Archive for June 2019

He was a fighter, whether in or out of the ring. In the ring, he was as much businessman as athlete. Most young people today know Muhammad Ali only as the hunched old man whose body shook ceaselessly from Parkinson’s. But I, and millions of other Americans black and white, remember him as the man Read More »

Bruce created a jambalaya of martial arts, adding and discarding moves that were less effective. No wasted movements I took it to heart, I dedicated myself to preparation by maintaining complete focus during basketball practice and my training with Bruce. As a result, I became stronger, faster and a much more intense player. Bruce was Read More »

Some lives are so extraordinary and touch so many people that their story must be told to generations to come so those values aren’t diminished or lost altogether. From the first day of my freshman year until the last practice of my senior year, we ran,” Abdul-Jabbar writes. “And then ran some more. There were Read More »

When I was just a boy, my mom and I used to listen to baseball on the radio. My favorite team was the Brooklyn Dodgers, and my favorite player was Jackie Robinson, whose presence on a major league team in 1947 ended almost sixty years of segregation. Despite a barrage of racial slurs and abuse, Read More »

Most people think of Hickok as a steely-eyed gunfighter – or the guy shot in the back of the head while playing poker (his hand, a pair of aces and a pair of eights, is known as “dead man’s hand”). But the real Hickok was much more interesting and inspiring. His legendary shooting skills were Read More »

I met Dr. King in the summer of 1964 when I was seventeen years old. He had come to speak to participants of the HARYOU ACT, a mentoring program in Harlem that I was a part of. During a press conference that was covered by all the major news media, I had the opportunity to Read More »

A self-taught musician, Monk is credited with founding bebop, a type of jazz that focuses on fast tempos and improvisation. What I admire most about Monk is that he was a man of integrity both as a musician and as a human being. His highly unorthodox style of piano playing was often attacked by jazz Read More »

His autobiography, co-written with Alex Hailey (Roots), is the kind of world-changing book that doesn’t come along too often in history. The story of how he transformed from Malcolm Little the petty crook to Malcolm X the political activist is not only a story of personal courage and growth, but a wake-up call to the Read More »