Posted on 06/21/2002 10:14:17 AM PDT by mhking
Rainbow Sports, a division of the Rainbow/PUSH Wall Street Project, will salute black coaches at its Sports Awards Banquet July 23, 2002 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 151 E. Wacker Drive in Chicago. The awards banquet will be part of the Rainbow/PUSH Annual Conference and Trade Exposition July 20-24 at the Hyatt Regency.
Those scheduled to receive awards include Male Coach of the Year Mike Davis, men's basketball coach at Indiana University who took his team to the college championship game this year; Female Coach of the Year Marianna Freeman, women's basketball coach at Syracuse University; Male Athlete of the Year Jason Kidd, who led the New Jersey Nets to the NBA Finals; Female Athlete of the Year Vonetta Flowers, who won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics; Sports Executive of the Year Manny Jackson, owner of the Harlem Globetrotters who were recently inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame; Sports Journalist of the Year David Aldridge, a pro basketball analyst for ESPN; two Special Recognition Awards, one to John Thompson, former basketball coach at Georgetown University, the other to Emanuel Steward, trainer of boxing champion Lennox Lewis; and a Life Achievement Award to Hank Aaron, baseball's all time home run hitter.
Master of ceremonies for the event will be Kevin Frazier, sports anchor and analyst for ESPN Sports Center who recently came over to ESPN from Fox Sports Net.
"These awardees have distinguished themselves and serve as guiding lights and role models to so many," said Reverend Jesse L. Jackson. "We are honored to recognize their contributions to the sports industry and beyond."
Jackson added that the banquet also serves as a worthy salute to black coaches. "This has been a banner year for our black coaches who also serve as role models and teachers for so many," he said, citing for example the hiring of Tyrone Willingham as head football coach at Notre Dame, the first black head coach ever at the university. He also noted that seven teams that made the NBA playoffs were coached by black coaches, and that several black managers in baseball have their teams in contention. "Black coaches continue to have a significant impact," Jackson said, "and we are proud to salute their accomplishments."
The annual conference, whose theme is "Slavery to Freedom: Leveling the Education & Economic Playing Fields: The struggle Continues," will also feature on July 23 two sports workshops. One is entitle: "Addressing Low Graduation Rates of Black College Athletes," and will discuss current NCAA graduation rates and how to improve them. The second, entitled The Business of Sports: Financial Advisors and Professional Athletes - Knowing the Score, is aimed at giving advice and tips to financial advisors/planners on how to best and scrupulously serve the interests of pro athletes.
A limited number of tickets for the sports awards banquet are still available. For more information, see the Rainbow/PUSH website at http://www.rainbowpush.org or contact the Rainbow/PUSH Conference Information Line at 866-206-PUSH(7874).
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Yep...but then would you expect anything less from the king of the "fund raising" events? How else will he pad his pockets?
Now how quick would Jesse be complaining if college made the athletes complete their degrees before turning pro and thus "denying them the riches they deserve in professional sports".
Of course, Brashear will get all of those...[g]
Exactly. Low graduation rates of black athletes is the direct result of 1)the high salaries offered by professional sports and 2)Colleges not caring what grades athletes make as long as they are winning.
I'm already on his bad side by insisting that kids should stay in school. I'm quoted in more than one place saying that college isn't meant as a 'farm system' for the NBA.
So I'm already persona non grata in that regard...[g]
There's no more prominent racist in America today than Jesse Jackson. Wait - I forgot about Al Sharpton.
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