HAROLD BELL’S EYE-WITNESS NEWS: INSIDE SPORTS 10 GREATEST NBA PLAYERS OF ALL-TIME!

WILT CHAMBERLAIN THE G.O.A,T

THE TEAM: JULIUS ‘DR J’ IRVING-WILT ‘THE STILT’ CHAMBERLAIN-ELGIN BAYLOR-JERRY WEST-MICHAEL’MJ’ JORDAN-GUS ‘HONEYCONE’ JOHNSON-KAREEM ADUL JABBAR-EARL ‘THE PEARL’ MONROE AND KOBE BRYANT
COACHES: RED AUERBACH & GREG POPOVICH

“NO HE SAY SHE SAY” ALLOWED–EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS ONLY!

Michael White (FB) said, “If you are in DC find Harold Bell, he’s a walking history book.” 

Michael, thanks, too many of these so-called know it all experts claiming to be historians don’t have a clue. Why did I choose Wilt as the G. O. A. T.? He led the league in every statistical category at sometime in his great career (scoring, rebounds, assist, FGP, etc). Name one other player to accomplish that feat! Russell and Magic were great but they could only make my team as subs.  We have to be very careful about who is telling OUR history not only in February but through out the year.  My motto “If you saw something say something.”

Maurice Stewart, started an interesting and enlightening conversation recently on Face Book and then my friend Aaron Snowell (Boxing Hall of Fame) and other associates were asking the question, “Harold when are you going to write something on Kobe?” My emotions were all over the place with his untimely demise.   I didn’t know where to start—to be honest!

My Kobe Bryant experience all started when I met Kobe’s father Joe Bryant.  Joe was playing for the 76ers.  I was introduced to him by my mentor, Philly legendary player/broadcaster Sonny Hill.  Joe’s nicknamed was ‘Jellybean’.  He was playing in the Sonny Hill/John Chaney, Summer Basketball League when I drove up to Philly with several of my young men from the Hillcrest Saturday Program.  Kobe had just been born because ‘Jellybean’ was handing out cigars just before a game.  When he offered me one I said, “Joe I don’t smoke”! He said, “OK I ain’t mad.”  I didn’t realize at the time it was just a symbolic gesture.

I met Kobe either his rookie year or the following year at the Capitol Centre in Landover, Md. I introduced myself saying I was a friend of Sonny Hill.  His response, “That is my mentor, you cool.” For the rest of his NBA career we were like passing ships in the night, but he would see me and say “Whats up my brother?”  I am sure he didn’t remember my name, but he always had a smile.

During my sports talk show career starting in 1972 I have only interviewed a handful of players in a NBA locker room.  I can name them, Dr. J (Fatty Taylor), Iceman (Fatty Taylor), Wilt (Carl Greene) and George McGinnis (Sonny Hill). I have never interviewed Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes, or Phil Chenier, etc.  The reason; I was a eyewitness to too many dumb questions being asked by dumb-ass writers and sportscasters.  I have alway refused to be a part of that charade.

I am a happy camper that I had a front-row seat to Kobe’s amazing NBA career.  In a recent appearance of The Round Ball Report, a TV Cable television show devoted to basketball in Landover, Md,  I was asked by the host and Executive Producer Andrew Dyer, where did I place Kobe among the All-Time NBA greats?

Kobe is in my top 10 of NBA greats of All-Time.  He would be my Sixth Man off the bench. 

My Head Coach, Red Auerbach / Assistant Coach Gregg Popovich

Kobe’s friend and former NBA player Caron Butler gave the best testimony I heard on Kobe being a true friend.  He said, Kobe was someone who was always looking to give and never expecting anything in return (aka Muhammad Ali).  He was not perfect by any means, but he dedicated his life after the NBA to his community and family, PRICELESS.

Noteworthy:  Great players dictate changes in the game to compensate for them being better than all the rest—meet Wilt Chamberlain.  Another Example;  The Simone Biles’ Rule.  This young lady is being penalized for being better than all the rest.  Wake up everybody!

RIP Willie Wood

THEY STILL CALL ME NIGGER!

The Trailblazers:  Athlete/Actor Paul Roberson and college basketball coach, Clarence Bighouse Gaines

Memories:  My first home was a one-room shack with an outhouse on Douglas Street in NE DC.  One cold morning my mother Mattie a single parent thinking I was asleep quietly slipped out of the shack to go to the corner store for bread and milk, I was 3 years old.  My German Sheperd dog Billy was sleeping nearby with a kerosene lamp burning to keep us warm. My mother returned to find the shack on fire and me sitting in the yard crying with my dog Billy standing over me. Fire trucks were all over the street.

The shack burned to the ground and the only thing left standing was the outhouse. My mother tried to thank the firemen for rescuing me from the burning shack but they explained to her they found me sitting in the yard with my dog. To this day I have no clue how I escaped from that shack on fire-Billy never said a word–the rest is American history,

HIGHLIGHTS

*In 1967 I encouraged Willie Wood (NFL) and Dave Bing (NBA) to join me in the DC community to enhance the growth of inner-city youth, Judges, politicians, law-enforcement, print, radio and television personalities, NBA-NFL-MLB & NHL franchises all followed my lead. They all now CARE!

Dave returns to ‘The Hood’ to pay homage to members of the Hillcrest Saturday Program basketball team

Dave one on one with NBA Hall of Fame player Earl ‘The Pearl’ MonroeThe Pearl and Kids In Trouble, Inc. pay tribute to Bighouse Gaines at the Foxtrappe Club in Washington, DC

In November 1968 I discovered a child lying on the bottom of the swimming pool at my Hillcrest Saturday Program. I dove into the pool and pulled  him out.  I then ran soaking wet with him in my arms to Children’s Hospital one block away.NFL MVP RB Larry Brown and LB Harold McLinton are videotaped by NFL Films teaching water safety at the Hillcrest Saturday Program in 1970.

My wife Hattie teaching swimming in one of her classes at Cardozo High School in NW DC.  

*In 1969 I was honored at the White House by President Richard M. Nixon for my work with youth gangs and at-risk children.

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I am in the Oval Office meeting with President Richard M. Nixon

*In 1972 my Inside Sports talk show format changed the way we talk sports in America. The tag is now used around the World.

*Inside Sports was the first sports talk show to successfully blend sports and politics.

*Inside Sports was the first sports talk show to convene a media roundtable.  Guest, boxing greats, Sugar Ray Leonard, Don King, and Larry Holmes.

NBA legend Red Auerbach and his wife Dotie are the guest host on Inside Sports *In 1973 I sat on The Mountain Top with Muhammad Ali

*I was the first Black sportscaster to produce and host a prime time sports special on NBC affiliate WRC TV 4 in November 1975.  My special guest, Muhammad Ali.

*In 1978 I was the first Sports & Marketing rep for Nike shoes in the DMV.Congressman Walter Fauntroy receives Nike gear from Nike rep Laura Cash and me on Capitol Hill 

*In 1979 I was the first Sports & Marketing rep in the DMV for Anheuser-Busch Beer.*I was the first sports media personality honored as Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine (1980).

Washingtonian of the Year, Washington Redskin QB Joe Theisman and me share a photo opt with teammate Mark Mosley and our wives*I have been cited in the Congressional Record on three different occasions by Congressman Lou Stokes (D-Ohio), Senator Bob Dole (R-Kan) and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).  I was honored for my work with inner-city youth.

*In Chicago in 1998 I became the first Winston-Salem State athlete to receive the first annual Clarence ‘Bighouse’ Gaines Community Service Award.

*In 2007 I found a 15-year-old autistic girl lying across the tracks at Potomac Avenue subway station SE DC. I pulled her off just as a train was entering the station. NBC affiliate WRC-TV 4 creates re-enactment of the rescue of the child at the Potomac Avenue subway station

I successfully campaigned with Washington Times legendary sports columnist the late Dick Heller and NBA legend Red Auerbach for NFL great Willie Wood and NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd to be inducted into their hall of fame after they had been overlooked.

Dick Heller congratulates Willie on his induction into the NFL Hall of Fame

Red Auerbach, me and Earl Lloyd during a Black History Month celebration at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown DC

NFL legend LB Sam Huff stops to say hello to Willie during a tribute in his honor in 2007.  The 83-year-old Huff is now suffering from dementia.

Members of the Hoffman clan, Ted Wells, Jalen and Jared Morgan bring a rare smile to Willie’s face during tribute in 2007

Willie was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1989 and Earl was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 2003.  Willie’s legendary coach Vince Lombardi said, “Willie is my coach on the field.” Ronnie Lott is one of the greatest safeties to ever play in the NFL, but he has to take a backseat to the trailblazers, Dick ‘Night Train Lane’, Willie Wood and Johnny Sample.   Willie never forgot who he was and where he came from.  One week after his induction he was a guest on Inside Sports saying, “Thank You.” This month in Black History, February 3, 2020 my friend Willie Wood died.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzY5Mki8OVE/ Jim Brown, Johnny Sample, Roy Jefferson, and Willie Wood / NFL Roundtable

*On Sunday, November 24, 2019, I became the first native Washingtonian to produce a sports documentary on the Big Screen titled “The Harold Bell Story, I Remember Muhammad Ali.”

I am flawed and less than perfect, but I have never sold or done drugs, never been to jail, never snitched, never stole money from little children. I have broken bread with champs & chumps. The benefactors of Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports read like a Who’s Who.

In February 2020 they still call me NIGGER!

Noteworthy: Harvard Law School grad and sitting judge “Still A Nigger”

JOHN HOLLINS: THE REACH BACK KID GOES INTERNATIONAL!

by Harold Bell

Big John Hollins was Caribbeanthe has takennamed Community Hero by the Atlanta Braves in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia

Ozzie Albies Atlanta Braves All-Star second baseman is front and center with Atlanta Metro RBI youth baseball team in Curacao
On Thursday, January 16, 2020, the ATLANTA METRO RBI youth baseball team boarded a plane at the Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport and flew to the Carribean island of Curacao. Since 2016 ATL METRO RBI takes a group of local teen athletes to a Caribbean island to give back to fellow young players who otherwise cannot afford to play the game of baseball. The group raises money year to take this trip over Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend. They team up with Mizuno??? to supply a range of baseball items to the players they meet, items will include gloves, shoes, helmets, bats, catchers gear, and apparel.

​Why did ATL METRO RBI choose Curacao? The man behind the project is John W. Hollins, Jr.  John has been a dedicated and respected community leader for over 30 years. A corporate executive and business owner. He is a Senior Account Executive with CBS 46, where he has been an integral component to the company’s growth and development for several years, managing the advertising of some of the top Ad agencies, law firms, and small businesses in Atlanta, as well as helping develop several local midsize businesses through television and digital advertising.

He has been a proud member of the 100 Black Men of America since 2008 and has served as the President of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County Inc.  Serving the community has always been very rewarding to John, he watched his father mentor young people with absent fathers and created the first organized football program in the local Eastlake Meadows housing project to promote teamwork and sportsmanship.  His father passed away in 2001.

To prove he believed God made all young people equal, he signed his oldest son and namesake (John jr.) up first.  He also believes no baby comes out of his/her mother’s womb wearing a KKK robe, with an AK 47, selling drugs or using the N-word, it is all taught behavior. Those beliefs were established by a father who planted the seeds of community reach-back at an early age.  He inspired John to establish a community youth sports program to help the family keep the legacy intact and help our children.

Big John and son John Jr. are hanging out at a charity event during the Christmas holidays.

John established his 501 c3 non-profit organization in the summer of 2014.  He began International travel last year 2019, the teens went to Puerto Rico to help and had a fabulous time.

The international component created the reason for giving back.  First, he had to identify a country where baseball was not just a passion, but a part of the country’s fabric and Identify a need for baseball equipment for kids in that country.  The American youth would become a part of the research and reason to raise money for someone you have never met because of the need.  Finding similarities among the communities, partnering with a supplier to provide the goods.   Common ground, training his youth to compete against boys that had no other way off their island, but to play their backsides off.  Then there was the Player development component, partnering with a major league franchise to create exposure for these American Boys, enter the Atlanta Braves.

Curacao island is the home of former Atlanta Braves star Andruw Jones and current Braves star Ozzie Albies.  Ozzie will meet the young players on Curacao so he can take them on a tour of the island.  After Ozzie showed the youth where he grew up, he talked to them about his life on the island and his journey to the top of his game playing major league baseball. Ozzie was generous with his kindness and time hoping to help shape the futures of the young players visiting the island.

Ozzie Albies Atlanta Braves All-Star second baseman played host and tour guild for the Atlanta Metro youth baseball team during the ML King holiday weekend.

John Hollins is the Executive Director and founder of ATL Metro RBI, Inc., the program provides health and wellness sports activity, mentoring and leadership, as well as scholarships to kids in inner cities.  To date, the ATL Metro RBI program has provided over $160,000 in scholarship money to students attending Tuskegee University, Morehouse College, Albany State College, Alabama State University, Lemoyne Owen, Clark Atlanta University, TSU, Benedict College, Grambling University, Southern University, Chipola NJCAA, Voorhees and other HBCUs. In 2015-2018 he has served passionately with other community leaders in the 100 Men organization.  They  mentor underserved young men and women towards helping to improve the quality of their lives by offering exposure and access to key community influencers, scholarships, leadership programs, and international travel.
Community service is a “Family Affair” John has been married to his college sweetheart Tekki for 33 years. His two sons L-R: John III and Jordan can come off the bench and pinch-hit at any given moment.

The RBI program has been supported in part by Major League Baseball and the Atlanta Braves organization and has, directly and indirectly, helped over 100 kids go on to play college baseball and professional baseball, through the affordable baseball programs and guidance provided.  He has also touched 400 -500 students by providing a positive baseball coaching program every summer.  In 2016 he received the Barak Obama Honoree award for Lifetime Achievement in community service for his continued work with our youth and community.  He will forever be enshrined in our 44th President’s Library with all other recipients.

John started an international program with the sponsorship of Mizuno SportIing Goods in 2019.  He, Mizuno and his players have provided over 100,000 dollars in much-needed sports equipment in the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Puerto Rico.  On the island John was awarded the Roberto Clemente Award in 2019.  Clemente is one of MLB greatest players and humanitarians.  He lost his life trying to help his people on New Year’s eve in a plane crash in 1972.  He was trying to deliver aid packages to his homeland, the island had just suffered a devastating earthquake.

John leads by example, he offers leadership and guidance drawing from his own college experience as a D1 All-Conference baseball player at Georgia State University.  He lettered for four years. He was also an All-Conference academic athlete honoree in his junior year and was a 1st team All-Conference and 2nd place vote-getter for conference player of the year.  He became an unrestricted free agent in his senior year and was selected by the Pittsburg Pirates organization.  He majored in Marketing and minored in Public relations at Georgia State University.  He is a proud Executive Board Member of Grady Memorial Hospital and serves on the Board of 100 Black Men of America, Dekalb Chapter.

He says, “I believe that working with kids will ensure a better future for our community and them.  In life, you only know what you know, with today’s technology our youth don’t interact with their elders in the community as we once did.  Our rich history is being suppressed because no one is teaching the pitfalls of yesterday.  Our youth are not  being mentored and they are making some of the same mistakes we made.  I got involved in the RBI program for a few reasons, one is to teach the game the right way and to use the game to enhance the life experiences of young men with a focus on young men of color”.

Those life experiences involved but not limited to how to conduct yourself at all times on and off the field.  He makes them understand why education should be their main focus and no plan B, plan B is what you fall back on, Plan A is what you will plan to do for the rest of your life, with the understanding nobody plays baseball forever, but you can live to be 90+ years old.  So finding a passion for what you want to do after your professional, college or high school career is over is very important.  You only know what you know, so he takes these young men on international trips with his partner Mizuno.  In 2020 they were fortunate to get Ozzie Albies to meet them on his island of Curacao and take them around where he grew up, his parents’ house, his neighborhoods, his old playing field where he still comes home to train in the offseason.

John, has helped over 100 kids go on to play college sports and 17 made it to the pros, not one has ever given a dime back to the program (Mode of Operation).

There is no one to teach our young men of color the importance of giving back, we just give to them. You would think if you fed a child when he gets older he will feed his child, but if you don’t teach him the reason and the purpose than his behavior becomes expected.  With food it’s a little easier because with hunger your child begins to cry out and so you feed him or leave him, not to hear the pain.  With our community, it’s a little harder, because success allows you to move out of poverty, where they don’t hear the pain.  Out of sight as you know is out of mind.  So very few black men give back, especially athletes.

The Black athlete and other successful blacks have made gentrification easy.  When their old neighborhoods are overrun with returning “White Flight” it is because those same homes they left behind have become ghettos because they refuse to return.  Gentrification is the process of renovating and improving a house or district where these athlets once lived so that it conforms to middle class (white folks) taste.  The system takes over their old neigborhood homes with inflated taxes and other well thoughtout maneuvers.  The ‘White Flight’ whites seize the opportunity to leave behind those one and two hour rides home by car, carpools, bus, and subway train for 30 minute rides to their front door in what was once known as the inner-city.

Bing returns to the inner-city a place he once call home

NBA Hall of Famer Dave Bing grew up in NE Washington, DC.  He was one of the few black athletes who returned home DC/Detroit and tried to support and enhance the life style of the down-trodden.

In 2008 Dave announced in DC he was running for Mayor of Detroit.  I advised him against running.   I told him, “Dave, running for Mayor of Detroit is a “Dead End Street”!   He won the election and suddenly became the ‘Enemy of the State.’  The city declared bankruptcy, the declaration of bankruptcy made Detroit the largest municipality in the United States to do so.   Dave did not seek re-election in 2013.

Let the Renaissance begin–The Realestate Market in Detriot is now booming—I will give you one guess why, Gentrification with a White Mayor!

John Hollins hopes to build an academy with an educational component equal to home school and a training facility to allow more kids to learn in each major league city where young black boys are dying every day on the streets with no hopes or dreams and no place to train and play out the Game Called life.

Coach Hollins wants to teach his youth the importance of giving back and remembering who they are and where they came from.  He found the best time to accomplish this is on Dr. King’s holiday.  Helping fellow players on the islands is not the only part of their weekend adventure, the teens are required to do a research paper on the history of the island, the residents, and their independence.  The youth finish their paper when they return stateside. They write about their personal experiences and how the trip impacted them.  The youth that made the trip were from Dekalb, Clayton, Henry, Newton, Fulton, Rockdale, and surrounding counties.

ATL METRO RBI has helped over 100 youth go to college, while 17 are currently in the pros.  The organization will continue to stress education and invest in developing future leaders since they cannot play sports forever. The program has been fortunate to have some of the players attend practice and talk of their humble beginnings when they played under Coach Hollins.  It helps the young men realize their dreams from those who have practiced and played on the same diamond.

ATL METRO RBI is thankful for the help of the players who help make the organization work for the younger generation of baseball players:  Jordan Hollins is a two-time JUCO National Champion and senior at Ottawa University in Arizona where he is one of the Captains and leaders of the program.  BJ Armstead is a Morehouse graduate now working on his Masters’ degree in social studies at UGA, while managing his own company that works with mental health challenges for young athletes, the company, APOLLO is a 501 c3 non-profit organization.  He is currently interning with Kansas City Royals.

Curtis Terry a Texas Rangers MLB home run leader in the last two years and a double-A stand out 1st baseman.   Kyle Lewis a 2016 1st round draft pick, 11th overall, Rawlings College player of the year, currently on the 40 man roster of the Seattle Mariners.

Jason Davis was a standout pitcher and Outfielder.  He is a Morehouse graduate and Phi Beta Kappa (3.75 GPA).  He is currently a MLB scout for the NY Mets, he spend his youth playing for Coach Hollins.  He said,

“I began playing for coach Hollins around the age of 16.  I played with his travel ball team, Tigers USA, in the summer and he would go on to coach me at Morehouse College.  The summer after my freshman season, he also led the RBI Atlanta 18U team as we competed in the Southeast Regionals. Coach Hollins was always a steady leader and a strong voice in the dugout; he got the most out of his players through respect and accountability, always treating us like and preparing us to become men. These lessons, both on and off the field, are what stick with me the most as I’ve begun my own matriculation into manhood. He helped me realize the value of networking and the positive impact that it can have on the lives of others, evident through his leadership with the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, RBI Atlanta (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities), and countless other efforts. Coach Hollins’ love for his community and undeniable passion to empower those around him are qualities that make the world a better place”.

Coach Hollins: A man, a leader, a role model.

This unique opportunity would not have been possible without the sponsorship of MIZUNO and community partners Atlanta Braves Foundation, Atlanta Braves, MLB, Alston and Bird, Slappy and Sadd, Pain law, Better Baseball, Patrick Desamours-Edward Jones, and Bauer Harris.

To learn more about the Atl Metro RBI organization and how to donate contact john.hollins@cbs46.com

Noteworthy:

THE MLB CHEATING SCANDAL ACCORDING TO COACH HOLLINS:

Stealing signs from the other team has been a part of the fabric of baseball sense the beginning of the game. What made it truly wrong in this case was they used technology that the other team did not have access too, so in essence they truly cheated and they added more technology to make it even more unfair, by notifying the batter when a certain pitch was coming based on technology and not human interaction.  So the other team could never catch them getting signs.

Harold Bell is a pioneer in radio sports talk shows in America.  He changed the way we talk sports.  Sports columnist the late Dick Heller of the Washington Times said, “Harold Bell is the Godfather of sports talk—the good kind.”


RIP KOBE & GIANNA

DR. KING: A CHANGE AIN’T COMING!

Dear Dr. King, the odds of people of color overcoming racism and bigotry in America–are non-existent.  Every time we make a little progress, they change the rules.  The Kerner Report warned us in 1968 we were headed for two different Americas, one Black and one White—that America is here!  They got it right, but no one was listening.

Pro Sports and Corporate America are our best barometers (White Privilege).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTWMUhYG0Y8/ Dallas, Texas sportscaster Dale Hansen.

Dr. King, meet a trail blazer, track and Field star, Roseanna “Rose” Robinson.  She sat in protest almost a decade before the 1968 Olympic Game’s track and field stars, John Carlos and Tommie Smith.  Ms. Robinson was a high jumper and sprinter for the U. S. Summer Pan American Games.  It was the summer of 1959 and I had just graduated from Fairmont Height High School in Prince Georges County.

Chicago was the host city for the games and it was overrun with 2,000 athletes from 24 countries participating.  As the U. S. national anthem started to play, the crowd inside Soldier Field rose to its feet in excitement, but Ms. Robinson kept her seat in protest.  This track and field athlete was not there for the bloated displays of American greatness.  To her, the anthem and the flag represented war, injustice, and hypocrisy.

Ms. Robinson was harassed for her political stand after the games were over. The most devastating blow was at the hands of the IRS.  Just six months after the games they hauled her into court for back taxes and sentenced her to one-year and one-day.   She refused to pay $346.00.  She told the judge, “If I pay income tax, I am participating in the U. S. government’s propensity for violence and war.”

In August 2019 sixty-years later at these same Pam American Games, Ms. Gwen Berry a Hammer Thrower, stood on the podium wearing bright blue lipstick and a gold medal around her neck.  As the end of the national anthem played, she bowed her head and raised her fist, issuing a silent protest motivated by her personal journey and her belief that, “America can do better.”  She was penalized by the United States Olympic Committee and placed on probation and issued a public letter aimed at intimidating and discouraging further protest!

 

Gold medal winner Roseanna Robinson (top left) at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru in 1959.  Natasha Cloud/Champion WNBA Washington Mystics (Center photo) and Gwen Berry (bottom right).  These are women who stood and are standing for something.

The U. S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee just bestowed its highest honor on Tommie Smith and John Carlos two of the sports world’s most iconic activist.  They were inducted into its hall of fame in November 2019?  Ms. Berry was put on probation for taking a similat stand in 2019!  Something is wrong with this picture.

Despite this hypocrisy, women keep stepping up to the plate. Recently the New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury, and Indiana Fever wore black warm-up shirts, a WNBA league uniform violation, in solidarity with the victims of police brutality.  The Minnesota Lynx wore “Change Starts With Us: Justice & Accountability” shirts in a pregame press conference.  Players from both the Lynx and Washington Mystics, have refused to take postgame interviews unless they could talk about social issues, especially, gun violence.   The Mystics, have taken a stand against Justice and Just-Us, and kids killing kids. This effort is being led by Mystics star guard, Natasha Cloud.

Washington Mystics Natasha Cloud leading the fast break in WNBA finals 2019.  She leads a faster break trying to stop violence in her community.

In the meantime, Washington Wizards’ high paid stars John Wall and Bradley Beal are missing the boat by just giving away toys at Christmas, book bags on the first day of school and turkeys at Thanksgiving in place of taking a stand against kids killing kids.  It would be great to see them team up with the Mystics to help curb the everyday violence that occurs right outside the doors of their practice facility on Alabama Avenue SE, DC (Ward 8).

The biggest change the Wizards have made so far in the community since moving from Landover, Md. to the Nation’s Capitol, was when owner Abe Pollin renamed the team, the Washington Bullets became the Washington Wizards. The city was once called “Chocolate City and the Wild, Wild West” all in the same breath. The make-up and the name Chocolate City is slowly disappearing, but the Wild, Wild West is a stubborn kind of fellow. The murder rate in DC is 5.9 100,00 people higher than the national average of 5.0, after dark Ward 8 is considered the most dangerous place to be in the Nation’s Capitol.

On January 20th the country celebrated Dr. King’s birthday and many sung and hummed the tune “We Shall Overcome?”

The truth of the matter pro sports franchises today are the worst example of an equal opportunity employer in America.  During the celebration of Dr. King’s birthday, Major League Baseball for example of the 30 teams there are only three men of color who are managers.  Currently, there are three vacancies because of a cheating scandal that has rocked the league.  The chances of a Black/Afro-American being hired for one of those vacancies, the odds are against him.  The Mets are the best bet of hiring a Black Afro-American, but the chances of a person of color being hired is 50-50 (Hispanic, Latino, Mexican, Dominican, Asia, etc).

The number of Black/African American players on the rosters of Major League Baseball is less 10% ,  Remember, Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947, seventy-three years later, Black ownership is ZERO!

NBA is much more progressive, blacks make up close to 75% of the league, and it has one black owner (Michael Jordan).  And according to Super-Star Lebron James, Commissioner Adam Silver is a good guy because he allows them to be black and proud and protest!

The NFL is a disaster when it comes to being an equal opportunity employer.  February 2020 they head into Miami for the 54th Super Bowl and celebrating 100 years, my question, what are they celebrating?  There are 32 teams and no black/afro-Americans owners.  The league is 70% black, and the persons of color owning teams, one is a Pakistani (Jacksonville) and the other is an Asian woman (Buffalo)???? There are 32 teams and only two black/African American head coaches and Ron Rivera (Puerto Rican).
The owners and system have all made a mockery out of the Rooney Rule.  The rule was designed according to the NFL “To give ethnic-minority candidates an opportunity for head coaching and senior football operation jobs.  It is an example of affirmative action, even though there is no hiring quota or hiring preference given to minorities, only an interviewing quota”, from the results that sounds about right.

If you were watching the showdown between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers, one of the commentators put on the screen a chart of the Shanahan Coaching Tree.  There was not one Black/Afro-American, offensive or defensive coordinator on their tree.  It was proof of the “Good Old Boy System” was still on the job.  The top coaching trees belong to Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells (Todd Bowles was on both trees?).

The owners shown their true colors when QB Colin Kapernick took a knee to protest police brutality in America.  They changed the whole narrative to “Fake News” using the flag and soldiers in and out of uniform to fan the flames of hate.  The clincher, the 90 million dollars offered to the players to resolve issues in their community-there was an immediate split among the players, mission accomplished, the owners Conquered by Dividing!

NHL is the worst of the 4 pro sports franchises: There are 31 teams, no black coaches, no black owners, no black PR guys. And according to google there are 30 Black/African American NHL players, either playing on the parent club or with an affiliate.  The commissioner Gary Bettman is a former senior Vice-President and general counsel for the NBA.  I remember meeting with him when I was a Nike rep in the late 70s in the league office in New York City.  In that meeting were Beckman, former player Rod Thorn, Vice-President of player personnel and Chief of Security, Horace Bondam. The meeting and discussion centered around players and community involvement.  Things got kind of heated when Beckman blurted out, “You cannot use the players, we own them!” Some things never change.

WHY A CHANGE AIN’T COMING

A. In 2020 a black man in America still makes half the salary of a white man

B. The benefactors of Affirmative Action are white women

C. The education system is broken

D. A cop’s bullet has replaced a lynch mob.  A black man in America is three times as likely to be shot and killed by a white cop than a white man, despite the fact we make up only 13% of the population and he makes up 75% of the population!

E. The judicial system is still broken–Justice and Just-Us is alive and well.

Hopefully when I am dancing with the Angels, I can say “I tried”.

 

THERE GOES THE JUDGES AND SO WENT JUSTICE FOR ALL!

The late DC Superior Judges Luke C. Moore and Chief Judge Eugene Hamilton hanging out at Hillcrest Saturday Program during Community Day.

January 2020 marks twenty-seven years since the death of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and November 2020 marks twenty-six years since the death of DC Superior Court Judge Luke C. Moore.  They were two GIANTS when it came to challenging the system as it related to Justice & Just-Us in American Courtrooms.  I would be remissed if I didn’t mention DC Superior Court Judge Harry T. Alexander in this same paragraph and in the same breath as it relates to Justice & Just-Us!

The reason I was so successful in my work with youth gangs and at-risk children was because Judges Moore and Alexander had my back when came to our community.  Judge Moore was the first modern day Black American to be appointed U. S. Marshall in-Charge of the U. S. Marshall Service in America.  He was appointed by my mentor President Richard M. Nixon.  In 1877 Frederick Douglas was the first black to hold the office.  He was appointed by President Rutherford Haynes and then approved by the Senate.  Douglas was also the first black to be honored with a Presidential appointment, but his power of authority was limited to Washington, DC (whites were not subject to arrest).

Santa’s helpers Judge Harry T. Alexander and Redskin LB Harold McLinton host annual KIT toy party at Marriott twin-bridges hotel in Arlington, Va.

During the 1968 riots Luke Moore, Willie Wood (NFL) and I walked the U Street corridor arm and arm trying to save lives. It was here our bond was formed. When I received a Presidential appointment in 1969 from President Nixon, Luke played an important role in supporting my non-profit organization Kids In Trouble.  After his appointment to the DC Superior Court as a sitting judge by Nixon, we teamed up to establish the first ever Half-Way House for DC juvenile deliquents on a Military Base in America. Col. Charles Reider the base Chaplin was the one who gave me the idea for Bolling Boys Base.  He is seen standing in the middle with me on the right and a resident on the left.  The Bolling Boys Base served as the home for the overcrowded Receiving Home in NE DC.

Bolling Boys Base was found on Bolling Air Force Base in SE DC in 1971. Chief Judge Harold Greene, Judges Ted Newman, Eugene Hamilton, Harry T. Alexander, and Henry Kennedy, Jr. would all follow Luke’s lead with Maryland (PG County) Judges Bill Missouri and Alex Williams (the first black State’s Attorney in PG County) would also join the team.  Redskins Larry Brown, Harold McLinton, Roy Jefferson and Ted Vactor, media personalities Petey Greene, Bill Raspberry, Jim Vance and Fred Thomas, from Law-enforcement, Assistant Chief Tilmon O’Bryant and the first black chief of the department, Bertell Jefferson all became team players for Kids In Trouble, Inc.  Our mission, to enhance the growth and opportunies for inner-city youth.  The benefactors read like a Who’s Who!

Judges Newman, Alexander and Hamilton pay tribute to Redskin RB MVP Larry Brown during a KIT charity basketball game at Georgetown University

Judge Moore welcomes Redskin WR Roy Jefferson, judges Newman, Kennedy and Tim Baylor (NFL) to the annual KIT toy party at the Foxtrappe in NW DC.Judge Kennedy at the Foxtrappe during a Inside Sports Celebrity Fashion Show.  He met his wife Altomease here during a toy party for KIT.

KIT was a “Family Affair” with the Kennedys, Randy Kennedy (Harvard University Professor) and Henry Sr. are seen here during a KIT toy drive.

Since losing Marshall, Moore, Alexander, and Chief Judge Greene we have come up short in the department of justice for all.  We lost the lion of the court Harry T. Alexander in 2010.  The turnout for this great man’s homegoing service I found rather embarrassing, especially by the absence of DC Superior Court judges and the black community at-large who chose not to attend.  Today’s black judges stand on his shoulders, but were nowhere to be found during his service.  Retired Judge Ted Newman was the only one I saw in attendance. The other no-shows know who they are that didn’t pay this man the respect he earned in the courtroom.  Judge Alexander and I didn’t always agree, but I loved and respected the man.  He didn’t just talk the talk he walked the walk.My friend the late Judge extraordinary Harry T. Alexander, a man who demanded respect in his courtroom for men and women of all colors, and creeds, no matter their status in “The Game Called Life”.   One DC cop kept referring to a black on trial in his courtroom as “Boy”, Judge Alexander dismissed the case for mistaken idenity.

The Washington Post came up short as usual when we lose stand-up black men in our community.  They would rather promote drug kingpin Rayful Edmond’s new DVD on Page One.  I wrote a lionizing column on what is now a national media outlet CBS television own blog “The Bleacher Report”! Google, “Judge Harry T. Alexander A Super Star in the Game Called Life”.

Judges Alex Williams and the late Bill Missouri of PG County were contributors to KIT but both came up short in the courtroom.  One was known as “The Hanging Judge” and the other was known to ‘Speak no evil and see no evil’, that was not justice for all–it was justice for some.

For those who didn’t know DC Superior Court Judge Luke C. Moore let me introduce you to this remarkable and unique human being. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkafk63frbg

Noteworthy: A change ain’t coming if you sitting around waiting for it to knock on your door.   My friend the late Congressman Elijah Cummings said it best, “200 years from now when you are dancing with the Angels, the question will be ‘What did you do to keep our Democracy intact, did you say and do nothing?  We are better than that!’  My question to you,  “Are you better than that”?          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEXhZ8PwM-Y

A CHRISTMAS STORY: BLACK FRIDAY 365 DAYS OF THE YEAR IN THE INNER-CITY!

Gospel vocalist, Robin ‘Sugar’ Williams on a field trip to WJLA television with a group of DC elemeantary school children and today with her own child.

Black Friday has been a holiday tradition for over a century.  Where did it all start?  It was on a Friday in September 1869 in what became known as ‘Black Friday”.  The US Gold market crashed and Wall Street Barons Fisk and Gould’s faced bankruptcy.  According to the History Channel, Black Friday had nothing to do with holiday shopping.

It was all about two unscrupulous power hungry and greedy men who conspired to corner the American Gold market, which at that time was the basic for the US dollar.  The earliest evidence of the phrase of the holiday Black Friday applied to the day after Thanksgiving.   In a shopping context suggest that the term originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disrupted pedestrian and vehicle traffic the day after Thanksgiving.   Black Friday, thanks to the greedy has since spilled over to the Christmas holidays.

“What a Wonderful Life” is one of my favorite holiday movies starring the great actor Jimmy Stewart. It played a role in assisting me in keeping hope alive for one of the most admired DC TV anchors ever. The giving spirit is what Christmas is all about. When I gave my first ever Christmas toy party for needy children in December 1968 I had no clue that Hattie and I would be carrying on the tradition for 45 straight years without grants or loans and thousands of children in the DMV would benefit.

You would not believe some of the folks who became Santa’s Helpers!  I Remember DC Superior Court Judge Luke Moore and several of his colleagues and police chiefs that followed his lead?  They included, Chief Judge Harold Green, Ted Newman, Eugene Hamilton, Henry Kennedy Jr. and Assistant DC Police Chief Timon O’Bryant and DC’s first Black Chief, Burtell Jefferson.

DC Police Chief Burtell Jefferson is a Santa’s Helper during a Kids In Trouble annual toy give away at Face’s Restaurant in NW DC.

The toy drives were led by Washington Redskins WR Roy Jefferson, LB Harold McLinton, RB Larry Brown and DB Ted Vactor.  The Santa Helpers would also include; radio and television personalities, like Petey Greene, movie stars, and entertainers from the world of music.

The real stars and the backbone of the toy parties were everyday people from all walks of life.  They had names like, Zack, Dog Turner, Black Danny, Bob Wayne, Norman Smith, Phila.Jake, Slippery Jackson, Cornell, Shep, Nook, and Herman Thomas. They were all entrepreneurs and businessmen on the streets and byways of DC.  Their Fortunate 500 Companies (stores and offices) were opened 24/7.  They were located in far NE (Benning Road) to far NW (7th & T Streets).  They never had sales or Black Fridays their reach-back efforts were 24/7.  Their Masters Degrees and Phds were earned as a result of Common Sense–Street Sense–Book Sense (well read). Their best characteristic, you could carry their WORD to the bank.  They had my back come hell or high water.  NFL All-Pro DB Johnny Sample, producer Rodney Brown, Santa’s Helper, Phila. Jake, join WR Roy Jefferson, DB Willie Wood and RB Jim Brown at the Hyatt Regency for a NFL Legends Roundtable forum in NW DC.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzY5Mki8OVE/

I remember one Christmas as I was preparing for one of my annual toy parties when one of Santa’s Helpers lengthened the life span of one of DC’s most popular media anchors, Jim Vance.  He gave me a check the anchor had written for a drug transaction and it had nothing to do with ‘insufficient Funds’.  He surprised me with the check because it was all cash and carry in his business.  Bob was known as a “Hard Ass” in the streets of DC and we were often like ships passing in the night with attitudes.  He reminded me of my friend NBA legend Red Auerbach, he had a hard exterior, but he was nothing but a pussycat if he liked you! Television anchors Maureen Bunyand and Lark McCathy join DJ Donnie Simpson and me for a fund raiser at the Foxtrappe for the Atlanta child murders.

I remember, when I decided I wanted to be a politician, Bob and several of my friends encouraged me to run against the notorious Ward 7 City Councilman H. R. Crawford.  Bob gave me his cherished red Volkswagen to use for the campaign.  He helped finance a office on Minnesota Ave. NE for my campaign Headquarters.  He and several other Santa’s Helpers decided to have a fund raiser for me at Nook’s crap house an after hours joint on Benning Road NE one Saturday night.  I went to keep an eye on the fund raiser but in the wee hours of the morning with money flowing like water I decided I needed to go home and get me some sleep.

On Sunday I returned to Nook’s place to pick up the money cut/raised by Bob for my campaign.  Bob was nowhere to be found.  I was told that he had cut between $3,000 and $5,000.  It took me several days to catch up with him and when I did he gave me an evelope with $1,500.  Rumor had it he had gone to Atlantic City with the fundraising money, I never question the rumors.  I left well enough alone.  I learned early not to look a “Gift Horse” in the mouth.  I lost to H. R. because I lacked the proper funding, Bob put his money and resources where his mouth was, the others just ran their mouths.   Looking at today’s political landscape it was the best thing to ever happen to me.

Jim and me at the Roy Jefferson reading center in NW DC.  Roy’s community outreach was unmatched when it came to Redskin players.

Bob was a businessman an admirer of Jim and the work we were doing together in the community.  This was an unheard of gesture on the mean streets of DC.  When I gave Jim the check I encouraged him to get some help.  He stopped speaking to me for 20 years.  Still this was one of the best Christmas presents I have ever given—20 more years of a life.  He enrolled in the Betty Ford Clinic shortly after that encounter.

I cannot wait to see my favorite Christmas story “It’s a Wonderful Life” because it is—Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

 

Letter to Hattie and Harold congratulating them on honoring Muhammad Ali on the 45th Anniversary of The Rumble in the Jungle / Steny Hoyer

The late Congressman Elijah Cummings one said, “From my own life experience, I can attest that we have come a long way toward universal justice in this country, but we are not there yet”.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geFgPqTesnk/ “We are better than this”

HATTIE T: SHE WAS ALONG FOR MORE THAN JUST THE RIDE! by HAROLD BELL

photo by fred shepard

Hattie T and me with Congressman Steny Hoyer’s Senior Community Constituent Service’s Coordinator, Daryl Pennington.  She congratulates us on our reach-back efforts in the community through our non-profit organization Kids In Trouble, Inc.  Daryl presents us with a certificate from Congressman Hoyer.

When “The Harold Bell Story ” made its way to the Big Screen on Sunday November 24, 2019, it was clear that Hattie T was there for more than just the ride.

She is a “Lady” of the south, a first born in Orangeburg, S. C. to Civil Rights icons, the late Dr. Charles H. Thomas, Jr. and Elease Thomas.  Her mother was a school teacher and her father taught psychology at South Carolina State University.  He was also the President of the local chapter of the NAACP and he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in the early 50s.

 

There is a faded Christmas card received from Dr. King to the Thomas family during the Christmas holidays in the late 50s. Dr. King is seen sitting on the left and Dr. Thomas is standing on the right in the home of the Thomas Family.  Dr. Thomas “FREEDOM NOW”.

He coordinated the first-ever student-registration drive on the campus of South Carolina State University.  The movement quickly spreaded across the state of South Carolina. He was inducted into the Black South Carolina Hall of Fame in 2007.

Dr. Thomas and his wife seen here on the front lines led Orangeburg residents on the march for Civil Rights in the 50s.

In the meantime, his oldest daughter Hattie T and her siblings followed him and his wife Elease to the picket lines to protest racial discrimination in the city of Orangeburg.

Dr. Thomas is seen rescuing his children, Hattie T in sunglasses, Reggie and Loretta from the Orangeburg jail.

Dr. Thomas is a graduate of Dunbar High School in Washington, DC

Hattie T is a graduate of Claflin University in Orangeburg and received her Master’s Degree at Indiana University. She landed her first teaching job in Greensboro, NC at the HBCU Bennett College.

In 1967 she moved to Washington, DC which she considers her second home and accepted a job in the DC Public Schools at Cardozo High School in the NW Shaw/Cardozo community. The school was located several blocks from the historic U Street corridor. Hattie’s first teaching assignment—girls swimming coach. It was here she met me a youth advocate and her future husband.  I was volunteering as the wide receiver coach for the Cardozo football team. 

Coach Harold Bell with DC Public School’s Inter-High West All-Stars with a show and tell of the proper technique of catching a football.  I never saw one I could not catch.

Top Photo: Hattie T with beginners in the Cardozo High School pool and me with Redskins’ RB Larry Brown and the late LB Harold McLinton at the Kids In Trouble Hillcrest Saturday Program.  NFL Films/CBS Sports is videotaping the first-ever national television community promo for the league.  Larry and Harold were teaching water safety to inner-city youth.

Hattie T and me became engaged shortly before the 1968 riots in April.  She watched me take to the dangerous streets of DC as a Roving Leader and Youth Gang Task Force member for the DC Department of Recreation and Parks.  I had nothing but a DC police badge for protection and God on my side.

I was on the streets for three days with co-worker Willie Wood (NFL) and U. S. Marshall-in-Charge, Luke C. Moore.  We were trying to keep the peace between the armed cops and military personnel with inner-city residents.  We were married in November 1968 and found our non-profit organization Kids In Trouble, Inc. in December.  This was just in time for our first-ever KIT toy party for elementary school children.

Hattie T was there when my Virginia Sailor football teammate the late George Kelly played the first-ever Santa Claus. Redskins’ LB Harold McLinton, WR Roy Jefferson, LB Dave Robinson, and QB Doug Williams would all follow his lead.  She was there for 45 straight years.  I was the host and coordinator for toy parties for elementary school children throughout the DMV to include Baltimore without grants or loans.The late DC Superior Court Judge Luke Moore and the late Redskin LB Harold McLinton with teammates NFL Hall of Fame player, LB Dave Robinson and All-Pro WR Roy Jefferson were all Santa’s Helpers for the annual KIT toy party.

She was there in 1969 when President Richard M. Nixon invited me to the White House to renew an old friendship established in the late 50s when I caddied for him at the Burning Tree Golf Course in Bethesda, Maryland.  He honored me with a Presidential appointment.

Hattie T was there in February 1972 when I became the first Black/Afro-American to host and produce his own radio sports talk show in DC.  It was her idea to name the new talk show “Inside Sports”.   The format changed the way we talk sports around the globe.

She was there in 1974 when Congressman Lou Stokes (D-Ohio) read my name into the Congressional Record on the House Floor for my work with youth gangs and at-risk kids on the streets of the inner-city.  On the Hill with Lou and NFL great Jim Brown.

She was there when Muhammad Ali woke us up in the middle of the night inviting me to New York City to interview him after he had stunned the world with his 8th round knockout of the undisputed and undefeated heavyweight champion, George Foreman.  She was there when I became the first Black/Afro-American to host and produce my own sports television special in primetime on NBC affiliate WRC TV 4 in November 1975.  My special guest was Muhammad Ali.

She was there when Washingtonian Magazine honored me as Washingtonian of the Year in 1980.  I was the first sportscaster ever honored.  The 1980 Washingtonian of the Year included, Redskin QB Joe Theisman and, his friend kicker Mark Mosley was also in attendance.

She was there on June 4, 2019, as the Executive Producer against all odds for my on-screen teaser “We Remember Muhammad Ali”.

photo by fred shepard

She was there on Sunday, November 24, 2019, when my one of a kind documentary “The Harold Bell Story: I remember Muhammad Ali” against all odds made its debut on the Big Screen at the Miracle Theatre in Washington, DC. Former Redskin and vocalist Dick Smith closes the show with “My Way”. photo by fred shepard

Hattie T. Bell standing by her men, Dr. Charles H. Thomas, Jr., and Harold Bell.

Happy holidays to a “Phenomenal Woman”.

Happy belated birthday to my Aunt Elaine Stone who was 100 years young on June 4, 2019 photos by fred shepard

A BLACK MAN: HIS WORD IS THE ONLY THING HE OWNS IN AMERICA!

In 2007 legendary syndicated radio talk show host and fly jock Tom Joyner called me “A little known Black History fact!”  

October 30, 2024, marks the 50th Anniversary of The Rumble in the Jungle.  On this date in boxing history, Muhammad Ali stunned the boxing world with an 8th round knockout of the undisputed and undefeated Heavyweight Champion of the world–George Foreman in Zaire, Africa.

I had friends back then like my running partner, the legendary radio personality, Petey Greene, a confused and conniving Georgetown basketball coach, John Thompson, a lying Don King calling me to suggest a boxing topic spotlighting him on my radio talk show.  My phone was used like the “911 Customer Service for Boys in the Hood.”

On November 3, 1974, I was in a deep sleep when my phone rang around midnight which was nothing unusual.  My wife Hattie had moved me to the side of the bed where the telephone was located.

I remember it was a rainy night in Washington, DC. when Muhammad Ali returned home to United States from Zaire, Africa.   On his arrival in New York City, his first call to a little unknown sports talk show host–made me no longer unknown!

l almost missed the call, I was sleeping so good I ignored the phone until Hattie hit me with an elbow in my back waking me up.

Reluctantly, I picked up the phone and the voice on the other end said, “Let me speak to Harold Bell”, I was still half sleep, my response was, “Who is calling?” The voice repeated, “Let me speak to Harold Bell” and again I repeated, “Who is calling?”  This time the voice boomed back, “Fool this is Muhammad Ali, the Heavyweight Champion of the whole wide world!” 

I sat up straight in the bed thinking I was having a nightmare.  I muttered, “Congratulations Champ!” Hattie turned over and whispered, “Who is it?”  I whispered back, “Its Muhammad Ali.”  She turned over and went back to sleep, never believing a word I said.

Ali’s next question, “Do you still want to do that interview?”  I said, “Yea Champ!”   Fifty-years later I am still blown away Ali had not forgotten the promise he made to me in Chicago before leaving for Africa and what is now known as “The Rumble in the Jungle!”

How and where this discussion first take place?

Before Ali broke camp in the Poconos Mountains in the summer of 1974, he asked me what where my plans in the future?   I told him I wanted to do a made for television one on one interview with him.  He invited me to Chicago to discuss those plans further.

In August my friend and producer Rodney Brown and I flew to Chicago to meet with the champion.  I made plans through his brother Rahman about the date and time I would be in Chicago.  My trip was approved by Ali and we were off to Chicago.

On our arrival at O’Hare Airport, Pat Patterson, Ali’s chief of security picked us up and drove us to the gym downtown where Ali was working out. Pat took us through a side door to enter a packed gym of media and fans watching the champ work out.  He worked out for another 30 minutes and disappeared.

Rodney and I were left standing out in the gym with everyone else trying to figure what was our next move.  Ali’s brother Rahman tapped me on the shoulder and told me to follow him.

He took me to a dressing room where the champ was getting a massage.  There was a chair sitting next to the massage table and he motion for me to sit down.

The conversation started like we had left off in the Poconos Mountains, “What do you want to do Harold Bell?” 

My response was the same, “I want to do a one on one made for television interview with you.”

Ali’s response left me speechless, he said, “No problem, we can do the interview in Zaire, Africa.”  I could hardly get the words out of my mouth, “Do what, where did you say?”

He said, “You know I am going to Africa to fight that chump George Foreman and we can do the interview there, in the motherland.”  My response, looked like it caught him by surprise, he sit up on the table and looked at me and said, “Fool what is wrong with you?”  I said, “Man I am not flying to South Africa to interview you.”

He repeated, “Fool what is wrong with you?”   I had to confess, “I was scare to fly across the ocean.”  He looked at me and burst out laughing and called me a chicken.  He started to cluck like a chicken.  I stood my ground and told him, “I will see you when you get back from Africa.”

We both fell asleep in the dressing room, me in the chair and Ali on the massage table. Ali’s personal photographer  Howard Bingham, would wake me telling me the champ needed to get some rest and I needed to leave the room?

I would see Ali at dinner before leaving for the airport to head back to DC. He slide up beside me and whispered, “When I knock this chump out, you will be the first to interview me when I get back home.” 

He was always playing around and what he said to me went in one ear and out the other. This takes me back to the night of November 3, 1974.

I invited me to come to New York City for an exclusive one on one interview.  This invitation made me the first Afro-American/Negro/black/colored/N to ever be invited to interview an undisputed reigning Heavyweight Champion of the World one on one. Why me?

When I hit the airwaves with The Original Inside Sports in 1972, the format changed the way we talk sports in America and now around the world. I was the first talk show host to successfully blend sports and politics into a radio talk show format.

I am the reason sports talk show host Jim Rhome is worth 75 million dollars, NFL/CBS host James Brown is worth 10 million dollars. In the meantime, the likes of ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith will be trying to negotiate a 10 million dollar contract for the year 2020 and ESPN’s Mike Wilbon formerly of the Washington Post is now earning 6 million dollars. The common denominator, they all copied my Original Inside Sports talk format–unheard of before1972.

When I hit the airwaves with The Original Inside Sports in 1972, my format changed the way we talk sports in America and now around the world.                                                   

Dr. Harry Edwards was the architect behind the 1968 Olympic Boycott that featured winning sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith standing on the platform holding their right hands high with black gloves protesting discrimination in America.  The protest was heard around the world.

Dr. Edwards said, “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”.  Your work was a major force over the years in leveling the playing field, especially in terms of the struggle to define and project “Our Truth!”  

Mike Wilbon and the legendary late Gary Mays aka “The One Arm Bandit” during a  celebration of Black History Month in DC.

Sam Jones, James Brown and the late Earl Lloyd as we celebrate Black History Month on Bolling Air Force Base. 
“Inside the NFL” I wonder who thought of that tag?

I made more sports media history when NBC affiliate WRC-TV 4 in Washington, DC aired a segment of my one on one interview with Ali in primetime on Sunday, November 23, 1975.

The talk format was so popular and had so much potential the Washington Post kidnapped my tag INSIDE SPORTS in 1978. They would send almost their entire sports and Style section department writers to New York City to publish “Inside Sports Magazine.”

The Magazine folded in two-years after losing several million dollars. The problem, the paper’s owners Katerine and son Donald Graham and their All-Star publishing team could not figure out how to transform print into my popular Inside Sports talk show format.

Dale Hansen is a Dallas, Texas television sportscaster and a YouTube sensation. He confessed that his success and accomplishments as a television sportscaster were because he was the benefactor of “White Privilege!” 

He was honored here in my hometown of Washington, DC as “Sportscaster of the Year” after he had copied my sports talk format that I had introduced decades before he discovered he was a benefactor of “White Privilege.”
When Mr. Hansen discovered who I was and my sports media history this was the telephone message he left for me. “Harold this is Dale Hansen in Dallas (summarizing) everything you have done makes my little bit look like a page off the covering of WHITE PRIVILEGE!”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTWMUhYG0Y8
I have labored in AM radio (the weakess signal in radio broadcast media) almost my entire career.  My contributions to sports talk and community reach-back are unsurpassed. Pro athletes, politicians, judges, police chiefs, media personalities have all followed my lead into the inner-city to enhance the growth of inner-city children. The NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL all care because Harold Bell went where there was no path and left a trail in the community for them to follow.

I use my talk show format to campaign successfully to have two pro athletes inducted into their hall of fames after they had been forgotten and blackballed, Willie Wood (NFL) and Earl Lloyd (NBA).  The athletes I have gotten an early release from jail are too many to count.

The benefactors of Inside Sports read like a Who’s Who, Dave Bing (NBA) John Thompson (GT), Sugar Ray Leonard (Boxing), Doug Williams (NFL), James Brown (NFL/CBS), Mike Wilbon (ESPN), Cathy Hughes (Urban One Radio), Kevin Blackistone (ESPN), Dave Aldridge (NBA/TNT), the list goes on and on.

Icons, Don King (Boxing) and Jim Brown (NFL) had to turn to Harold Bell and Inside Sports in times of trouble. When the media was calling King a murder and thief, I could be seen on National television (Geraldo Live) defending him against a panel of experts that included boxing historian the late Bert Sugar and the late Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jack Newfield. They all thought he should be locked up and the key thrown away. I argued that Don should be given a second chance and a opportunity to turn his life around which was and is suppose to be the American way.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nygALb50FV4

Jim Brown who was the NFL poster boy for domestic violence during his NFL career was arrested again in 2007 for the same offense against his wife Monique. Jim asked Monique to call me for help. I started a media campaign to get him an early release from prison.

In 2007 Jim repaid me by conspiring to rip off NFL Hall of Fame player Willie Wood for $57,000. The money was raised to help pay Willie’s nursing home bills during a tribute coordinated and hosted by me and Willie’s former University of Southern California teammate, attorney Bob Schmitz.

Unknown to me Mr. Schmitz had assigned members of his family to collect all monies raised on behalf of Willie during the tribute. The tribute was attended by Willie’s former teammates, Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Willie Davis, Boyle Dowler, and hall of fame players, the late John Mackey, Charlie Taylor, Sam Huff, and Jim Brown among others.

NFLHall of fame player Willie Wood thrown for a lost by Jim Brown
The great legendary LB Sam Huff stops to wish Willie well.  Sam is now a victim of dementia.   Jim Brown and the late icon comedian Dick Gregory and I huddle during the tribute.

When the tribute was over Willie was asking, “Where is my money?” All roads led back to his Attorney Bob Schmitz.  He suddenly disappeared without a trace.  I called my partner and friend Jim Brown and gave him an update.  He agreed to call Schmitz to make an inquiry.  I suggested that Willie’s sister Gladys be a part of that conference call.  Two days passed and I had not heard from Jim or Gladys for what had transpired during the call to Schmitz?   I dialed Gladys’ number and I was in for a shock, she told me that Jim had demanded she hang up the phone and he would handle everything.  To say I was livid would be an understatement. I had to take a deep breath before I dialed his number.

He picked up the phone and I asked the question, “What was the status of the call to Bob Schmitz?”

He immediately jumped on the defense and asked the question, ‘What the F–K was I doing questioning him about some MF money and Bob Schmitz?’  I thought I had entered the twilight zone and had landed on some street corner in SE DC among some thugs and hood rats!  I said my two-cents and hung up the phone.  I realized how lucky I was to be on the other end of the telephone. I remembered he was caught cheating on the golf course by a friend.  Jim beat him bloody and had to settle out of court.  If Jim Brown could have come through the telephone I would have been in for a good ass whipping, but not without a fight!

This whole charade was my fault because I could not see the forest for the trees. I had been forewarned by his good friend Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Olympic sprinter and Gold Medal winner Jackie Joyner Kersey, and former NFL coach and President of the Cleveland Browns, Mike Holmgren. They all swore Jim Brown was nothing but a two-bit hustler of black athletes.  He has hustled the best, Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and recently Don King.  He saved his biggest hustle for last, President Donald Trump gave him a grant for 50 million dollars disguised as “Prison Reform.”

I should have closed the door on him when Lenny Moore a former Baltimore Colts’ RB/Flanker and NFL Hall of fame player called me regarding our friend.  He said, “Harold could you talk to Jim Brown for me?” I said, ‘What’s up?’ He said, ‘Jim has been spreading the word that I have been Bad Mouthing him to the Baltimore Colt players!’  Lenny Moore is a class act and one of the nicest human beings you would ever want to meet—this was not his Mode of Operation.  Jim was paranoid because the Browns had uprooted in Cleveland and had moved to Baltimore–in Cleveland he was king.  In Baltimore, Lenny was idolized and Jim felt threaten. To make a long story short I had to meet with Jim and explain to him that whatever he was hearing about Lenny was not true–case closed! Lenny could not thank me enough.

In closing, I am grateful for this day in sports history that Muhammad Ali opened the door for me to make this great journey by his side without compromise.  RIP my friend.

Footnote: If I get a chance to dance with the Angels and the question is asked of me, “Harold what did you do in 2019 to make sure our Democracy was kept intact–did you stand on the sidelines and do and say nothing?”  Hopefully, I will be able to say, ‘I took a stand and I remembered my brother and friend in the struggle, Congressman Elijah Cummings and how he shown compassion for Michael Cohen a former attorney for President Trump. The President called him a “RAT!”  Congressman Cummings explained the definition of being called a rat (snitch) in the inner-city and said, ‘We are better than that!’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geFgPqTesnk/

ELIJAH CUMMINGS: A REAL AMERICAN HERO WHO MADE CHILDREN FIRST!

I am still in disbelief in our recent lost of a great friend and human being to us all-Congressman Elijah Cummings.

He did not have to throw a touchdown on Sunday against the Steelers, shoot a jumpshot in Madison Square Garden or hit a walk-off homerun for his Baltimore Orioles to be an American hero!–all he had to do was be himself.  

I am so glad this man passed my way.  Congressman Cummings and I would often pass each other like ships in the night tooting our horns saying hello and goodby at the same time.  It was either during The Congressional Black Caucus Weekends in Washington, DC or at Ben’s Chili Bowl during my tenure as historian.  It was at the Chili Bowl I would see him making a pit stop on his way to The Hill or heading home to Baltimore.  He would pull his black Lincoln up to the curb and run in and get his favorite half-smoke, but never without a smile or handshake. 

In 2016 I was on my way out of the exhibit hall at the Congressional Black Caucus, I spotted him sitting at a table alone on his cell phone.  I stopped to say hello and waited for him to complete his call.  He acknowledged he saw me and flashed a thumps-up.  When he finished his call he waved me over to the table.

The conversation started light and then he switched gears and started to talk about how we were losing ground in the Civil Rights movement.  I expressed my disappointment also and cited the sacrifices made by many including my wife Hattie’s family out of Orangeburg SC.  I notice his eyes lit up when I mentioned Orangeburg.

I later discovered his mother and father were born in South Carolina (as was my mother in Sumpter).  In the early 50s Hattie’s father Dr. Charles H. Thomas, Jr. was a professor of psychology on the campus of South Carolina State University and President of the local chapter of the NAACP.  He also marched with Dr. Martin Luther King and started the first ever student voter registation drive on a college campus. Dr. Thomas was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame in 2007.

Congressman Cummings was impressed and made me promise to get him that jmportant black history moment to him asap.  In November I called my good friend Attorney James Henson in Alexandria, Virginia.  He was a classmate and dear friend of Congressman Cummings.  He made a call for me to his Baltimore office to make sure that the information I was mailing would get into the right hands of staffer Vernon Simms .  Apparently it did and Hattie and her family received a letter from Congressman Elijah Cummings dated February 23, 2017 (Black History Month) commemorating her family’s contributions to the early Civil Rights Movement.  ELIJAH CUMMINGS LETTER

Dr. Thomas on the picket-line in Orangeburg, SC in the early 50s.

Congressman Cummings and I shared several character traits, he wore his heart on his sleeve, he loved children, and one of his best friends was a White Republican—Rep. Mark Meadows.  Cummings was a liberal from Maryland and Meadows is a conservative from North Carolina.  The two men had little in common, but they shared a uniquely strong friendship on Capitol Hill.  Cummings had been asked about his friendship with Meadows on several ocassions and he said, “Meadows is a good friend .  We disagreeon 95% of the issues, but ok, we’re able to talk.  He’s cordial, we’re able to negotiate the things that we are able to agree on and I like him.”  Been there and done that!

It was during a dramatic house oversight Commitee hearing in February when Lynn Patton a black woman and a long time Trump friend was brought to the Oversight Hearing chaired by Congressman Cummings.  She was there to deny that President Trump was a racist.  Things got heated when Democratic rep Rashida Tlaib called her appearance a “racist act” by Meadows.  Meadows demanded that Tlaib’s remarks be stricken from the record.  Chairman Cummings called Meadows “one of my best friends” and suggested Tlaib did not intent to call Meadows a racist.  Tlaib agreed and apologize to Meadows.  The next day they hugged it out.   Meadows returned the act of truth telling when he defended Congressman Cummings when President Trump attacked him.  Trump called Cummings’ Baltimore district “rat infested and he was a racist”!  The Baltimore Sun newspaper even called Trump out in an editorial saying,  “It is better to have a few rats than to be one!”

In 1969 I received a Presidential appointment from Richard M. Nixon a man I knew as Vice-President of the United States in the late 50s.  I was just a caddy at the exclusive all-white Burning Tree Golf Course in a DC suburb in Bethesda, Md.  When I met Nixon I was just a poor young black kid whose first home was a NE outhouse in 1940.  I was just trying to help my single parent welfare mother make ends meet.  Nixon and I had absolutely nothing in common as it related to our backgrounds except we both loved sports.  He hacked his way around the golf course with his golf partner Attorney General William Rogers who was an excellent golfer and a class act.  We would talk sports on my ride into DC with him and Rogers to catch my bus home.  My drop-off point was Westmoreland Circle located on the district line separating DC from Maryland.  When it came to knowing the difference between a Republican and Democrat I was clueless.  I was just in the right place at the right time.

From a NE Outhouse to a NW White House.  Hattie and I meet with President Nixon and Attorney General, William Rogers in the Oval Office (1969)

Congressman Cummings wore his heart on his sleeve.  His honesty and integrity were never questioned by those who knew the MAN, if he gave you his WORD you could carry it to the bank and never have to worry about insufficent-funds!  His type of integrity and honesty are a lost art in today’s American politics.  The best example;  the Words he spoke to Michael Cohen during the hearings on The Hill relating to corruption in government are words to live by  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geFgPqTesnk 

I have been truly blessed and honored to have President Nixon, Congressmen Lou Stokes (D-Ohio), John Lewis (D-Ga) and Elijah Cummings on my team.  They inspired me to be all that I could be.  They supported my pioneering efforts to reach back and reach out to the community through my non-profit organization Kid In Trouble, Inc. and my sports talk show “Inside Sports” against all odds.  Congressman Stokes was the first politician to read my name into the Congressional Record on the House floor citing my work with at-risk children and youth gangs in DC’s inner-city (Senator Bob Dole and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton would follow his lead).

When I became a radio sports talk show host I remembered the naysayers who had critiqued my political appointment, but stayed in the closet with their comments of disapproval.  For my talk show I needed a comment to close my show that would freeze the race baiters who were waiting to call-in.  I coined the phrase, “Every black face I saw was not my brother and every white face I saw was not my enemy.”  It has worked for over 5 decades.  During the Oversight hearing, Congressman Cummings showed his compassion when he reminded Michael Cohen that President Trump had called him a “Rat” and in prison and in the inner-city that is one of the worst things that you can be called.  And being called a “Uncle Tom” is another.

NFL legend Jim Brown and I visit with our friend the late Congressman Stokes on The Hill.

Earl Lloyd of Alexandria, Virginia was the first black to play in a NBA game in 1950 and in the process played on a NBA Championship team.  He was also the first assistant black NBA coach hired and the second black head coach hired behind Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics, but for some reason the NBA Hall of Fame Gods had forgotten his historical contributions to the league.  For decades they omitted his name from the ballot.  In 2000 Congressman John Lewis would team up with me and NBA legend the late Red Auerbach to campaign for his induction.  JOHN LEWIS NBA NBA legend and icon the late Red Auerbach and wife Dotie guest host on Inside Sports and NBA pioneer the late Earl Lloyd as he dribbled his way into NBA Hall of Fame in 2003, thanks to an assist from Congressman John Lewis and Red Auerbach.

Congressman Cummings saved his most profound and enlightening statement for last when he said,

“When we are dancing with the angels the question will be asked in 2019 what did we do to make sure we kept our Democracy intact.  Did we stand on the sidelines and say (and do) nothing?  The messages that we send our children are the living messages we send to our future, one we will never see!”

I am amazed how many young people have always wanted to be “Like Mike”!  If America is going to move ahead, grow and prosper more young people will need to be like Congressman Elijah Cummings.  I still want to grow up to be like Congressman Elijah Cummings and I am 81 years old.

I am following the lead of this great man and saying, “This blog is adjourned!”