In February 1972 Inside Sports made its radio debut on W-O-O-K Radio in Washington, DC, radio and TV sports talk shows have never been the same. The Inside Sports format changed the way we talk and report sports in America and beyond.

I was on the airwaves for almost a decade before local media discovered Inside Sports and Harold Bell. JD Bethea a sports columnist for the Washington Times was the first to write a lionizing column regarding my work with inner-city children, titled, “HAROLD BELL.”

Donald Huff a native Washingtonian and High School Sports Editor for the Washington Post, followed JD Bethea with a column titled, “Bell Gets His Ratings On The Streets.”

AGAINST ALL ODDS: In 1980 William Taaffe, the Radio and TV critic for the Washington Times writes ‘Talk Show Host Harold Bell Blazes a Path ‘Inside Sports.’

This leads me back to the birthday celebrations of Dr. Martin Luther King, and Muhammad Ali. Their January birthdays lead us to February and Black History Month.

The month brings to the forefront, the pimps in the pulpit, hustlers, and politicians who are responsible for the sad state of Black America. In 2025 we are last in peace and war, and seldom do we go from WORSE to FIRST. Blocking our path is ‘White Privilege and Spooks Who Sit by the Door.’

In February, the XLI Super Bowl will be played in New Orleans, the city of America’s recent terrorist attack. The Super Bowl is a reminder there has been little or no progress in Black America. The NFL team owners have made a mockery of The Rooney Rule.

The rule was named after Pittsburg Steeter owner Art Rooney. The late Mr. Rooney was considered a man of integrity and inclusiveness.

The rule was established to ensure that NFL teams interview blacks and minorities for head coaching and administrator jobs in the NFL (black ownership was not excluded in the agreement).

The closest we have come to fair and equity hiring was when the Divide and Conqer Wall was threatened by QB Colin Kaepernick taking a knee in 2016. He was protesting against racism and police brutality in American cities.

The bickering among the players over the petty cash offered by the owners for community endeavors killed the movement. Kaepernick took the money and ran a QB sneak. He is living happily ever after.

He and the players were unaware they were just one Sunday’s boycott of NFL games from Blacks getting their ’40 Acres and a Mule.’ NFL style. When one owner said, “Let’s offer them Money“, all hell broke loose among the players-money was ‘The Game Changer.’ The money offered was petty cash, 32 million dollars to the NFL Players Association for community endeavors. Divide by 32 teams, one million dollars per team. “A Change is Coming”, don’t expect it in Super Bowl Sunday 2025.

In Taaffe’s 1980 column, he wrote, ‘Most radio sports talk shows do not contain intimate bits of verse set to music, as Bell’s show did on WYCB-1340 last week.

Neither do most shows feature stimulating discussions about drug use in sports, racism within the NFL, abuse of naive athletes by agents, and inspirational messages about life on 14th Street. But Harold Bell is a unique-sports talk show host, former athlete, youth leader, and social critic all rolled into one.

Let’s say it right at the top: “Inside Sports” (Fridays, 10 p.m. to midnight) is a jewel of a program-easily the most reflective and provocative radio sports talk show in Washington. Its guests actually say something. The other shows are bland by comparison.”

Taaffe, was right 45 years ago, “THE ORIGINAL INSIDE SPORTS” has never been duplicated only copied!

Taaffe, mentioned in his column, that I talked about naive athletes allowing agents to rip them off, two of the biggest thieves were sports agent David Falk and Coach John Thompson of Georgetown University. Big John would funnel Georgetown basketball players to Falk and Falk would pay him under the table.

I discovered Falk had ripped NBA Hall of Fame player Adrian Dantley off for several million dollars from his account. Adrian was out of the country at the time of my discovery on his honeymoon. I called his mom, Virginia. I had known her since he was not as big as a basketball.

GOOGLE: SUPER AGENT SHOWS HE’S A SUPER SNAKE / by Peter Vecsey New York Post March 9, 2004.

This was 20 years after I exposed Falk for the crook he still is. NBA Commissioner David Stern, John Thompson, the sports media, and the NBA players kept Falk a secret while he ripped off the black athlete, (MJ, John Lucas, Alonzo Morning, Patrick Ewing, and Dikemba Mutombo were all included in the scam). Allan Iverson was spared; someone had given him the 411 on Falk. He avoided the financial trap.

I still cannot understand today why Andrian’s mother, Virginia found it difficult to believe Falk was not ripping her son off. I remember her saying, “David just named Andrian, his daughter’s Godfather!

Falk had played Andrian and his mother. He had blinded side them with a ‘Family’ gesture making it easier to steal him blind.

Andrian Dantley sued Falk in court for the millions of dollars missing from his account. Several years later I found Falk hanging around the Denver Nuggets locker room after a game with the Washington Wizards. Dantley was an assistant coach with the Nuggets!

I asked Dantley if Falk was waiting to see him and what was going on? He muttered something about Falk was not the only one to blame, his partner was a part of the rip-off! That was enough for me to say, “I surrender!”

I always tried to ignore the excuse that Adrian was sometimes a little slow and an introvert because he grew up without a father.

Andrian Dantley never fooled me, I had figured him out long before that jackass explanation regarding the reason Falk gave him for stealing money out of his account.

Adrian’s elevator never left the first floor in “The Game Called Life.” The bottom line, he was a selfish young man, not slow and introverted as some had claimed.

I have known hundreds of young black men who grew up without a father, including me. There were four of us, my mother raised three and my hero, Grandma Bell raised my older brother Bobby.

My brothers and I had our problems and disagreements, but we still made a difference in the lives of others. My older brother was a U. S. Marshall for 20 years, and my brother Earl ‘Bull’ Bell served in the United States Army for two tours as a Military Police Sergeant and heavyweight Boxing Champion.

Racism forced him to leave the Army. He was also a DC cop for 14 years with the rank of sergeant. He discovered the hard way, that you can run from racism, but you cannot hide from it in America.

Sgt. Earl K. Bell: A Black GI’S Tale Of Racism In The Army

The youngest, William aka, Billy, Puddin, Tyrik served as a U. S. Marine and worked as a photographer for the notorious boxing promoter, Don King.

Growing up without a father is never an excuse for being a selfish man (James Brown-Mike Wilbon-Sugar Ray Leonard-Tony Paige-Lamont Jordan-Bill Rhoden).

I remember my last contact with Andrian. I was walking down the Georgia Avenue corridor near Howard University in a drizzling rain. A tan Rolls Royce pulled over to the curve and the driver blew his horn to get my attention, it was Andrian. He asked me if I needed a ride, and I said, “No Thanks!”

I remember, he never said, thanks for my alerting him about David Falk. He was there for my celebrity tennis tournaments, fashion shows, and benefit basketball games for Kids In Trouble. Andrian never sent a kid to camp or donated a toy for a needy child.

Andrian is seen with DC Superior Court Judge Eugene Hamilton during a celebrity basketball game fundraiser at GT University for Kids In Trouble. He was being honored as the KIT High School Basketball Player of the Year. In the next photo, he is seen receiving the KIT College Player of the Year Award from TV 7 Anchorman Fred Thomas, at the Inside Sports Celebrity Fashion Show held at the Foxtrappe in DC.

In the last photo, Andrian is standing on the left during a photo shoot of the Inside Sports Celebrity Tennis Tournament in Anacostia Park in SE DC. Among the celebrity participants, Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe (NBA), TV 7 Anchor, Renee Pousant, Donnie Simpson (BET), Bernie Bickerstaff (NBA), Phil Chenier (NBA), Freddy Scott (NFL), Timmy Newsome (NFL), Adrian Branch (NBA) Jim ‘Bad News’ Barnes, and Carlos Terry (NBA).

He was last seen working as a Crossing Guard for Elementary School Children somewhere in Maryland-nice cover!

Despite, Virginia Dantley’s reluctance to believe Falk was extorting money from her son, forty- five years after William Taaffe described my calling out the naive Black Athlete regarding the misuse of their funds by crooked agents. There is ‘Some Light at the End of the Tunnel.’

We are heading into Black History Month and ‘Super Bowl 59’ and ‘Black Mothers’ with sons playing in the NFL have said, “Enough is Enough.” They are now ‘The Agents’ who will be counting the money and representing their NFL sons.

The NFL and Black America were just one dropped pass in the closing seconds of the Bills and Ravens game from having four Black Quarterbacks as starters in the final four games of the NFL playoffs. It would have been a first.

Let me introduce you to three of the four mothers whose sons will start in three of the four playoff games in the final week leading to the Super Bowl:

Regina Jackson is Jayden Daniels’ mother, and she is much more than a cheerleader and spectator when her son is on the field. She is an educator with a Bachelor’s Degree in business and a Masters Degree in Counseling. Jayden is the Heisman Trophy winner and was the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL draft. Mom has his back and a seat at the table for all things NFL and community endeavors’ earmarked Jayden Daniels. The Commanders are on a mission many thought was impossible. He made the NFL Final Four leading the Commanders to a 12-5 record. There were wins over the NFC Champions, Philadelphia Eagles, and the No. 1 seed Detroit Lions on their home field. The Eagles and QB Jaylen Hurts beat the Commanders 26-18 in their first meeting in Philadephia. Jaylen Hurts was injured in the first quarter in their second meeting. He missed the entire game. The Commanders won 36-33.

Pamela Hurts, the mother of Jaylen Hurts QB for the Philadelphia Eagles. She also pursued a career in education. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and a Master’s Degree in Counseling. When Jaylen was drafted in the second round by the Eagles, she immediately took the NFL Agents’ Exam. Despite not being his agent, she went through the process to help guide his career both on and off the field.

Regina Jackson and Pamela Hurts have similar educational backgrounds and they are “Spot On.” when it comes to protecting their sons.

The Commanders and Eagles will meet in Philadelphia on Saturday for ‘The Rubber Match’ and the winner will travel to New Orleans to meet the winner of the Chiefs and Bills in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on Sunday,

One of these moms will be the first Black female ‘Sports Agent’ to have a ‘SEAT AT THE TABLE’ representing her QB son.

Filicia Jones is the mother of Raven QB Lamar Jackson a former athlete. She played college basketball. She was also her son’s first football coach and took it to the next level when she became his agent. When Lamar decided to let his mother negotiate his first NFL contract. The Player Haters And Know it Alls came out of the woodwork, saying he needed a ‘Real Agent.’ Lamar signed a 4-year contract for 9 million dollars per season. His last contract negotiated by his mother broke the NFL Player’s Bank. He signed a 4-year deal worth 260 million dollars making him the highest-paid player in NFL history. Lamar should win his 3rd NFL MVP award for 2025. The naysayers may use the Ravens’ loss in the last seconds of the game to the Bills as an excuse to give the award to QB Joe Burrows. Lamar led the NFL in every QB category.

Congratulations to Filicia Jones for raising a REAL BLACK MAN and for being a pioneer in the Black Community that is short on pioneers, as we celebrate the birthdays of Muhammad Ali and Dr. Martin Luther King.

The NFL will be giving out its “IRON MAN” award to an NFL player who has reached back into his community to enhance the lives of young people and the poor and disenfranchised.

The award should be named after Washington Redskin/Commanders’ linebacker, the late Harold McLinton. Harold and his Washington Redskins/Commanders teammates, WR Roy Jefferson, RB Larry Brown, and DB Ted Vactor were the first NFL teammates to reach back into the community in 1970.

McLinton was helping a stranded motorist in Washington, DC on 495 in front of Bolling Air Force Base. He was hit by another driver and died a few days later. He is the “ORIGINAL IRON MAN” of the NFL.

NFL Films videotape its first-ever community promo with Washington Redskns/Commanders players RB Larry Brown and LB Harold McLinton. They are teaching water safety at the Kids In Trouble Saturday Program in NW DC.

Harold McLinton is Santa’s Helper at the annual KIT toy party

Harold McLinton proves no one is Too Tall to Stoop to help a child

THE TWO KINGS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY (RIP)

JANUARY 17, 1942-JUNE 4, 2016

HAROLD BELL UP CLOSE & PERSONAL–THE 4 KINGS+ONE

AARON “THE HAWK” PRYOR

THE MOST FEARED AMONG THE KINGS-THEY BOXED HIM OUT!

THE WINNER-“THE HITMAN”

THE WINNER “THE HAWK”

IN THIS CORNER DAVE JACOBS

IN THIS CORNER EMANUEL STEWARD A PRINCE AMONG THIEVES

THE WINNERS-THE CHILDREN

AMERICAN BOXING HISTORY 101

Muhammad Ali made Harold K. Bell “The Chosen One” in 1974 when “The Greatest” stunned the World when he knocked out, the unbeaten and undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, George Foreman in the 8th round in Zaire, Africa.  The fight is now known as ‘The Rumble in the Jungle.’  

On Ali’s arrival back in the United States, he stunned the sports media when the first and only call to them was to Harold Bell an unknown radio sports talk show host in Washington, DC.

In 1967, Ali met Bell on the campus of Howard University, an HBCU. The champ was on a college tour around the country, explaining why he refused to be inducted into the United States Army.

First, he was a conscientious objector. His Muslim Religion exempted him from serving in the military.  He decided he would rather go to jail than fight an enemy who had never called him, the N-word.  After his speech, Bell took him on a tour of Georgia Avenue, the NW corridor of DC.

One year later Bell was on that same Georgia Avenue corridor trying to help save lives during the riots of 1968.  He worked in the streets as a member of “The  Roving Leader Youth Gang Task Force,” for the DC Department of Recreation & Parks.

Literally, out of the ashes, he founded Kids In Trouble his non-profit organization in November 1968 shortly after the riots almost destroyed his DC hometown.

Ali and Bell would not meet again until five years later when he traveled to Cleveland with his friend, Washington Times sports columnist J. D. Bethea. 

Ali was the headliner for a charity boxing exhibition for Children’s Hospital.

The timing was perfect, Bell had just made his debut on W-O-O-K Radio as the first Black to host and produce his own sports talk show in the Nation’s Capitol, Inside Sports.  The show’s format would change sports talk and reporting in America and beyond.

When Bell entered the hotel headquarters for the fight, he said, “Ali hollered my name. I had not seen him since we walked together in DC.  He surprised the hell out of me.  It was then I knew I had arrived.” 

For the first time, pro athletes, with names like, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Red Auerbach, Bert Sugar, George Foreman, Al Attles, George McGinnis, and others were heard on the airwaves in DC promoting his Inside Sports talk show. Their support and collaboration made him the talk of the town. 

Every radio, television, and podcast you see or hear all copied the Inside Sports format in America, and globally. 

MEET THE COPYCATS

THE WASHINGTON POST / INSIDE SPORTS MAGAZINE

ESPN / USE THE INSIDE SPORTS FORMAT FOR TV

INSIDE THE NBA

INSIDE THE NFL

INSIDE MLB

INSIDE THE NHL

REAL SPORTS 

COMEDIAN COREY HOLCOMB PULLS THE COPYCATS OUT OF THE BAG

In 2022 Harold Bell was one of the voices for Showtime’s 4 KINGS.”  In a journey back to boxing’s most exciting era after Muhammad Ali retired. The 4 Kings+One helped fill the boxing void left by ‘The Greatest.’

Six “LITTLE” guys took over the spotlight, Sugar Ray Leonard (The Cash Cow), Roberto Durant (Hands of Steel), Thomas Hearns (The Hit Man), Marvin (The Enforcer) Hagler, Aaron Pryor (The Hawk), and the classy Alexis  Arguello

BOXING MEDIA LEGENDS WHO CARRIED THE SPORT IN THE 70s & 80s

WILLIAM TAAFFE / Media Critic for the Washington Star Newspaper wrote in 1980,

“Most radio sports talk shows do not contain intimate bits of verse set to music, as Harold Bell’s show did on WYCB 1340 last week. Neither do most shows feature stimulating discussions about drug use in sports, racism,within the NFL, abuse of naive athletes by agents, and inspirational messages about life on 14th Street. But then Harold Bell is unique- sports announcer, former athlete, youth leader and social critic rolled into one.

Let’s say it right at the top: ‘Inside Sports ‘ (Fridays, 10 pm to midnight) is a small jewel of a program-easily the most reflected and provocative radio sports show in Washington. Its guest actually say something. The other shows are bland in comparison.”

Once again, Happy Birthday (RIP) to my friend and brother in the struggle, Muhammad Ali. Thanks for the memories and thanks for taking me along for the ride.

THE DOCUMENTARY TRAILER

IN PHOTOS-POEMS & VIDEOS

THE BELLS-HATTIE T & HB

A BLACK MOTHER’S LOVE-HER CHILDREN,

MARYLAND STATE SENATOR ANGELA ALSOBROOKS MAKING CHILDREN FIRST.

In 1969 white students were bussed in from a Seventh-Day Ventists Takomac Park, Maryland high school. The students were volunteer tutors for the Kids In Trouble Saturday Program in DC. They became the standard-bearers for high school students nationwide receiving college credits for volunteering in their communities. (Afro-America Newspaper)

Boxing Champions from the Kronk Gym in Detroit, Michigan, Thomas ‘Hit Man’ Heans and Hilmer Kenty participate in a Kids In Trouble Fight Night in DC.

Cardozo High School swimming coach Hattie T teaches survival training to her students.

NFL Films video tape Washington Redskins football players, MVP RB Larry Brown, and LB Harold McLinton teach water safety at the Kids In Trouble Saturday Program for a nationally televised audience.

Kids In Trouble’s first Christmas Toy Party for elementary school children (1968). My Virginia Sailor football teammate LB George Kelly was Santa’s Helper. The party was held at the old Turner’s Arena in NW DC.

KIT Santa’s Helpers are Super Bowl MVP QB Doug Williams and Jim ‘Bad News’ Barnes (NBA)

Former Spingarn High School basketball coach, the late Rev. William Roundtree looks on as former student/athletes, HBell and Byron Kirkley assist as Santa’s Helpers for his youth center.

HBell and youth on a tour of the Charles Houston Recreation Center in Alexandria, Virginia. They are standing in front of a statue of NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd. The first Black to play in an NBA game in 1950.

“Some time ago, there was a man who had a dream that sparked a plan, he took one Hattie as his wife and ventured forth, fulfilling life.

Then came along a certain morn and “Inside Sports” was born.  Yes, Harold Bell would bring his show of sports of sorts to radio.

His moral strength would play its part with gifts to kids to inspire and give them heart!  The obstacles that lined the course he fought with fury and force!

Today, with Hattie standing tall he answers life toughest calls.  With love for all along the way.  It is for whom the Bells toil for everyday!“

Author / May 1980

Murray Brooks (Doris)   

A GRIEVING MOTHER’S TEARS

Who is Harold Bell?  From where I sit, a man obsessed with youth and children’s plight.  He is a man who walks swiftly away from compromise, aggressively wanting things right.  Who is Harold Bell?  From where I sit, he is an arrogant rebel with youth as his cause.  He keeps raising their issues without fear or pause.

Why does Harold Bell do what he does, and why does he do it his way?  It may be because many others who did it are longer doing it today.  It may be that those who have risen to the heights don’t quite remember any more.  For once they have left the place of their birth they throw away the key that once opened the door.  Harold Bell is no diplomat; perhaps he doesn’t know how the game is played! Perhaps he is naïve to think that “Superstars” are coming back where he stays.  Could it be that it is not vogue to court the poor, or not want a black child to die, or maybe it is politically incorrect to ask the question why?

Maybe Harold Bell speaks up too much, or perhaps he is far too crude.  Or maybe he has spoken out against the establishment, or maybe he has just been rude.  But Harold Bell didn’t invent rudeness nor does he speak as loud as some, for leaders have known through the ages that justice goes to the beating drum.

Harold Bell perhaps understands that silence somehow appears to be consent.  And he knows that our oppressors flourish when our heads and backs are bended.  He also knows that children maybe homeless or parentless or in pain.  He also knows that their need to survive is real and to reach out to our children the World gains.

Thank God Harold Bell has access to the media so that we can read and listen to his candid outspoken word.  Thank God for readers and listeners who understand motivation is what we need.  Thank God for those like Harold Bell, who speak out against “Kids killing kids,” crack, heroin and speed.

It is hard for me to understand why some may dislike Harold Bell!  He is such a nice guy it is hard to believe some would turn him off while little children die.  There may have been a word that even Harold Bell could say that would have caused the listener to save a child along the way.

But such is life we can’t always please, so why expect it of Harold Bell?  He did not create today’s problems and who are we to judge we do so little well?  At least he is study on the course and he is consistent from year to year.  We need more Harold Bells who understand our plight and “A Grieving Mother’s Tears!”

Author

Earl Tildon / August 1993

photo credits / fred sheppard

THE SOUNDS OF INSIDE SPORTS!

 

WHATS IN YOUR WALLET?

Dr. Harry Edwards is considered the 20th and 21st century’s most outspoken advocate for civil and human rights in sports arenas across America. The jewel in his crown is the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. The 200-meter dash was his platform for the demonstration that would stun the world of sports. The trio of sprinters who finished one, two, and three were Tommie Smith (USA), Peter Norman (Australia), and John Carlos (USA).

The two Americans shocked the sports world as they raised their black glove fists on the podium in protest of racism in America! Their lives would never be the same. Dr. Harry Edwards, Tommie Smith, Peter Norman, and John Carlos would be joined together in life and death forever. No prenuptial agreement or divorce was imminent.

In the Washington Post on December 11, 2024, Dr. Edwards revealed he is fighting three terminal cancers–in his bone marrow, prostate, and thyroid. The three are ravaging his body, leaving him in frequent pain and fatigued. Still, he has denied any medical treatment, combating the struggle with an upbeat attitude and the occasional Tylenol.

I have known Dr. Edwards for 50+ years through my radio talk show Inside Sports with our friend the late NFL legend Jim Brown. Those one-hour shows were some of the most educational and enlightening discussions in the DMV on Saturday mornings on W-U-S-T AM Gospel radio. As the host/student, I sat in the “Cat Bird’s Seat.” I soaked in their words of wisdom and enjoyed every minute. The shows are classics in my archives.

DR. EDWARDS SPEAKS OUT ON THE ROLE OF BLACKS IN SPORTS MEDIA

“Harold, congratulations, your archives are valuable and should be given the broadest possible exposure.  Your discs and videos of your programs belong in the new Smithsonian Institution of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).  A wing of the new museum will be dedicated to the struggle in sports and will be titled “Leveling the Playing Field”.  Over the years, your work has been a major force in leveling the playing field, especially in the struggle to define and project “Our Truth!”  Dr. Harry Edwards.

John Carlos’ thoughts on Harold Bell and Inside Sports’ role in trying to level “The Playing Field.”

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/uncdyank071nnjnk7ef1v/Dr.-Jonn-Carlos-RAW-10.24.2024-Interview.mov?rlkey=2zrwxb24y4iepq4q8yuyoyxld&e=1&st=jgmkbo4h&dl=0

This was Dr. Harry Edwards’ take on TNT’s Charles Barkley and ESPN’s Michael Wilbon:  “I love Charles Barkley (aka famous last words of Stephen A. Smith when he is getting ready to criticize a pro athlete) as long as he is sitting on the sports desk at TNT trying to explain why the Clippers will never win a championship as long as their toughest, most consistently competitive player is a 6’1″ point guard.  But when he begins to offer jaw-droppingly ignorant and uninformed opinions on issues from Obama’s Syria/ISIS policy to the “criminal” predispositions and proclivities of the Black community, I find something more productive to do like taking out the garbage or cleaning up my lawn.

And the saddest part of it all is that he apparently doesn’t realize that the networks and interviewers are just flat out CLOWNING HIM!!!  It’s “What crazy crap can we prompt Barkley to say. And all the better if it is an attack on Black people. ”The “guess what Charles Barkley said on CNN?” factor is incentive enough for the networks to persist in presenting and promoting this clown show– long past the time when it is not either funny or even remotely engaging. Now both Barkley and Wilbon look like clowns– and justifiably so.”

Mike and I share a laugh during a gathering at Ben’s Chili Bowl in DC.

I have seen James Brown in that same light during his climb to the top in TV sports, at the expense, of Inside Sports, Kids In Trouble, and brothers like Chuck Taylor. The best way to describe James Brown is “The Spook Who Sat by the Door” of Inside Sports! Like Wilbon, Brown talks out of both sides of his mouth-one lie after another!

Sam Jones-James Brown-HBell-Earl Lloyd at a tribute to Black History Month on Bolling Air Fore Base.

For example, for a man who has never kept his word to me, he said; “Harold Bell has always been a voice for people who didn’t have a voice.  He has always called it as he saw it. He has been an inspiration and motivation for me and a lot of other black broadcasters. James Brown (Inside the NFL/CBS)

During the 80s and 90s Inside Sports and Kids In Trouble were the toast of DC. My talk show was No. 1 and my reach-back endeavors, Christmas toy drives, celebrity fashion shows, and tennis tournaments became the BIBLE of Community Outreach in America, despite the acts of sabotage in the media.

Inside Sports Celebrity Fashion Show Curtain Call: L-R Sonny Hill (NBA) Sugar Ray Leonard (Boxing) Ricky Jenning (NFL) HBell (Inside Sports)-(Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe (NBA)

There were police and youth community forums. Pro athletes and celebrities from near and far participated, including non-celebrities like James Brown. The doors to Inside Sports and KIT were open to everyone who was interested enhancing the lives of inner-city children.. Washingtonian Magazine named me “Washingtonian of the Year” making me the first sports media personality honored.

James’ closest encounter with pro sports, he got cut by the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA!

Let the games start, he returns home to work as a sales rep for the Xerox Corporation.

James was like Howard White (Nike) and Glen Harris (WHUR Radio), hanging out at my community events and trying to enhance their careers. James convinced me to let him model in one of my celebrity fashion shows.

CELEBRITY TENNIS: Standing L-R Bob Ferry (NBA)-Fred Scott (NFL)-Bad News Barnes (NBA) TV 4 Weatherman-Donnie Simpson (BET)-Jim Vance (TV 4 Anchor)-Ken Beatrice (WMAL Sports)-Kneeling L-R H Bell-Bob Zuflur (NBA)-George Solomo (Washington Post) and Howard White (University of MD)

My tennis partner, television anchor Jim Vance told me that TV 4 was looking for a weekend sports anchor. I told him I was not interested. He reminded me there was a story in the Washington Post about a lack of black television sportscasters, and I should think about it.

SPEAKING OUT: “BLACK SPORTS CASTERS” LACK OF JOBS IN DC MARKET (1989)

I did the audition and it was a disaster. The producers sat me down at a desk in the newsroom in front of a teleprompter to read an introduction. I had no clue which camera I was to look into. I was glad when it was over.

Several days later I called Jim and said, “Thanks for nothing!” He asked me, if I had alerted James Brown to the audition and I said, ‘No.’

James had somehow found out about the audition and shown up at the TV 4 studio. He also failed!

In the meantime, he became interested in a sports media career, and I thought it was great. Chuck Taylor a black brother had just been hired by the NBA Washington Bullets as a television color analyst. Chuck’s background included teaching and coaching high school basketball in the DMV.

He was knowledgeable and had a great personality. We were all rooting for his success. The next thing I knew, Chuck was gone and James Brown had replaced him. It seemed like everyone thought I knew what had happened. I had no clue!

I called Bullet owner Abe Polin’s right-hand man, Community Advisor, Hymie Perlo. Nothing moved around Capitol Centre without Hymie knowing. When I spoke to Hymie, he asked me to come out to the arena so we could talk about the situation regarding Chuck. I did not like the way he sounded.

I learned that James Brown had gone to Bullet Captain Wes Unseld and asked Wes if he could put in a “Good word for him to Abe about replacing Chuck Taylor.” James Brown showed his true colors early in his career, “Success by any means necessary!”

JB’s NEXT MEDIA STOPS: WETM Sports Talk Radio-WUSA TV 9 weekend sports-BLack American Forum-1995 HBO & REAL SPORTS/INSIDE SPORTS as Bryant Gumbel’s correspondent. He hid in the closet pretending he had no clue. The show won 37 Emmy Awards copying the Inside Sports format. He and Gumbel left footprints that Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder could follow.

There are hundreds of Bryant Gumbel photos with guests, and celebrity participants on the show but no photos of him and James Brown! I Googled James Brown and HBO and, found one photo of him and Gumbel. What were they hiding for 29 years? When I asked James why he never invited me on the show his response, “I have nothing to do with the scheduling.” I finally got his message.

Having me as a guest on ‘Real Sports’ would blow their cover caught using my Inside Sports format-awarded 37 Emmys!

I remember in 1974, my colleague Frank Pastor and I were standing at the top of the Washington Bullets Arena waiting for a pause in the action so that we could return to our seats. I said, “Frank do you see what I see downstairs at the press table?” His response was, “What are you talking about Harold Bell?”

The Bullets PR Department had divided the press table at the half-court line of the arena. The white media sat on the left of the line and blacks sat on the right.

We ended the misguided PR Department’s attempt to divide and conquer, without an angry word or a poster reading “Boycott.” Frank and I switched seats at the table. The next home game the table was fully integrated. James Brown would benefit from Frank Pastor and me switching seats at the Bullets press table in 1974.

The late WHUR Radio personality and talk show host Ron Sutton and I sat on the black side of the half-court at a Washington Bullet’s game. The photo is worth a thousand words, look to my left.

REAL SPORTS-‘THE USUAL SUSPECTS

JB & THE NEXT LEVEL: NFL Studio Host FOX Network-NFL Studio Host CBS-Ministry Pimp in the Pulpit-The Great Pretender (Minority owner MLB Washington Nationals)-Community Advocate-AARP Senior Ambassador.

In the 1970s DC homeboy NFL and Green Bay Packer great Willie Wood was an Assistant Coach with the San Diego Chargers’ football team. He exposed drug use among the players. He was blackballed and banished to the Canadian and World Football Leagues to find work in pro football. Ironically, he became the first Black Head Coach in both leagues. Willie Wood was an eight-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro. He played in six NFL Championship games and was a winner in five.

In Willie’s later years, his health began to fail, and his induction into the “NFL’s Pro Football Hall” did not look promising. Time was running out when he asked me for help. I turned to our friend the legendary DC sports columnist, Dick Heller of the Washington Times. I called USA Today’s newspaper NFL Editor, Jarrett Bell for support. His response was, “I am on vacation!” Bell was, also claimed he was on vacation when I called to tell him Willie had died in February 2019. The paper USA Today never covered his death.

Willie Wood is one the greatest safety’s to ever play in the NFL, He was selected to the John Madden 10th Anniversary All-Pro team. He played on five NFL Championship teams. He was named to five All-Pro teams, and nine Pro Bowl teams during his 12-year NFL career, but Jarett Bell was on “Vacation?”

The last call was to NFL Studio Host, James Brown. I got just what I deserved, Brown promised to visit Willie in his Assisted Living facility in NW DC and write him a check to help pay his bills, it never happened.

Comcast Spotlight on Sports Host, George Johnson and media guest talk college football bowl selections L-R HBell-George Johnson-Dave Elfin (Washington Times) and newcomer Jarret Bell. He has successfully been, “The Spook Who Sat by the Door” for three decades at U. S.A. Today supporting CRT!

Willie Wood after his 1989 NFL Hall of Fame induction, says thanks to Dick Heller and me for our support.

Despite, James Brown and Jarret Bell’s lies and politics, I held out hope they would eventually use their influence to try to help someone in need beside themselves.

In 1999, Earl Lloyd the first Black to play in the NBA asked me, “If I would start a campaign similar to the Willie Wood campaign for him.” Earl grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, it was a 15-minute drive across the NW 14th Street bridge. I considered him a friend and homeboy.

I was a glutton for punishment, the first call was to James Brown to suggest we have lunch at Union Station with Sam Jones (NBA), Andrew Dyer, and Christie Winters-Scott, (The Round Ball Report), the late radio sports talk show host, Butch McAdams and my wife Hattie. I tried to be a mentor to other young adults interested in sports media and invited them to participate in my community endeavors.

During lunch, I suggested we organize an Earl Lloyd Day during NBA All-Star Weekend. The plan, on Saturday morning there would be a basketball clinic in Earl’s honor at the Charles Houston Rec Center. A tribute would close out the festivities in his honor at the historic jazz club, the Bohemian Caverns on the U Street corridor once known as Black Broadway.

James and Sam agreed to co-host the weekend. As we were leaving the restaurant James asked me, “Harold did you check with Abe Polin?” I took a deep breath, and said, “JB, I don’t work for Abe Polin.” James Brown was a no-show for the weekend.

I contacted Red Auerbach and Congressman John Lewis to join the KIT Team and they accepted.

Congressman Lewis’ congratulations letter to Earl Lloyd

Kids In Trouble youth are on a tour of a statue of Earl Lloyd, now on display at the Charles Houston Rec Center in Alexandria, Virginia, Lloyd’s hometown. West Virginia State University, Lloyd’s alma mater, has a similar statue on display.

In 1978 I was the Nike Shoe rep on the East Coast, I traveled to New York City with Nike NBA rep John Phillips to meet with NBA former player and now head of NBA Personell, Rod Thorn, Chief Counsel, Gary Bettman and Security Chief Horace Broaneck.

The meeting was called to get a better understanding of why the NBA was against a Nike sponsored All-Star Team going to the Nassau Bahammas, the Island home of LA Laker player Myhcal Thompson. The players would articipate in a charity game for the Island. Myhcal and several other NBA players had played in a similar game the year before without incident.

The meeting did not go well, it was ‘Smiling Faces Telling Lies.’ It got heated when Bettman claimed the players would not be allowed to participate because the NBA owned them, all hell broke loose in the room when he said, “Owned the players!”

My response was, “Was the NBA a Plantation”, the room erupted again, and Ron Thorn called a ‘Time Out’ for lunch for cooler heads. We were to meet back in the room at 1:00 pm. The NBA never came back.

The players who were to participate disappeared and changed their numbers. I have been on the NBA’s ‘Hit List’ ever since. John and I figured out the problem, it was all about control, and the NBA had the upper hand.

Note Worthy: Gary Bettman would become Commissioner of the National Hockey League. A post he has held since February 1, 1993. His longevity of 31 years has made him the longest running commissioner of a pro sports franchise in North America.

When I think of Gary Bettman, I think of those words he uttered in that NBA Conference Room in New York City in 1978. “We Owned the Players.” Now that he is the Commissioner of the NHL in 2025, the one thing he has never to worry about is owning the black players in the NHL, he would be bankrupt. Blacks make up only 3% of the league.

Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly sat in the penalty box during a game at Chicago’s United Center in February 2018, he listened as a group of white fans chanted, “Basketball, Basketball, Basketball” in his direction. The Blackhawks fans taunting Smith-Pelly, who is Black, were making their position clear: “Hockey isn’t for everyone, and it’s especially not for Black people.”

Google, this story is a must-read! It is bad enough we have racism like the fans in Chicago, and other places in the U. S., still we have to look over our shoulders for James Brown, Howard White, Jarett Bell, Mike Wilbon, and the beat goes on and on.. The TRUTH-it is not just whites, some blacks are killing us softly.

The Roundball Report a cable TV talk show in Prince George’s County was denied press credentials to attend the Washington Wizards’ home games by various members of their PR Department. Andrew Dyer the Roundball Report producer did not call ‘Ghost Busters’, he called Harold Bell to intervene.

I remember the Roundball Report crew was on the outside looking in at the Wizards game in Washington, DC. before I was asked to be their ‘Trouble Shooter.’ Seated L-R HBell-Monica McNutt-Andrew Dyer and Christie Winters-Scott. Not in the photo Jemel Hill (Emmy Award winner), Scott, and McNutt among others went to the next level, (ESPN and beyond). Like most benefactors of Inside Sports and Kids In Trouble-they forgot!

Dave Aldridge was the exception-he reached back until it hurt!

Congressman John Lewis said, “If you are going to make trouble, make good trouble.” I agree!

This brings me back to James Brown, he was a no-show for the Earl Lloyd tribute. Red Auerbach made the tribute to Earl Lloyd the only event he would attend that weekend.

Lloyd would be inducted into “The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame” in 2003. NBA All-Star Weekend 2001 will be the year Harold Bell crashed the NBA All-Star Game party with the historic tribute to Earl Lloyd in Washington, DC.

THE TRAILBLAZING TALK SHOW HOST WHO REFUSED TO SHUT UP AND DRIBBLE!

BENEFACTORS-Cathy Hughes-James Brown-Bill Rhoden-Mike Wilbon-Dave Aldridge-Kevin Blackistone

THE CITY PAPER / WASHINGTON, DC

HAROLD BELL: BLACK HISTORY MOUTH

This DC sports legend won’t kiss your jackass / Dave McKenna 2010

How the Washington Post discovered INSIDE SPORTS, was similar to how George Washington discovered America. The trailblazing show had been on the airwaves for almost a decade. Still, owners, Catherine and son, Donald Graham decided to just take INSIDE SPORTS. It did not matter sports editor George Solomon and writers Dave Dupree, Michael Wilbon, Byron Rosen, Tom Callahan, and Dave Aldridge were in the W-U-ST studios talking sports and politics.

In 1978 the Grahams arrived in the ‘Big Apple’ to publish their newfound magazine INSIDE SPORTS, only to discover they were in over their heads. Google “The Sunday Long Read” for the Albert and Costello ‘Whose On First’ comedy skit of Inside Sports Magazine in New York City.

In 1980 they returned to DC after losing several million dollars never really figuring out why they failed.

The failure was because their writers and braintrust could not figure out how to put my successful radio sports talk show to pen and paper. They thought they needed only their Ivy League and Harvard degrees, and it was New York here we come! They lacked creativity, common sense, and street sense for print media success, especially in New York City, the Media Capitol of America.

Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns were the cover boys for Inside Sports Magazine for their second fight in Las Vegas in June 1989. Their first fight was in Vegas in 1981 when Sugar had to rally from behind to KO the “Hit Man” in the 14th round to win the Welterweight Championship of the World! Sugar Ray now “The Cash Cow” of boxing avoided Hearns for eight years, the second fight was billed as “The War.”

The irony, the two ducked the most dangerous man in their weight class, Aaron “The Hawk’ Pryor. I watched Aaron beat Thomas in a Golden Glove Championship (on YouTube) in 1976.

After failing in New York City the Washington Post tried covering their tracks unsuccessfully. Bill Rasmussen the founder of ESPN had a better idea. Why not copy the Inside Sports format and make it a television magazine show? ESPN became the worldwide leader in sports reporting.

After decades of success, ESPN’s bottom line was not keeping up with the times and the Inside Sports format. Politicians did not like having their names hollered and screamed out on the morning and evening news. Sports and politics had suddenly become strange bedfellows.

ESPN’s new President, Jimmy Pitaro sent a memo to all broadcasters operating under the ESPN banner, it read, “JUST STICK TO SPORTS.” Freedom of speech will no longer be practiced on the ESPN Network.

The Washington Post hijacked the INSIDE SPORTS tag to New York City in 1978. The magazine failed and the hijackers returned home two years later. The staff with immunity and ‘White Privilege’ as their guilds penned a blog story in THE SUNDAY LONG READ titled, INSIDE SPORTS: THE ORAL HISTORY. Owner Donald Graham wrote me a check asking for ‘Anonymity.’

His note left me not quite understanding his request for anonymity, especially, since he allowed members of his staff to write a blog story, documenting how he and the Washington Post just took my tag Inside Sports and were making a joke out of my career as a trailblazing and pioneering sports talk show host.

The beat will go on according to Dr. Harry Edwards. We will have to wait until women can lead us out of this mess! The one percent will never give up Power or Money to level the Playing Field (remember 40 Acres and a Mule).

Dr. Edwards as we head into the NEW YEAR 2025 I disagree with “NO FINAL VICTORIES.” God is still in charge. There will be more victories long after we both are gone-I am confident, the children will have the FINAL VICTORY & FINAL VOTE.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND THANK YOU DR. HARRY EDWARDS!

photo credits: Chuck Akins-Don Baker, King Shabazz & Fred Shepard

BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER: STENY HOYER AND MY FRIEND THE LATE JOHN LEWIS WALKING HAND IN HAND.

My 50+ years working with at-risk youth and my trailblazing sports talk radio and television careers, allowed me to cross the aisle. I learned there were some politicians regardless of their political party or the color of their skin never talked out of both sides of their mouths-meet Steny Hoyer and John Lewis.

If they gave you their word you could take it to the bank!

I met Congressman John Lewis at a Congressional Black Caucus Weekend in 1989. I was introduced by my friend Congressman Lou Stokes (D-Ohio). Congressman Stokes became the first politician to enter my name into the Congressional Record on the House Floor in December 1974. He cited my work with youth gangs and at-risk children in the inner city. Walter Fauntroy, Bob Dole, and Eleanor Holmes Norton also submitted my name.

When NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd was blackballed by the NBA, he asked me to campaign for his induction. Richard Evans contacted his friend John Lewis and set up a meeting. Lloyd was inducted in 2003.

This is the letter Congressman Lewis wrote to Lloyd advising him he was a part of the Kids In Trouble team campaigning for his NBA Hall of Fame induction.

I am giving KIT youth a history tour of NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd’s statue at the Charles Houston Rec Center in Alexandria, Virginia. There is also a statue of Lloyd at his West Virginia State College, thanks to my team of John Lewis, Red Auerbach, and Washington Times sports columnist Dick Heller.

I moved to Prince Georges’ County in the 70s shortly after Steny Hoyer became the Congressman for the 5th District of Maryland.

I met Congressman Hoyer in the late 1970s. My mentor, Senator Decatur Trotter, introduced us at the State House in Annapolis. Trotter and I were going to lunch when he spotted the Congressman walking off the elevator. He took me over and introduced the two of us. I remember Trotter saying, “The Silver Fox is a good brother, a good man to know.” The good brother stuck with me!

Trotter and I grew up in the same NE community. He was a great athlete at Armstrong High School in DC, and the young guys in the neighborhood looked up to him.

Boxing Champion Jamal Hilton receives the “KIT Man of the Year Award” for his Reach-Back efforts in the inner city, Senator Trotter makes the presentation.

Thanks to Trotter, in 1975, I was the first independent minority radio personality awarded a Maryland Lottery contract. The contract made me the highest-paid minority media personality in DC, bar none.

My Monday through Friday radio work hours were two five-minute morning and evening drive-time shows and a one-hour talk show on Saturdays-two-hours a week.

Trahan-Burden and Charles were the marketing arm for the Maryland State Lottery. Lottery checks were payable to HB Sports and Marketing.

In that same trailblazing era, I was named the first East Coast marketing and promotions Rep for Nike Shoes. Anheuser Busch asked me to write my job description to represent them in the DC market and NFL legend Jim Brown convinced Coca-Cola to sponsor Inside Sports. My sponsors were Corporate America.

The Neilson Ratings did not apply to me. They controlled how sponsors spent advertising dollars on black-oriented radio stations in the DC market and elsewhere nationwide. Inside Sports was off the charts (untouchable). The show changed how we talked and reported sports in the DC market, and beyond. I paid the radio stations, not vice versa (unheard of)

The youth associated with my non-profit Kids In Trouble, Inc. traveled around the East Coast, to basketball camps such as The John Chaney/Sonny Hill, Spencer Haywood, and Bighouse Gaines/Earl Monroe camps in Philadephia, New Jersey, and Winston-Salem, NC.

There were tickets for Redskins (NFL), Bullets (NBA) and Washington Nationals (MLB) games at my expense. The Kids In Trouble participants included Cathy Hughes’ baby boy, Alfred Liggins. My money went back into the community, NO REGRETS.

Senator Trotter’s health started to fail him in the early 2000s, he died in 2004. Suddenly, my sponsors reneged on written contracts. I was pushed off the airwaves.

The next two decades would be difficult but I managed to survive because I never forgot who I was and where I came from. More important, I never forgot Senator Trotter saying, “The Silver Fox is a good brother, and a good man to know.”

When things got rough I turned to Congressman Steny Hoyer. He answered my calls. Congressman Hoyer introduced me to his Constituent Service Representative, Daryl Pennington. She became my guardian Angel, and dozens of seniors felt the same way!

We were having a problem with the Social Security Administration, Landlord, and later a problem with a local bank.

First, Congressman Hoyer made an inquiry by letter to Social Security (problem solved). Daryl, called the local bank ( problem solved). What made Daryl so special to me was sometimes weeks would go by and you would think she had forgotten and she would call and say, “Mr. Bell, I am on top of it.” I can imagine her caseload was off the charts, but she always found time to reach out and reach back.

It took me 45 years to edit an exclusive one on one exclusive 1974 interview (Rumble in the Jungle) with the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, Muhammad Ali.

I finally arranged to debut the documentary/interview on the big screen at the Miracle Theatre on Capitol Hill in NE Washington, DC, I invited Gloria Gaddy and Daryl to my coming out party with a tribute to Muhammad Ali.

In the meantime, Daryl brought my Ali project to the attention of Congressman Hoyer. On Sunday, November 24, 2019, she read a proclamation from the stage of the theatre from the Congressman congratulating Hattie and me on our historical accomplishment.

Daryl reads a tribute to Muhammad Ali from Congressman Steny Hoyer at the Miracle Theater on November 24, 2019, marking the 45th Anniversary of the Rumble in the Junge. Hattie and I look on.

Congressman Steny Hoyer went to the House floor on Wednesday September 16, 2020, to disclose his friend and trusted community advocate for Prince Georges County’s 5th District, Daryl Pennington was called home to be with the Lord. Washington DC, Prince Georges County and the country lost a true public servant.

Press Secretary, Meg Spencer for Congressman Hoyer was the next Team Member up for Kids In Trouble. It has been 5 years since Daryl went home to be with the Lord. Thanks to Meg the true spirit of Constituent Service is alive and well in the 5th Congressional District of Prince Georges County.

In February of 2024, Kids In Trouble celebrated Black History Month at the Miracle Theater on Capitol Hill. The day of the celebration, Meg took the subway from her Capitol Hill office and brought a Proclamation from Congressman Steny Hoyer to the theater. The Reach Out and Reach Back continues.

2024 marked 45 years of politics for Congressman Steny Hoyer, hopefully we have him back in 2025 to continue to be the true Godfather of politicians in Prince Georges County.

If Congressman Hoyer decides to step away from the bumps and grind of political life, I would not blame him. Hopefully, he will remain only a telephone call away from Maryland’s new Senator Angela Alsobrooks. She will need a veteran like Hoyer to help usher her through the first year on Capitol Hill. She could not ask for a better political mentor. Congressman Steny Hoyer will be a tough act to follow.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR

“35 million households have guns and one-third store them loaded or unlocked, we must remind parents that this is dangerous and deadly.”

These were the words of the first lady Hillary Clinton. The words were spoken 25 years ago during an appearance on CNN with Larry King.

Mrs. Clinton was also the host of a Mother’s Day ceremony at the White House to honor mothers and families to highlight the importance of keeping children safe from guns.

Mrs. Clinton issued a Mother’s Day pledge that she hoped all parents would follow.

The pledge read, “I will not give my child unsupervised access to a firearm. I will not allow my child to play in a home where guns are improperly stored. If I own a gun, I will unload it, lock it up, and store the ammunition separately and securely. I will urge others, including my community leaders and political leaders, to do everything in their power to protect our children from guns.”

Twenty-five years later, the First Lady’s pledge has gone unheeded. Three people are dead after a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School a Madison, Wisconsin, campus for grades through K-12.

A 15-year-old student shot and killed a teacher and two other children. A teacher and three others have non-life-threatening injuries. The only difference between this mass shooting and the others is that the shooter is female and she is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A courageous second grader called 911 for help. My question again is, “When is enough enough?”

In Washington, DC one day later in SW DC on Galveston Street, a mother left a friend to watch her two children while she ran errands. The friend had a loaded gun and the 3-year-old brother accidentally shot his 5-year-old sister. She is fighting for her life.

The guns in the household have doubled with one in the car!

I have spent 6 decades working with youth gangs and at-risk children in DC, from Mt. Pleasant, U Street Corridor, Potomac Gardens, Barry Farms, and Simple City. In Alexandria, Va. schools, Charles Houston Rec Center, and Suitland, Maryland’s, Homer Avenue.

Many times, fingers are pointed at our children. The biggest problems are the non-leadership in their home, school, and peer pressure. Add unsupervised computer games, cell phones, and television news.

Our schools have become slippery slopes, “The teachers are scared of the principal, the principal is scared of the superintendent, the superintendent is scared of the parents, the parents are scared of the children, and the children ain’t scared of nobody.” It sounds like it might be possible but it is not quite true, teachers are underpaid and underappreciated and we are getting what we pay for. A high school graduate who can barely read above the third-grade level.

Teachers should be paid for their performance and not their longevity. A public school student costs $18.000, and a teacher’s salary is $63,000-$90,000. The children and the teacher are coming up short.

Jack Ciattarelli is the President of the NJ teachers’ union, his salary, is $752, 000 a year! Meanwhile, the average salary for a NJ public school teacher is $76,000. That same teacher pays $1400 in dues to help pay the union president’s salary. Where is the equality-who is zooming who?

New Jersey must be leading the country in test scores, reading, writing, and arithmetic. This sounds like a Mob Job!

We must never forget our children did not come out of their mother’s womb with an AK47, selling drugs, wearing a KKK Robe, and using the N and MF words. This is all learned behavior. They are watching us.

Black youth are not aware their ancestors were Kings and Queens and not hoodlums and thugs.

The question is, who sabotages teaching Black History–Ken Burns & PBS-Gov. Youngkin & DeSantis!

What makes it worse, CNN Commentator Van Jones says Trump is smarter than all of us. Does this mean money makes you smart or being elected President of the United States after 34 felony convictions!

Billionaire and owner of the Washington Post Jeff Bezos gave Jones and CEO of the World Kitchen Jose Andres, one-100 million dollars each for their favorite charities.

It looks like Van Jones thinks 100 million dollars gives him the right to sound stupid and get away with it.

I have broken bread and interviewed some of the greatest politicians of the 20th and 21st Centuries, but all of them were not smart, shrew maybe but definitely not smart.

The First Lady’s 1999 interview on CNN with Larry King was outstanding and, thought-provoking.

Is that the reason so much corruption is going on in politics “Money Honey!” I predicted in 2010 after The Supreme Court passed a no-cash limit for political run campaigns, the poor would remain poor for a long, long time in America.

“40 Acres and a Mule was dead, an Even Playing Field was never to be, Biden made a promise to the Black Farmers to help save their land was never kept, Colin Kaepernick came close in the NFL, but close only counts in horseshoes. For blacks in America, it is back to Square One.

NFL great Jim Brown ran across the aisle without a football and got 50 million dollars from Trump! Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass gave us “What’s Going On and Wake Up Everybody” and we still missed the boat thanks to a Crabs in the Barrel mentality.

Jose Andres looks like he is feeding people around the World, it is hard to tell whether Van Jones has reached out to any Black Farmers. You can bet one thing he will not be a Secret Santa in our community.

These are some of the politicians who helped me cross the aisle to make “Children First.” There was only one fraud among them.

Jeff Bezos and Van Jones, “I love you, my brother. Take this one-100 million and go help your people.”

I want to give Hillary Clinton the last word. She was the “FIRST” First Lady to address violence in our communities across America when she said, “Enough is Enough.”

She was talking about the murder wave sweeping Washington, DC, and the entire nation. If I had not known better, I would have sworn the First Lady had been listening to my radio talk shows, Inside Sports on WPFW or at W-U-S-T Radio.

Mrs. Clinton said, and I quote, “To think that here, at the seat of Government and just blocks from where we sit, children are shot in driveby shootings. People cannot venture out of their homes, and live behind 10 deadbolts on their doors. It’s an outrage.” As I have said on Inside Sports, she laid the blame at the door of the local Government, police departments, parents, and last but not least, the media.

The First Lady said, “The media has played a role in glorifying and giving too much credence, to the kind of overly impulsive and aggressive solving of our problems. And there is too much on television that our children watch for too many hours, which seems to suggest that violence is the answer.

Mrs. Clinton also said, “The inability of local governments to deal with crime has cut deeply into the rights of all Americans. We have undermined the basic freedom and right to liberty of literally millions of people by refusing or failing to deal with the violence that stalks our cities. I just cannot stand it anymore. I cannot bear to pick up another newspaper and read another baby shot.”

She was referring to four-year-old Launise Smith who was funeralized after being hit by a bullet fired into a crowd at a pickup neighborhood football game at Weatherless Elementary School in SE DC (25 years later gun violence raises its ugly head in SW DC a three-year-old shoots his 5-year-old sister in the chest).

After finishing work on President Clinton’s Health Care Plan, the First Lady is seriously considering turning her attention to an anti-crime initiative. I hope and pray that the President’s plan passes swiftly through Congress. I know that is wishful thinking on my part (it was).

She closed, “We cannot afford another year or even one more day of indecisiveness and a lack of leadership from local politicians.” (25 years later the beat goes on).

If there is a formula to save our children and our cities, the First Lady must find a way to expedite the President’s Health Care Plan successfully despite the obstacles ahead:

I applaud the First Lady’s strong words and stand on a problem that has paralyzed certain sections of our city. The inept, incompetent, and irresponsible actions of so-called leadership, enough is enough.

Washington, DC was recently voted “The Worst Run City in America.” It did not help, that the city had 4 different Police Chiefs during Mayor Muriel Bowser’s tour of duty.

It is so refreshing to see and hear someone stand up like a man, even if that someone happens to be–our First Lady.

INSIDE SPORTS THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SPORTS TALK SHOW OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES. LEAVING FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND FOR OTHERS TO TRY TO FOLLOW!

NFL DISCOVER “MY CAUSE-MY CLEATS” 54 YEARS AFTER WILLIE WOOD AND LARRY BROWN WERE THE FACES OF THE NFL IN THE DC COMMUNITY.

November and December of each year, the holiday spirit is abundantly clear among the 1% of America’s rich and famous. For Example; NFL owners, suddenly, become the most generous philanthropists in America with turkeys at Thanksgiving and toys at Christmas for our homeless, lost, and forgotten children.

My question is, “Where were they hiding from January through October?” How about, they were looking for another gimmick to showcase, “We Care” about the children using the players as ‘Poster Boys.’ Has anyone seen Colin Kaepernick or American Black Ownership in the NFL? Please don’t take a knee!

The players are the poster boys for their latest campaign for the homeless and downtrodden. They have added to their “Man of the Year”, the Walter Payton Award in honor of the great running back of the Chicago Bears. This award is bestowed on the team player who has reached back and given the most to his community. The latest ‘Look at Us Now’ is ‘MY CAUSE My Cleats!’

According to an NFL press release, “My Cause My Cleats” participants are NFL players who wear custom cleats during a DESIGNATED game (more than likely NATIONALLY TELEVISED) to raise awareness for a charitable cause. Each player chooses his own cause and designs their cleats to represent it. All NFL player can participate in the initiative by selecting a cause and designing their cleats to showcase it.

Don’t ask about Black American ownership, (NFL-NBA-MLB-NHL) equal and civil rights are non-eligible causes!

I would guess NFL owners are asking, “What more do we want, despite the failure of “The Rooney Rule” you have almost double digits, head coaches, almost every team has a black QB and some have two. You now have black starting QBs in Kansas City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Green Bay, Dallas (Dak on IRS), Baltimore, Houston, and the Nation’s Capitol, come on man?”

In 1967 NFL All-Time great safety, Willie Wood and I worked together in the mean streets of Washington, DC for the DC Department of Recreation & Parks. We were assigned to work with the department’s elite, Roving Leader Program (youth gangs and at-risk children). This was 56 years before the NFL decided to give something back, other than a piece of the American Pie (ownership).

Willie and I were native Washingtonians and products of the DC Public School system. Willie played 12 years with the NFL Green Bay Packers led by legendary Coach Vince Lombardi. He was voted All-Pro nine times and played in the Pro Bowl six times.

Willie led the league in punt returns and interceptions. Lombardi said, “Willie is my coach on the field.” He played in 6 NFL Championship games, winning 5, and played in Super Bowls, 1 and 2 against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders. The Green Bay Packers won both Super Bowls.

The NFL blackballed Willie after he spoke out against the drug use by players on the San Diego Chargers. He was an assistant coach.

After being blackballed he had to go to Canada to find a job as a coach. Willie was named the first black head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League. Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League named him the first black head coach two-years later.

Despite, legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi anointed him as his coach on the field, and Legendary coach and NFL broadcaster, John Madden named him to his 1991 Silver Anniversary All-NFL Team. NFL voters blackballed him from the Hall of Fame.

He was finally voted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1989. Thanks to a media campaign led by legendary DC sports columnist Dick Heller and yours truly.

DICK HELLER RECEIVES THE KIT “MAN OF THE YEAR AWARD” FROM WILLIE WOOD FOR HIS SUPPORT IN GETTING HIM INDUCTED INTO NFL HALL OF FAME. WILLIE NEVER FORGOT.

MEMBERS OF THE NFL GREEN BAY PACKERS 1991 ALL-MADDEN SILVER ANNIVERSARY TEAM-HERB ADDERLY-JERRY KRAMER AND WILLIE WOOD.

I knew Willie from his high school days at Armstrong. He and my older brother Bobby were baseball teammates. They were the double-play combination, Willie played second base, and Bobby played shortstop.

Willie was a great all-around high school athlete, he played baseball, football and basketball.

In 1955 my freshman year in high school, I had a front-row seat on the bench when Spingarn upset the great Willie Wood and his Armstrong team for the East Division Championship at Cardozo High School 13-7. We won the right to play Cardozo for the DC Public High School Championship at the legendary Griffin Baseball Stadium.

Spingarn and Cardozo played to a 0-0 tie. Despite the tie, Cardozo earned the right to play the Catholic League Champion, St. Johns. Simply, because they crossed our 50-yard line twice to our one time. It would have been much fairer to have flipped a coin.

During the NFL off-season, Willie taught in the DC Public Schools. In 1967, we joined the DC Department of Recreation and Park’s elite Roving Leader Program. Our job description read working with youth gangs, and at-risk children. We spend most of our time in juvenile Court.

In 1967 I joined Petey Greene on his Sunday radio talk show on W-O-L, Petey Greene’s Washington. I had a 5-minute time slot to talk sports. As we headed into the Thanksgiving holidays a white businessman and friend of the show called and donated 50 turkeys for a turkey away for our listeners.

The friend of the show owned a supermarket in the NE 6th Street Business Mall. This was the first community turkey giveaway in the DMV. Thanks to Petey Greene in 2024, everyone wants a piece of the turkey giveaway. The DC Central Kitchen is the leader on Thanksgiving Day. The kitchen feeds thousands in the DMV.

My wife Hattie and I recently met Mike Curtin, the CEO of the DC Central Kitchell in SW Washington. I met Mike at the Miracle Theater on October 30th during a tribute to Muhammad Ali. It was a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle.

Our non-profit organization honored several young men who were the benefactors of the Kids In Trouble Program, James Young, a successful DC businessman, my favorite student/athlete as a football coach at Cardozo High School. Billy ‘Buck’ Johnson is a ten-year employee of the DC Central Kitchen. Billy invited his boss, Mike Curtin. Hattie missed the tribute, she was in the hospital recovering from surgery.

BILLY BUCK AND CEO MIKE CURTIN HANGING OUT AT THE DC CENTRAL KITCHEN

On Monday, December 2, 2024, Hattie and I were invited to the DC Central Kitchen to meet Mike, Thanks to Billy. Things were rather hectic at the Miracle Theater and we never got to introduce ourselves.

Hattie T just arrived back in DC on Saturday, November 30th. She spent the Thanksgiving holiday with her family in Atlanta-it was our 56th wedding anniversary. We celebrated with pizza and a glass of wine.

The DC Central Kitchen is located at 2121 First Street, SW, and was in a part of SW I never knew existed in the new DC. The Army Base Fort McNair was on this side of M Street SW. I remembered from back in the day. The community was known as “Buzzard Point.”

We had visited the SW neighborhood only for a play at the Arena Stage, a ball game at Nationals’ Park, lunch at the Wharf, and Jazz at the Presbyterian Church on Friday evenings hanging out with my friend Dick Smith.

When I finally found my way to the DC Central Kitchen it was an eye-opening experience. The building took up the whole block. One entrance and exit served everyone. We met Mike in front of his office near the entrance and sat down for a chat. Billy was on vacation for the Thanksgiving holidays.

I introduced Hattie, she arrived back home on Saturday. We celebrated our 56th wedding anniversary on her arrival. I rambled on for several minutes about being a native Washingtonian, Kids In Trouble, Billy Buck, and the Hillcrest Saturday Program. Mike finally jumped in and said, “Let me tell you my story!” And what a story!

He is also a native Washingtonian, a graduate of Gonzaga High School and the College of William & Mary.

This was common ground, Gonzaga High School is one block north of Mount Airy Baptist Church. My Great-grandfather, the Rev. Alfred Tyler laid the first brick to build the church in 1893. The Tyler House a senior residence two blocks north of the church, is named after my Great-Uncle, the Rev. Earl Tyler.

Once we are settled in, Mike takes us on a tour of the facility. We can see classes being taught. In some classes, former students are the teachers. We saw an assembly line of how food is prepared and shipped to the different clients of the DC Kitchen. It was an all-business environment, 90% of the students were black and neatly dressed. No pants were hanging below the beltline, and their hair was neatly groomed.

In my travels in and out of today’s public schools in the DMV, it is difficult to distinguish the students from the teachers. DC Kitchen is preparing its students for the ‘Real World’ of work.

Mike’s journey to SW DC is a story for “Believe It or Not.” He tells how he spent over a decade at the shelter on 2nd and D Streets, NW feeding the homeless.

It was the domain of ‘Homeless Advocate’ the late Mitch Snyder. In 1984 Snyder convinced President Ronald Reagan to give him government funds to run a shelter for the homeless-enter Mike Curtin.

In the 90s the shelter’s reputation suffered. Some homeless felt it was safer to sleep on the cold mean streets of DC than a homeless shelter. Mike, would use this opportunity to make his exit to a vacant lot on the corner of First Street, SW and he has never looked back.

Twenty years later, the DC Kitchen has become a landmark of hope for DC residents. The kitchen is open 365 days a year. America would be a better place for everyone if the 1% and NFL owners followed in the footsteps of Mike Curtin (wishful thinking). Mike Curtin does not just talk the talk, he walks the walk!

Many use TRANSPARENCY describing themselves and the people they serve (politicians). If you want to see the definition of TRANSPARENCY, meet Mike Curtin at the DC Central Kitchen.

There are two floors when you enter the building which covers the whole block of First Street, the VIPs, the staff, and the everyday people who visit will find his office on the first floor. It is in full view and enclosed with a glass window (no tint). He sees everyone coming, and going, and everyone sees him.

The only celebrities I can compare Mike to are Red Auerbach (NBA) and Jim Brown (NFL). Red and Jim had their telephone numbers listed and no answering service to take messages-they answered their own phones. Now that is the true definition of TRANSPARENCY!

We saw a wall of honors with the names of people who inspired him to be all that he could be.

Mike Curtin, has proven you cannot judge a man’s home or place of business by the company he keeps!

On April 4, 1968, Willie Wood and I had just finished having lunch at Che Maurice Restaurant, a hang-out of the DC in-crowd. I remember we were standing on the corner of 9th & U Street on a bright sun shiny spring day Harvey Cooper aka ‘The Oldest Teenager’ hollered out of a passing car, “Hey Harold, they just shot Dr. King in Memphis, Tennesee.”

We looked at each other and Willie asked, “What did he just say?” I repeated in disbelief what I thought Harvey had yelled at us. Suddenly, people were coming out of the restaurant yelling and screaming, “Dr. King is dead!”

Willie and I started down the U Street corridor toward Ben’s Chili Bowl. U. S. Marshall in-charged our friend Luke C. Moore got out of a car and walked arm and arm with us. For the next 72 hours, I walked throughout the city with nothing but a DC Police Badge.

“HERE COMES THE JUDGES” LUKE MOORE AND EUGENE HAMILTON.

I was sworn in by the highest-ranking black in the department, Assistant Chief Tilmon O’Bryant. I was expected to help keep the peace without a gun. It was not a walk in the park, I blended in well.

I met FBI undercover agent, Wayne Davis in NE DC and we walked the last night of my tour. Wayne moved on to become a great friend and the first black to be named FBI Agent in charge of the Detroit Office.

He tried to warn “The Mayor For Life” Marion Barry to step back before ‘The bitch set him up!’

In 1991 Marion’s last media interview was heard on Inside Sports on W-U-ST Radio. His last words as he left the studio were, “Harold Bell is always going to tell the truth!”

WAYNE TAKES ME ON A TOUR OF FBI HQ IN DETROIT

In November of 1968 after the riots, I married my fiancee, Hattie Thomas. We founded the Kids In Trouble Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program in December for neighborhood children.

DECEMBER 1968 HATTIE T AND I WERE THE HOST OF OUR FIRST “KIDS IN TROUBLE” CHRISTMAS TOY PARTY FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN.

The first Santa’s Helper was my Virginia Sailor Minor League football teammate, LB George Kelly. I am standing in the back assisting him.

In 1970 Washington Redskins players LB Harold McLinton, RB Larry Brown, WR Roy Jefferson, and DB Ted Vactor joined Willie Wood as Santa’s Helpers. RB/WR Lenny Moore (Baltimore Colts) and DB Johnny Sample (NY Jets) later joined the KIT team. Fifty-four years later the NFL discovered, “MY CAUSE My Cleats” better late than never.

KIT was the host for 45 straight years of Christmas toy parties for elementary school children in the DMV. Children in the DMV were the benefactors, no child was left behind.

We helped thousands of kids without grants or loans. We stayed off the front pages of the Washington Post for misappropriating toy dollars for kids. We never would have been given a pardon or second chance.

HAROLD McLINTON IS SANTA’S HELPER DURING ONE OF OUR ANNUAL TOY PARTIES.

NFL FILMS VIDEO TAPED LARRY AND HAROLD TEACHING WATER SAFETY TO INNER-CITY CHILDREN AT THE KIDS IN TROUBLE HILLCREST SATURDAY PROGRAM IN 1971. THIS WAS NFL FILMS’ FIRST COMMUNITY PROMO FOR NATIONAL TV.

NFL ALL-PRO WR ROY JEFFERSON UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL AS SANTA’S HELPER FOR THE ANNUAL KIDS IN TROUBLE TOY PARTY.

Afro-American NewspaperAugust 1969

In 1969 the white students seen above were bussed in from Takoma Park High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. For two hours every Saturday, the Hillcrest Saturday Program elementary school students were the benefactors of the tutors.

There were no black students at Howard University or DC Teacher Colleges available. The Hillcrest Saturday Program tutors were the trailblazers of why today’s high school students are getting college credits for volunteering in their communities nationwide.

DC SUPERIOR COURT JUDGES, TED NEWMAN, HARRY ALEXANDER AND EUGENE HAMILTON HONOR LARRY DURING A KIDS IN TROUBLE BENEFIT BASKETBALL GAME AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

SANTA’S HELPER HAROLD McLINTON RECEIVED A THANK YOU FROM JUDGE HARRY ALEXANDER FOR HIS COMMUNITY SERVICE

LARRY, HAROLD, AND JUDGE HAMILTON PARTICIPATE IN THE KIDS IN TROUBLE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS TOY PARTY AT BOLLING AIR FORCE BASE IN SE DC.

THE NFL ALL-PRO PLAYERS WHO HELP START COMMUNITY REACH-BACK. L-R ROY JEFFERSON-WILLIE WOOD AND JOHNNY SAMPLE.

We are blessed that Willie Wood, Roy Jefferson, Harold McLinton, Ted Vactor, Johnny Sample, Lenny Moore, Jose Andres, and Mike Curtin are not our “Everyday Heroes.” They saw something and did something!

They were and are my, “Super Stars in the most important GAME being played in the World today–it is the GAME called Life!”

RESPECT IS EARNED AND NOT GIVEN: 

Harold Bell’s Black History Mouth

A DC AMERICAN HISTORY FACT–THE PETEY GREENE STORY!

I met Petey Greene in 1957 at the Burning Tree Golf Course in Bethesda a suburb of Maryland. On the weekends I would catch a bus from my NE DC housing project, Parkside, with my mentor Jody Waugh to caddy for the movers and shakers of American politics. They included a President, Vice-President, Senators, Congressmen, actors, and entertainers from Broadway to Hollywood.

No blacks or women were allowed membership. This was a strange phenomenon to me. The black caddies were allowed to play on Mondays, but their white wives never. It was a different World.

Petey and I carried golf bags to earn money. I was there because I was interested in helping my single-parent mother make ends meet financially. Petey came to the golf course to host and organize dice and card games deep in the woods in the evenings.

I was warned by my homeboys to avoid him by any means necessary, he was a cheat. I learned the hard way. It is often said, “Curiosity killed the cat”, one dumb evening I was the cat!

He broke me and then gave me two dollars for my bus fare and to buy 10 cents Little Tavern Hamburgers for the ride home. I thought he was being really generous until he said, “You owe me four dollars next week.” He was also a “Loan Shark.”

As I was trying to leave the golf course before my homeboys discovered I had lost all my money, the golf pro, Max Elbin called out to me to return to the caddy shack. He had two golfers who were interested in playing nine holes and he wanted me to be their caddy. It was a no-brainer, I could recoup some of the money I lost to Petey.

As I walked to the first tee, a voice yelled, “Harold are you ready for an adventure?” I turned to see who was calling out to me, and to my surprise, it was Vice-President Richard Nixon. He would change my life.

Petey and I would become great friends after I paid him his four dollars, never to gamble with him again.

My mom was born and raised in Sumpter, SC, and she was a graduate of Cardozo High School in NW DC. My father was a Dead-Beat Dad in every sense of the word.

My mother’s parents were educators in Sumpter. My father was a native Washingtonian. His parents were church founders, my great-grandfather laid the first brick to help build Mt. Airy Baptist Church in 1893.

The church is located in the shadows of the Nation’s Capitol at North Capitol and L Streets NW. Two blocks north of the church is a senior residence, The Tyler House named after my great uncle, the Rev. Earl Tyler.

When my mother graduated high school, she was hired as a clerk typist at the Water Department in downtown DC. The new job helped her to qualify for SECTION 8 Housing and move us from Grandma Bell’s house to the housing project named, Parkside. Two years later she was unemployed. It seemed to her, that there was an unwritten code in the government for blacks, the last hired would be the first fired!

She grudgingly applied for welfare, my two brothers and I needed to be fed and clothed. I felt it was my duty to help her financially. My grandmother and hero Amy Tyler Bell raised my older brother, Bobby.

In 1958 Nixon was leaving for a tour around the World, starting with the Soviet Union. I was hopefully headed to college. He made me promise I would graduate and go to college. He loved talking about sports but thought education was more important. He was right, I would learned the hard way.

I thought I was the straw that stirred the drink as a high school athlete. My attitude got me kicked off two of the three teams I played. For the third team, I was locked on the school bus at half-time as the football team won without me. I was on the way to hell in a hurry, until Coach Brown suggested I apologize to my teammates and I did.

I still got kicked to the curve on the basketball team for my selfish behavior. Mad at the World I transferred to our rival Eastern High School to finish the season, but a protest against me killed that move.

My former coach Dave Brown found me hanging out in the pool hall and convinced me to finish my senior year in Prince George’s County. In the summer of 1959, Nixon went to the Soviet Union, I went to college and Petey went to jail for armed robbery.

In 1965 Petey, singer Marvin Gaye, and I returned to DC around the same time. Marvin had joined the Air Force in 1956. He had been singing with several do-wop groups since his discharge in 1957. The three of us met by coincidence in front of a DC landmark, the Howard Theater. We spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out our next move.

It did not take Marvin long to make up his mind, He wanted out of DC fast and in a hurry. Petey and I wished him luck, kissed, hugged and he was gone.

I needed a job, and Petey introduced me to Mr. Jim Banks CEO of the United Planning Organization.  The organization was a self-help entity in the NW Shaw-Cardozo Community.

Mr. Banks hired Petey and me as Neighborhood Workers. This was my first job after dropping out of college to chase my dream of playing in the NFL.

Our job descriptions read: Work in the schools and on the playgrounds with at-risk children and youth gangs.  We spent as much time in the DC Superior Courts as we did in the schools.

In 1967 UPO gave a grant to the DC Recreation Department. The grant was to hire Roving Leaders to help fight youth violence in our schools and in the DC community. The stipulation, the department had to hire me.  Petey chose to stay behind with Mr. Banks and UPO.

In the summer of 1967, I was meeting Petey for lunch at Bens’ Chili Bowl. When I arrived, he told me that Muhammad Ali was on the campus of Howard University.  I left him immediately with my sights on Howard University to meet The Greatest.  It was the most important journey I had made since the Burning Tree Golf Course in 1957.

1967 was a good year, Petey Greene’s Washington radio talk show made its debut on WOL Radio.  He gave me 5  minutes to talk about sports every Sunday evening. Petey Greene’s Washington led to my trailblazing pioneering sports talk show, “INSIDE SPORTS.”  

Thanks to Petey and Muhammad Ali, they opened doors in sports media I never thought possible.  Inside Sports changed the way we talk and report sports in America and beyond.

In November 1967 a white fan, listener, and businessman at the Eastern Market in NE DC called Petey and donated 50 turkeys for the needy.  We could not believe our ears.

Petey gave me 10 turkeys for family and friends. He and his friend “Mego” borrowed a van from Capitol Caddilac and delivered turkeys to the needy callers on his Sunday talk show. 

Today’s media Thanksgiving turkey giveaways started with Petey Greene.  He is the footprint in the sand for Inside Sports and the turkey giveaways adopted by radio and television stations in the DMV. 

Petey and I became the Pied Pipers regarding REACH-BACK into the community. Petey Greene’s Washington and the turkey giveaways became his signature landmarks, Kids In Trouble’s annual Christmas Toy Parties for elementary school children and Inside Sports became my signature landmarks. Many have followed our lead, and our community reach-back efforts have been copied but never duplicated.

The Kids In Trouble’s first Christmas toy party December 1968. My Virginia Sailor football teammate, Linebacker George Kelly was Santa’s Helper. I am seen in the background assisting him.

Petey won two Emmy Awards for “Petey Green’s Washington.”

1972 Super Bowl in L. A. Sylvia, Jean, HB, Petey, Judy, and Hattie T,

Washington Post columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Bill Raspberry, Dewey Hughes, and Ollie Johnson join me for a Kids In Trouble basketball fundraiser at GT University against the NFL Washington Redskins.

Fatty Taylor (NBA), Larry Brown (NFL-MVP 1972 ) & Petey hanging out with me at a Hillcrest Saturday Program’s community outing.

“Talk To Me”, the Petey Greene movie was a fraud. It was the Dewey Hughes story. The story never involved Petey’s wife Judy or their two children, Petrie and Pine. The movie was shot in Canada to avoid family and friends in DC who really knew the late Petey Greene. Petey would always remind me to never trust Dewey and Cathy Hughes. He was preaching to the choir.

Dewey misled actor Don Cheadle and Hollywood that he was the know it all behind Petey’s success. He never sought out Emmy Award winner, broadway, and movie star Robert Hooks. Petey and Hooks grew up together in Foggy Bottom in Georgetown.

There was no DC premier of the movie, unless it was held underground. When the movie made its way to the Magic Johnson theater in Landover Mall, I took my wife Hattie and my mother-in-law, Mommy T to check it out. Petey, use to hang out with me at Mommy T’s house in Suitland, Maryland. He kept her laughing, she loved him.

When the lights were turned on and the movie was over, we made our way out to the parking lot, Hattie and Mommy T were very quiet. I never muttered a word. Suddenly, Mommy T often soft spoken yelled, “That was not the Petey Greene I knew!”

Hattie, looked at me and asked, “Where was Judy, Petrie and Pine, and where were you?”

Every time I see Dewey or Cathy at a DC function and try to get an update, they disappear before I can work my way across the room.

THE BIG LIE AND DEWEY HUGHES.

Meet the Thanksgiving Turkey Dewey Hughes, sometimes turkeys dress in dark glasses and Hollywood white!

Richard M. Nixon was the Vice-President of the United States when we first bonded at the Burning Tree Golf Course in 1957. Burning Tree was an exclusive all male and all white private club located in a suburb of Maryland in Washington, DC.

I was a caddy there in the late 50s working on the weekends to help my single parent mother to help make ends meet financially. I lived in a housing project in NE Washington, DC–it was two different worlds.

One late Saturday evening the Club pro, Max Elbin hollered out to me as I was making my way to the parking lot to look for a ride into DC. This was a ritual the caddies often use to catch our bus back home, whether we lived in Foggy Bottom in Georgetown DC, Cabin John in Maryland or my housing project in NE DC. The white members were often our mold of transportation back into DC.

On that particular Saturday evening, I was in the right place at the right time. I had just lost my day’s earnings on the golf course to the notorius, Petey Greene. My homeboys had warned me to avoid the crap and cards games organized by Petey in the evenings. I was a knucklehead and did not take their advice.

I ended up dead broke. Petey, lend me two dollars for my bus fare and Little Tavern Hamburgers (10 cents each) for the ride back to the ghetto. He charged a dollar on a dollar–he was also a loan shark.

As I approached, Mr. Elbin, he explained he had two bags for me to carry and the players were only going play nine-holes–that was music to my ears, darkness was fast approaching.

As I starting to walk to the tee, I heard a voice yell, “Harold are you ready for an adventure?” I turned to see where the voice was coming from, to my surprise, it was the Vice-President of the United States, Richard Nixon. There was a smiling face walking beside him, he would later introduce himself as Bill Rogers (Attorney General). He was an excellent golfer, he was teaching the Vice-President how to play.

It would take me only two holes to discover what the adventure Mr. Nixon was talking about. His ball spent more time in the woods and trees then, the birds and bees. On top of that it was a hot evening sun bearing down on every hole. Mr. Rogers was a class act and a very patience man.

When we arrived at the ninth and final hole, Mr. Nixon hit another ball in the woods, and when he emerged, he called out to Mr. Rogers, “Hey Bill, lets go nine more.”, I could believe my ears!

Those nine more holes and the ride to Westmoreland Circle to catch my bus would change my life forever.

During the adventures on the golf course and the rides to the bus stop turned into discussions of my prowness as an athlete and the games of life. He stressed that I should pay more attention to my books than, balls and strikes. He reminded me, that my education would pay more dividends than, football, basketball or baseball.

We went our separate ways in 1958, he would be heading to South America and other countries to talk with World Leaders.

Mr. Nixon would become the President of the United States in 1969. I also believe he would have been a great sports writer or a sports talk show host.

In the summer of 1969 our paths would cross again, this time it would not be on a golf course, but on the streets of Shaw/Cardozo. The President was touring the riot area of 1968. I was working as a Roving Leader for the DC Department of Parks and Recreation. My assignment, working with at-risk children and youth gangs. This encounter would lead to a Presidential appointment for me.

Antonio Logan-El at the age age of 10 leading the way making sure we leave no child behind.

Every election cycle the favorite cry of a politician, “Make Children First.” It never happens.

Former Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi was recently seen on comedian Bill Maher’s cable television show, CNN. She was promoting her new book. The discussion centered around the danger of being a politician in America.

Pelosi said, “This is what I signed up for.” Maher’s response, “Are you sure.” Pelosi quoted President Teddy Roosevelt, “He said, you are no longer a spectator when you are in the public arena. You have to be ready to take a punch and throw a punch for the children.”

I watched in disbelief, when those words came out of her mouth! I have yet to hear a politician utter those words, and carry them to Capitol Hill.

No punches were throwed for the two children and two teachers at Wider High School in Georgia on September 2, 2024. This was just weeks after the new school year had started.

Since December 1968 Kids In Trouble has tried to make thousands of children FIRST. The benefactors of Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports who tried to help me make children FIRST read like a WHO’S WHO.

WASHINGTON STAR-NEWS DECEMBER I, 1974

ROBIN ‘SUGAR’ WILLIAMS

photo / Fred Sheperd

(top photo) Robin sings the classic “Hero” at the Grand Hyatt in DC. The occasion, annual KIT toy party. ‘We Remember Muhammad Ali’ at the Miracle Theatre on Capitol Hill (2019)

Robin is a native Washingtonian and a product of the DC Public Schools. Eastern High School choir Director with Robin were considered the No. I high school choir in the nation. She is a graduate of Howard University and came back to teach music in the DC Public Schools.

Robin has traveled the World as a gospel artist and performed at the White House. Her work and contributions to Kids In Trouble are legendary. She reached back with the late NFL greats, Jim Brown and Duane Thomas, and dozens of pro athletes, Judges, and media personalities. Their support helped me try to enhance the lives of thousands of inner-city children across the DMV, Atlanta (John Hollins) and Philadelphia (Sonny Hill).

MILES CLARKE

I met Miles when he was three years old hanging out in a Bowie Senior Residence with his General Manager Grandmother, Gloria Gaddy. One day he followed me to the elevator and we have been friends ever since. I watched him go from Pee Wee football to high school football and band to the Bowie State College band and on to co-hosting a campus radio talk show. He can now be found in the new state-of-the-art studios of the Bowie Department of Communications. Miles Clarke is now a junior with his eyes on the prize.

ANTONIO LOGAN-EL

ANTONIO LOGAN-EL went from sitting on a baby Grand Piano in the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown DC to being named to the National High School All-American football team. He is a graduate of Towson State College, he returned to serve elementary school children pizza and hotdogs at the annual KIT toy party at the Marriott Hotel in Greenbelt, Maryland.

ROBERT GLEN went from shooting hoops with me to become a Moorehouse Man. There he met billionaire Robert Smith, Mr. Smith paid the tuition of Robert Glen’s entire class.

YOU WIN SOME AND YOU LOSE SOME-MEET WILLIAM WALKER, JR

William Walker, Sr. and I had been friends for over 3 decades. I remember when William Walker, Jr. was born. William senior showed up at a gathering place in SE DC called The Little White House, it was a hangout place for community advocates and wannabes. Every Thursday morning breakfast was served with expert advice on how to save our children and our community. They are still trying to figure it out!

After breakfast William passed out cigars. I didn’t smoke and did not take one. He insisted I take one anyway in appreciation of his first born. I kept that cigar for about 5 years until it just disappeared.

William was a man’s man and we sometimes disagreed and fell in and out of love. We would go for months without speaking while sharing the same space in the community.

He would show up at my community events with little William and smile like everything was cool and it was as far as I was concerned. The one thing that kept us together, we both wanted what was best for our children. And if there was a serious disagreement, we would pick up the telephone and make the call. Unlike most player-haters and naysayers in the DMV, we never talked behind each other’s backs. The arrival of little William I think made that more important.

Like those of us who were not hustling the children, he became disenchanted with leadership in the community from top to bottom, especially the hustlers who pretended it was all about the children, when it was all about “The Bemjamins.”

William Sr. was a Navy veteran, he served his country. He was also a multi-talented writer, actor, and producer in front and behind the camera.

William Walker and I had different opinions over the years on how to monetize my exclusive one-on-one of a kind Muhammad Ali interview. We kept hitting and missing.

We would talk about little William’s basketball skills as a ‘Little Big Man’ in a sport of giants. He was barely over five feet tall; he was a great little ball-handler, ball hawk and leader on the floor. I would attend practices at Woodson Middle School on Minnesota Avenue in NE DC. There were times I would attend games to watch him in action to check out his progress.

Walker’s main concern was little William who was now a teenager (Red Flag) and his mother’s health. A consistent income had become a problem. He saw no future with Chappelle.

Despite, “Now you see me and now you don’t” frauds in our community, there was some light at the end of the tunnel. Little William’s future was looking bright, and the 50th Anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle was on the horizon. We could plan on getting little William a basketball scholarship if his academics were up to par. Walker convinced me he had a game plan to keep little William focused and how to help me put the finishing touches on my Ali project.

I was already working with an experienced editor; he was keeping hope alive with my classic one-of-a-kind interviews with some of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. Ali was the jewel in the crown.

After a meeting of the minds, Walker and I went to meet my editor for an introduction. They were aware of each other’s work. In June 2022 the decision was made for the three of us to work together to make the project a reality.

July 11, 2022 William Walker, Sr. was called home to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He died suddenly of a heart attack. He was 65 years old and left behind his mother and a teenage son William.

William Walker, Sr. unexpected passing left me wondering what was to become of his only son, and his ailing mother. I had never met his mother or any other member of his family, only William, Jr.

He did introduce me to a close old friend, and homeboy, O. J. McKee. O. J. was living in Raleigh, N. C. and teaching at the University of North Carolina. William introduced us via telephone conference call a year before he passed, their common denominator, film production.

I had no clue who to contact about his final arrangements until O. J. called with an update. William’s homegoing service was held at Jenkins Funeral Home in Landover, Maryland. O. J. drove from North Carolina to the funeral and we met face to face for the first time.

On my arrival at Jenkins Funeral Home, I was shocked to see William, Jr and O. J. were the only familiar faces I recognized in attendance. It didn’t take long for me to understand why there were so few friends of William’s in attendance. Felicia Chappelle from Cleveland, Ohio, had taken charge of the homegoing service.

I found it strange there was no one from The Little White House in attendance. He was a regular at the breakfast for years and this was the last place I saw Felecia Chappelle. I let go and let God and kept my distant as I did the last time I saw her at The Little White House.. Maybe she and brother Dave were a blessing in disguise for the Walker family.

O. J. would be driving back to North Carolina in the morning, we shook hands and promised to stay in touch and keep an eye on little William. If only we had known where this journey would lead us!

Thanks to O. J.’s uncle befriending little William at the homegoing service, there was a contact number for him. O. J. led the way and had little William to call me for a follow-up.

Little William called and we talked about his plans for the future, William Sr. would be happy to hear college was on his drawing board. His college of choice would be Central State in Wilberforce, Ohio.

One of the things he mentioned, “I need a job to help me earn enough money to buy a car to drive to school.” It sounded reasonable, but this was August heading into September, some young folks were already on their campuses. He made it clear, he needed something that paid better than McDonald’s.

I called a friend Bob Lewis; he was the manager of the Giant Food Store when I was living in Bowie. He had been a great supporter of Kids In Trouble when I was living there. William was a kid in trouble.

Bob was out the door and into retirement when I caught him at home. I told him the story of little William. He promised to check around and see what he could find if anything at this late date.

It took a few days but Bob came through with flying colors. He found William a job in a Giant Warehouse making Top Dollar. William went online and successfully filled out the application. He was given a reporting date to start work–he was a no-show. Bob called me with the bad news and I was at a loss for words. He said, “HOWARD, I would do it again if you called, because it is what you do.”

I never tried to reach out to little William again. I called O. J. to tell him what had happened with the job at Giant. He said, “Man you tried, I heard he is in Ohio looking for a job so he can enroll in school and Felicia is trying to help him.” I was happy and disappointed all at the same time. I had to let go and let God.

My birthday falls on May 21st and on May 21st 2024, I had a rude awaking. Instead of celebrating my birthday with a bowl of Cherrios and some fruit, I was confronted with the morning news of a car chase across the DC-Maryland lines with police cars from DC and PG County in hot pursuit.

The occupants of the vehicle being chased had taken shots at an off-duty DC Police Captain while driving recklessly through DC streets. They resented the officer taking a video of their reckless driving, and the chase was on.

They finally wrecked the automobile and were pulled from the wreckage. The young man I thought was in school in Ohio, William Walker, Jr I saw in handcuffs sitting on the curb with two cops standing over him. My first thoughts were, “What is he doing home and how did I fail this young man?”

William Walker, Jr in handcuffs and wearing braids with conspirator. They both were arrested for reckless driving and, attempted murder of a police officer.

I immediately called O. J. McKee, when I told him the bad news, he was also in disbelief. He said, “I thought he was still in Ohio preparing for the next school year. I was under the impression he was working and doing well. I would have never known if you had not called me.”

LOOKING BACK:

Little William was a problem child when his father was living. DC court records revealed he had been arrested for two illegal gun possessions. His father, being a protective dad, covered up for him trying to keep hope alive for his only child.

He lived with an uncle/friend of his father’s before heading to Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. According to the uncle/friend little William was very disrespectful.

There was a warrant for his arrest when he left Central State University.

I remember the late NFL great Jim Brown’s thoughts after I spoke out regarding a brutal act by a cop trying to discipline a female student in a classroom. He threw her across the classroom and then dragged the child across floor by her hair. His response, “Harold, children don’t vote.” From all indications there are many politicians who feel that exact same way.

There are two exceptions I know: They care about children

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2024

PG COUNTY EXECUTIVE ANGELA ALSOBROOKS (D-MD)—CONGRESSMAN STENY HOYER (D-MD)

NOVEMBER 5, 2024 VOTE KAMALA HARRIS & ANGELA ALSOBROOKS