Footsteps articles from May 2005

Footsteps archives from May 2005

World class competitors.
May 1, 2005... Black athletes have excelled in almost every sport. Many have become celebrated stars, loved and admired by people everywhere. Others have directed their talents to becoming national sports heroes, proudly and capably representing the United...

Right on track: ready! Set! Go!
May 1, 2005... Meet four champions who highlighted American track and field during the 20th century. They laid the groundwork for future generations of runners and jumpers by competing with style, grace, and dignity. JESSE OWENS During a time when...

A tradition of excellence.
May 1, 2005... Long before Marion Jones, Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, and Jesse Owens competed as great Olympic athletes, the seeds of African American success in track and field were planted because of one basic need: survival. African tribesmen ran long...

Famous early African American track stars.
May 1, 2005... Long before Jesse Owens and Wilma Rudolph were Olympic gold medalists, several African Americans were champions, including the following: Frank Hart became popular and successful for his feats of walking great distances in short amounts of...

Race against time.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Alisha, Brandy, Charlene, Danice, Eugenia, and Florence ran the 100-meter dash. Can you figure out which runner won first place? Using the clues below, sort out who won the race. Clues: 1. Alisha finished behind Brandy and Eugenia. ...

A ring for all.(Boxing)
May 1, 2005... Boxing is a sport with ties to ancient times (see "An Ancient Sport," page 15). For African Americans, however, full acceptance as professional participants in the sport came only in the early 1900s. Before then, African Americans fought each...

Boxing rings.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Can you "box" your way around the sweet science of boxing?. Using logic and counting the letters, put the words into the boxes below. The words will always go in a clockwise direction in the boxes. A star indicates where a word starts. ...

An ancient sport.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Boxing competitions were held on the fourth day of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece. Boxers were matched in pairs by lot. They covered their hands and lower arms with leather thongs, which served as a defense and hindrance to opponents....

Batting against the odds.(Jackie Robinson)
May 1, 2005... Many people know the story of how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947. The heroic details have often been repeated of how Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and helped challenge segregation in all aspects...

Base stealer.(Maury Wills)(Biography)
May 1, 2005... The skinny little boy from the projects of Washington, D.C., was so poor that he did not have his own shoes. He had to share a pair with some of his 13 brothers and sisters. When he was 10 years old in the early 1940s, Maury Wills took his...

A speedster on two wheels.(Marshall "Major" Taylor)(Biography)
May 1, 2005... Marshall "Major" Taylor died poor and uncelebrated. But before his tragic end, he became the first African American to win a world championship in bicycling. During his prime, he was also one of the most popular athletes in the world. Born...

On and off the field.(Effa Manley)(Biography)
May 1, 2005... In an era marked by discrimination against both blacks and women, Effa Manley blazed a trail in the 1930s and '40s for all female sports executives. As both owner and manager of the Newark (New Jersey) Eagles, one of the Negro Leagues' most...

The sack man.(David "Deacon" Jones)
May 1, 2005... David "Deacon" Jones once said, "Football, my friends, is not an easy game." He should know: He played pro football for 14 years (1961 through 1974) for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, and Washington Redskins. As a defensive end, his...

Touche.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Each year, more and more black athletes are venturing into sports that traditionally have attracted few African Americans. Today, several black players compete in the predominantly white National Hockey League. And, many sports, from rowing to...

Master basketball coach.(John McLendon)
May 1, 2005... Most serious college basketball fans know about the "four corners offense" used by legendary University of North Carolina coach Dean Smith in the 1960s and 1970s. Before the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) adopted the shot-clock rule in 1983,...

The game that made history.
May 1, 2005... Have you ever tried to keep a secret? Can you imagine 10 people keeping a secret for 50 years? Hard to believe, but it happened. The secret was about a men's basketball game--a game that made history. It was played Sunday morning, March 12,...

Michael!(Michael Jordan)
May 1, 2005... For some athletes there is one shining moment--one brilliant performance--that defines their entire careers. Not so for Michael Jordan. His lengthy career on the basketball court reads like one long highlight film you could watch for days on...

Triple-double leader.(basketball)
May 1, 2005... Before superstars such as Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Magic Johnson were born, Oscar Robertson was shaping the way future generations would play basketball. The "Big O" scored, rebounded, and passed in such ways that he was like three...

The Harlem Globetrotters.(basketball)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... The Harlem Globetrotters are the most popular team in basketball history that never played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). But, by combining comic routines and amazing ball-handling tricks, the team's players have become the...

Jockeying for position.(Marion St. Julien)
May 1, 2005... When Marion St. Julien piloted Curule to a seventh-place finish in the 2000 Kentucky Derby, he was the first African American jockey to have ridden in America's most famous horse race in 79 years. Casual fans might be surprised, however, to...

Making waves with Sabir.(Sabir Muhammad)(Interview)
May 1, 2005... The most decorated African American in the world of competitive swimming, Sabir Muhammad has broken 10 American aquatic records and is a four-time U.S. Open champion. While the 50-meter freestyle is currently his favorite race, this 29-year-old...

Blazing trails.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... After her first swim meet, my daughter, seven-year-old Hannah Anderson, refused to compete again. "Everyone will LOOK at me!" she said. "I'll be the only one with brown skin!" Understanding Hannah's feelings, Sabir Muhammad wrote her. "I...

Hole in one.(Tiger Woods)(Biography)
May 1, 2005... You probably hear this question often: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" If you are lucky, you know the answer at a young age. Count Tiger Woods as one of the lucky ones. When he was barely six months old, Tiger picked up his first...

40-love.(Arthur Ashe Jr., and Althea Gibson)(Biography)
May 1, 2005... Arthur Ashe, Jr., and Althea Gibson may never have walked in each other's shoes during their lifetimes, but they certainly took many of the same streets. Both were trailblazing African Americans for the sport of tennis. More important, both...

Serena and Venus Williams.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Venus Williams, left, and her younger sister, Serena, re-energized women's tennis when, in the late 1990s, they began winning major tournaments and Grand Slam events. Tennis fans applauded their powerful serves and ground strokes, and admired...

African American Athletes.(BOOKS)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... African American Athletes by Nathan Aaseng (Facts On File, 2003, www.facts onfile.com) is one in the "A to Z African Americans" 10-volume set. Each entry offers an exciting, informative profile that focuses on the events in the particular...

A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete: Baseball.(BOOKS)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete: Baseball by Arthur Ashe, Jr., (Amistad, 1993, www.bet.com/ Books/Amistad+ Books/) is a social history of the sport in the United States. Meticulously researched, it tells the...

A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie "Peanut" Johnson.(BOOKS)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie "Peanut" Johnson by Michelle Y. Green (Puffin, 2004, www.penguin.com) tells the courageous story of Johnson, who braved discrimination and bias to become a pitcher with the Negro Leagues' Indianapolis...

Cobblestone Resources.
May 1, 2005... COBBLESTONE RESOURCES The following issues of FOOTSTEPS and its sister magazines APPLESEEDS and COBBLESTONE complement this issue on African American athletes and are available from Cobblestone Publishing: Jackie Robinson(APP0002) ...

On the net.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... For a terrific site with a wealth of information about African Americans in a wide variety of sports, as well as links to sites that offer background on the sport and sports organizations, go to: www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/aaitsa.htm For...

Let's find out.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Zelda Jackson "Jackie" Ormes was in high school when the Pittsburgh Courier published her first article. A successful journalist for many years, she became known as a cartoonist. In 1937, Ormes created "Torchy Brown," a comic strip about a...

African Americans in the news--past and present.(in the know)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Although African Americans have established their participation in major sports, they continue to be underrepresented in sports team ownership. Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television and the nation's first black...