I Am The Classic
Birmingham, The Magic City Classic and Me
Post #5 of #20: I’m reflecting on twenty years of personal and professional experiences in Birmingham and beyond. Visit www.medium.com/HonestlyEd to read the full #20For20 series.
There would be no me without the Magic City Classic.
That probably sounds like hyperbole, an exaggerated sentiment. But, it is not. It is quite literal. I honestly cannot think of a single relationship in my life — fleeting or significant — that has not intersected directly or within one degree of separation of the Magic City Classic. Not a single one.
In fact, the very first time I ever set foot in Birmingham, Alabama was for the Magic City Classic. Prior to that, the only thing I ever saw or knew of Birmingham was featured in looping black and white videos of police attack dogs gnawing at unarmed black teenagers. In 1997, I was sitting on the second row of an unmarked white passenger van carrying Alabama State University Golden Ambassadors. Next to me was my friend and classmate, Kimberly Kelley (Rucker), whom I would be sitting next to a few years later at our graduation.
As we made our way up I-65, I noted the mountainous topography, notably more textured than Montgomery, AL from which we travelled. Elevation rising and falling easily, like meditated breath. The ridgelines shifted in the…
