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African Americans, basketball, Black History Month, blacks, college basketball, college football, football, Major League Baseball, MLB, Negro Leagues, NFL, Southern California sports, UCLA, USC
UCLA and USC meeting on the basketball court last season. Photo courtesy of alamy.com
COMMEMORATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH IN A DIFFERENT WAY ON THIS BLOG
Usually, Black History Month is celebrated and commemorated in the media – online, in print and otherwise – by highlighting (in the case of sports) iconic athletes ranging from Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis and Willie Mays to Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Serena Williams today.
This blog has rightfully done its homages to Jackie Robinson, as well as highlight other pioneering black athletes from the Los Angeles area such as Kenny Washington and Woody Strode, Jackie’s football teammates at UCLA who integrated the NFL (I did a story on that on this blog), and even Brice Taylor, USC’s first football All American in 1925 who would go on and, as Southern University’s coach, start the Bayou Classic rivalry with HBCU rival Grambling State.
Not to mention standouts such as the greatest athletes to come of out of Riverside and the Inland Empire, Bobby Bonds (longtime Major League Baseball player and father to all time home run leader Barry) and the Millers, Cheryl and Reggie.
Last year I wrote an article on something that wasn’t nearly as well-known regarding African-American athletes in SoCal; the history of the Negro Leagues and how there were black baseball teams in Los Angeles during the pre-1947 era of the color barrier; here’s the link…
UCLA’s Theo Howard (#14) trying to push away from USC’s Ajene Harris (#27) during the Crosstown Rivalry Clash in 2017. Photo courtesy of latimes.com
However…
To be honest, I’m bored with regurgitating the more than worthy but same old accomplishments of black athletes from the past and not quite as past, in the tradition of “Been there, done that” and wanting to have more original stuff, in this case stuff having to do with African-American athletes, on this site.
The other day, I saw a post on Facebook that provided me with the perfect idea for this year’s annual commemoration of Black History Month, something that stated…
“In 2018 91,775 men played college football and basketball. Only 303 of them was drafted by either the NFL or NBA. #Getyoureducation
After doing a little research, I found that 57% of the student athletes playing college football were African-American, while blacks made up 61% of the college basketball players.
Not as big of a percentage as I expected, but that is still a solid majority.
This UCLA Bruin, Joshua Kelley (#27), definitely did the right thing when he announced that rather than declare himself eligible for the 2019 NFL Draft, he decided to remain at UCLA for another year. Photo courtesy of youtube.com
And after getting out my calculator and doing a little math, I found that the 303 guys whose names were called on Draft Day in the NFL and NBA made up a minuscule .003% of all the football and basketball players doing their thing for UCLA, USC, and all those other schools out there.
Considering all the players declaring their intent to enter the draft as soon as they were eligible – three years for the NFL and one year for the NBA (with all those notorious one-and-dones),
That makes for 99.97% of the guys for which getting fame and a paycheck to play for the Rams, Chargers, Lakers, Clippers or what have you is a pure, unadulterated fantasy.
In other words, for 99.97% of all those football and basketball players, the majority of whom are Black, they are told that they can’t play their sport anymore between the ages of 19 and 23.
Which was why, the hashtag that was included in the post being a significant factor, I made it a point to share that post not only on this blog’s Facebook page (here’s the link to that page if you want to see it: http://www.facebook.com/SoCalSportsHub/
I also posted it on my personal page, because it is so important for all those young men (again, the majority of whom are African-American) to take to heart what that hashtag said.
A player from Long Beach State pushing the ball against UCLA. Photo courtesy of pregame.com
Granted, I understand that if you are in a situation in which you come from a poor family in an inner city and are struggling, and you have a gift that’s considered good enough to be able to solve your family’s financial issues by merely signing your name on the bottom of a piece of paper,
It would be extremely difficult to turn down a bonus of $20 million dollars, especially considering the average career of an NFL and an NBA player being no more than a measly four years.
I get it.
The point I’m trying to make is, what if that football or basketball player is one of the 91,472 guys who’s not picked by an NFL or an NBA team?
Which is a much more likely possibility.
I hope you can see why an athlete, African-American and otherwise, getting their education and finishing college is essential and crucial after reading this.
And if someone playing for the Bruins, the Trojans, or another SoCal school such as UC Irvine, Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton or LMU happens to read this,
It’s my hope that they understand, once and for all, how crucial it is to get that ultimate safety net:
A bachelor’s degree.
Especially since one has a much better chance of being a doctor, a lawyer, a banker, a teacher, an entrepreneur, and pretty much anything else than an NFL or NBA player.
That’s all I am saying.
Two community college basketball teams in SoCal – East Los Angeles College (in green) and L.A. Southwest College (in gold) – doing battle on the court. Photo courtesy of elaccampusnews.com