:

“The revolt of the black athlete in America as a phase of the overall black liberation movement is as legitimate as the sit-ins, the freedom rides, or any other manifestation of Afro-American efforts to gain freedom. The goals of the revolt likewise are the same as those of any other legitimate phase of the movement — equality, justice, the regaining of black dignity lost during three hundred years of abject slavery, and the attainment of the basic human and civil rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the concept of American democracy.” Dr Harry Edwards, The Revolt of the Black Athlete, 50th Anniversary Edition

When you meditate upon names as Muhammad Ali, Bill Russel, Jim Brown, Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson, Billie Jean King, William Carlos, Tommie Smith, Wilma Rudolph and Jackie Robinson, there is a direct correlation between competition at the highest levels and the movement of the needle of social justice to total and complete liberation of all Americans? Michael Jordan era was a respite from this sort of expression. It was the “Republican wear sneakers too” respite. Or, if you will the Charles Barkley era of “I’m not a role model” getting paid black athletes. Sure, it was a lot of fun to watch but we now find that the prison industrial complex was made whole in that era. Michelle Alexander in her American opus, The New Jim Crow, has called it an era of “neo slavery”.

Athletes as Colin Kaepernick, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Stephen Curry, Michael Phelps, Richard Sherman, Marshawn Lynch and Lebron James reject that notion. They play for a cosmic university, a universal cause for common humanity headed by a certain Dean of American sports. YES! Colin Kaepernick’s sacrifice at the height of his athletic prowess, the prolonged financial fasting, social castration are so familiar to a young Muhammad Ali at the height of his powers. He is, however, Muhammad Ali 2.0 with such acts as a pledge to donate $1 million of his salary plus all royalties received from the sale of jerseys and $100,000 going out for each month for the past 10 months.

www.kaepernick7.com

“When I contacted the Smithsonian (new National Museum of African American History and Culture), I told them they shouldn’t wait another five or six years to get Kap’s shoes, jersey and photo of the Time magazine cover and a photo of him kneeling. They need to do that now. They absolutely agreed.” Dr. Harry Edwards in an interview with the Mercury News Elliot Almond on December 2016

I speak with Dr. Harry Edwards by email, phone and voicemail over the course of month and he is as impassioned by the cause for complete American liberation as his 1969 treatise The Revolt of the Black Athlete (TROTBA). His organization and implementation of the OLYMPIC PROJECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS and at San Jose State University Black athletes’ Revolt holds up succinctly and applies today, because it is the thesis that underwrites our current moment. In TROTBA, he stipulates five guiding and strategic imperatives to heightening potentials for the achievement of protest movement goals (imperatives derived in substantial part from his M.A./Ph.D. studies under Professors Robin Williams and William Foote Whyte at Cornell University).

My questions can be whimsical and even light but I want to capture the essence of a man heavy with cosmic consciousness and the burdens of knowing a singular outcome when everybody else is afraid, when everybody is stepping away from the center of the fire.

Colin Kapernaek is the cracker jack or, perhaps he is the TnT powder of this generation. Is his the metaphysical jump point generations will use to open a new window to a collective peace or will he and his sacrifices fade into obscurity?

Kaepernick will be remembered as a timely , relevant, and courageous “athlete activist” in the mold of Ali, Smith, Carlos, Ariyana Smith (of Knox College and the first athlete to protest the summary execution of Mike Brown of Ferguson , Mo.) ,etc. because he so well projected the reality and urgency of confronting the violence of racism and injustice in the lives of “people of color “ in America. It is precisely for this reason that I pressed for him to be installed in the Smithsonian: NMAAHC , right alongside other athletes who contributed so much so courageously and at great personal sacrifice in the struggle to “level the playing field”- both within and beyond the arena.

“Dr. Harry Edwards understood the socio-political and cultural significance of black athletes demonstrating inspirational leadership on the field and off the field. His research, writing and personal inspirational leadership helped to broaden black subjectivity in the international imagination — deconstructing dangerous black- tethered stereotypes in the process.” Dr. Michael Datcher, New York Times Best Selling Author, professor at Loyola Marymount University

What were your accomplishments in college as a former San Jose State discus thrower and basketball player?

I set a national Community college discus record during my one semester at Fresno City College; I set the school and conference record during my first season at San Jose State (1961) and started at center on the basketball team . I had thrown the discus well past the Olympic Trials qualifying mark during my sophomore track season of 1962 when I was a team captain AND dismissed from the track team permanently for trying to organize “Negro” athletes who I felt were being brutally exploited.

What is your favorite sport to watch these days? What is the sport you can watch to get outside the work grind of academics and thought leader?

I watch all sports because that’s my business. When I want to just chill, I listen to Jazz- Miles, Coltrane , Duke, Ella, Sarah, Billie, Bird, Dizzy, Bud Powell, Monk … traditional , straight ahead Jazz , like I grew up with in E St Louis, Illinois ( literally a mile from Miles ) that I grooved with throughout my collegiate days, that I now luxuriate in during my senior years.

Of all the iconic movement athletes of the 60’s — Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Arthur Ashe, Carlos Williams, Tommie Smith. Who does Lebron James remind you of most? Colin Kaeperneck? Marshawn Lynch? Richard Sherman?

LeBron James = Bill Russell

Marshawn= Dwayne Thomas (Cowboys)

R. Sherman= Richie Allen ( Phillies)

Colin Kaepernick = Muhammad Ali

***

He is a large man. Big like a tribesman of the Igbo, Ashanti or Zulu tribes. You would think he was an athlete- he is so large. I’ll say it again, it’s not difficult to imagine him as a corner back and boxer. But he is the one whose mind and actions and direction, created a different altogether metaphysical field of play. He is definitely West African ancestry if you consider his penchant for academic excellence and intellectual pursuits. He knows the system and leverages his knowledge like he is creating an arsenal of weapons against the system of American racism and institutionalized discrimination. In fact, he has created the artery of his own system within the body America.

Nigeria and Ghana — that’s what we call those tribes these days (Zulu is Southern Africa through). Yeah, he’s got that swag. It ain’t gangster hip hop. It’s crunk though, like Miles or Thelonious or Coltraine Jazz. It’s from outside the norms of conventions, improvisational and inspired. And it is real. He smashed racism in it’s ugly mouth with a metaphysical fist. The jab began with a wind up in the late 1960s and he stepped through with a follow up upper cut in the 2010s. The system is buckling. This is spirit work. Nobody drew the parallel from sports to social activism until Dr. Edward’s 1971 thesis, the ‘Sociology of Sport’.

In 1968, Dr. Harry Edwards was the genius of the Olympic Project for Human Rights that led to John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s iconic black-gloved salute on the victory stand at the Mexico City Olympic Games.

He has counseled Major League Baseball, the Golden State Warriors and 49’ers in matters of diversity and has earned four Super Bowl rings as a 49er’s consultant, including a 5 marque diamond Lombardi trophies ring which he gave to President Obama (but that is a story that indirectly involves Vladimir Putin, the New England Patriot’s Robert Kraft and his Super Bowl ring — another story for another article).

Now, don’t get me wrong, there was Muhammad Ali and he lived it. But, as an academic discipline that fostered social, cultural, celebrity and sports of society into course work that would define a generation — that was and is Dr. Harry Edwards, Dean of the American Game. America is his classroom. This is the 21st Century and he is our Benjamin Franklin — after the discovery of multi-million dollar corporations that conquer on the metaphysical planes of American dreams and bring the community with them, there is the restitution of wealth to these communities.

Pay real close attention Now. Read this ‘Revolt of the Black Athlete’, about the African warriors of the 20th and 21st centuries, and let’s all get on the same page. The Dean has instructed the world with a universal curriculum and thesis.

“When any white man in the world picks up a gun and says; give me liberty or give me death, the entire white world applauds. But when a black man says exactly the same thing, word for word, he’s judged as a criminal (by whites) and treated as one. And everything possible is done to make an example of him to ensure there wouldn’t be anymore like him.” James Baldwin

)
Patrick A. Howell

Written by

#entrepreneur #award winning banker #writer : LOVE great lit, Carrib & ET food, micro finance, tri-racing, @MIAMIHeat, family, friends & world travel

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