John Scolinos was a hall of fame college baseball coach. He coached Pepperdine University from 1948-1960 and Cal Polytech Pomona University from 1953 to 1991.

This is one of the most inspiring stories I have ever read when it comes to making America really GREAT. If you are truly interested in making America GREAT, don’t ignore this GREAT presentation by the late GREAT Coach John Scolinos who takes us on a journey of truth to power.

The story is told by Chris Sperry a baseball consultant who develops players and amateur coaches, assists professional scouts, and counsels families of prospective college-bound student-athletes. He holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from the University of Portland, the same institution at which he served as head baseball coach for 18 years. His key interests are in player and personal development as they pertain to a life in and beyond sports. In January 1996 he attended his first American Baseball College Association Convention.

It all started in Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA’s convention.
While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name, in particular, kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.”

Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there.
In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate.
Seriously, I wondered, who is this guy?
After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage.
Then, finally …“You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate
around my neck,” he said, his voice growing testy. I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility. “I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.” Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room. “Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?”
After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”, more of a question than answer.
“That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth’s day? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?”
Another long pause. “Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach.
“That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?” Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”
“Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident.
“You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?”
“Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison.
“Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?” …………“Seventeen inches!”
“RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in
the Major Leagues?”
“Seventeen inches!”
“SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Pocatello !” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. “What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. You can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider
still, say twenty-five inches.’”
Pause.
“Coaches…” pause, “… what do we do when our best player shows up late to practice? When our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate? The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold. He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something. When he turned it toward the
crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows. “This is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline. We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We widen the plate!”
Pause.
Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag. “This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, and to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?”
Silence. He replaced the flag with a Cross. “And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church leaders are widening home plate for themselves! And we allow it.”
“And the same is true with our government. Our so called representatives make rules for us that don’t apply to themselves. They take bribes from lobbyists and foreign countries. They no longer serve us. And we allow them to widen home plate, and we see our country falling into a dark abyss while we watch.”
I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curve balls and bunting and how to run better practices, I had learned something far more valuable. From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path.
“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: if we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools & churches & our government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to …”
With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside, “… dark days ahead.”
Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not before touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches, including mine. Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches. He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach. His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players — no matter how good they are — your own children, your churches, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches.”
And this my friends is what our country has become and what is wrong with it today, and how to fix it.
“Don’t widen the plate.”

Note Worthy: Coach Scolinos was much like Muhammad Ali, He spoke truth to power. It was in the 1990s the Catholic Church was receiving significant media and public attention as it related to sexual abuse. The abuse included boys and girls, some as young as 3 years old, with the majority being between the ages of 11 and 14 aka Dr. Larry Nassar U. S. Olympic team. Education has spiraled out of control, discipline has become a thing of the past, grade fixing and violence has made it all but impossible for a child to learn in a safe environment. The parents are lost, the government and our preachers are looking for love in all the wrong places (the bank). Thank you to all the GREAT men and women who have inspired and touched my life as I have tried not to “Widen the Plate” against all odds. The question, “Have I made my community a better place than I found it–I tried! Thanks to Mike Ramey for bringing this GREAT and inspiring story to my attention.

Has anyone seen my old friends–you look around and they are gone?

In 1906 the cry “Read All About It” (metaphor) was a headline found on the front page of a San Francisco newspaper “Earthquake and Fire San Francisco in Ruins.” The newspaper was, The Call–Chronicle-Examiner.

I decided to research the history of today’s local newspapers and what role did they serve and play in local communities!

The Library of Congress BLOG has an interesting take on their role in a blog written by Matt Raymond on June 7, 2009.

He said, “Resources for local history, no form of publications captures the day to day life of a community and its citizens better than the local newspaper. Alongside the headlines proclaiming great and small events are editorials, human interest stories, obituaries, sporting events and business reports that as a whole provide a record of the community in which those events take place.

For historians, genealogists, and other scholars, newspapers provide first-hand and sometimes the only account of local news. Even in the most extreme instances, when the editorial content of the newspaper reflects journalism at it outrageous, the ordinary details of life can still be found and appreciated. As a primary source of local history information, all newspapers metropolitan dailies, suburban papers, rual weeklies and the rich ethic press are worthy of retention and preservation by libraries and archives”.

The only exception I found is the news and stories bypassed in the black community. We are given little credit for living and no credit at all for dying when it comes to local media. And many times it has nothing to do with whether the messenger is black or white. Fatty and Gary were born with strikes against them. Being born black in America was one strike for Fatty and two strikes for Gary. He was born black and later at the age of five lost an arm.

James Brown (CBS/WUSA TV 9), Michael Wilbon (ESPN), David Aldridge (TNT/NBA.com), Kevin Blackistone (Washington Post/ESPN), Coby King (Washington Post), Courtland Milloy (Washington Post)and Bruce Johnson (WUSA TV 9)all received the memo and email alerting them of the passing of these three sports/community icons. I heard hall of fame GT coach John Thompson even paid his respects at both celebrations. On the way into the church I saw playground basketball legend Sandy Freeman leaving. Sandy was John’s protector on the playgrounds. Sandy was a knockout artist and one of the nicest people you ever wanted to know until you got him wrong. He said, “Harold, Big John said “You hold a grudge too long” and we both laughed. You can forgive, but you don’t ever forget. Once again, a lie will change a thousand times, but the truth never changes.

INSIDE THE NFL–SOUNDS LIKE INSIDE SPORTS TO ME!

Sam Jones, James Brown, HBell and Earl Lloyd Black History Month Bolling AFB

Michael Wilbon, a former Washington Post sports columnist and co-host of ESPN’s Pardon the Interuption. He is a benefactor of Inside Sports and he was in attendance for a 2011 Inside Sports Black History Month tribute to Gary Mays.

Dave Aldridge is a benefactor of Inside Sports and native Washingtonian. He is a former Washington Post sports columnist. He is now an NBA sideline reporter for TNT. Dave received the memos and he lives only minutes from the 19th Street Baptist Church (one of the “Good Guys” hopefully he was out of town).

Kevin Blackistone is a native Washingtonian before his 15 minutes of fame with ESPN and the Washington Post he was a benefactor of Inside Sports. He got the memos. Courtland Milloy a career Washington Post columnist holding on for dear life at the paper as they are looking for an excuse to force him out. He got the memos. Colby King a native Washingtonian and long time columnist for the Washington Post. He was a student at Dunbar High School next door to Armstrong High School. This was during the era when the One Arm Bandit Gary Mays was the talk of the town. In 2011 Gary was visiting my home in Bowie and I put him on the telephone with Coby. The two relived their high school days for at least an hour. Colby promised to attend the tribute and write a column relating to Gary’s unbelievable success as a athlete and a man. Colby thanked me for the connection and said, “Harold you know my son is an editor for ESPN and I am going to connect him and Gary.” Famous last words, Colby was a no-show for the tribute and never contacted Gary again. He also lived only minutes from the 19th Street Baptist Church and he got the memos. https://youtu.be/CXKpTLDsSa8

Bruce Johnson a long time reporter and anchorman for WUSA TV 9. His career in television is similar to the “Cat with 9 Lives.” Through no fault of his own he is clueless when it comes to the DC community, but he faked his way through it all. I remember he would show up in the black community so often after a shooting, the residents nick named him “Black Death!” This was simply because if he was on the scene they knew someone was dead. He got the memos.

The recent passing of Norris Roy, Roland ‘Fatty Taylor’, and Gary Mays aka One Arm Bandit, is the best example of what the media thinks of black life. I will never forget how the Washington Post published a PAGE ONE story to promote a DVD about the life and crimes of Rayful Edmonds. In the 80s Rayful was considered the Nation’s Capitol most notorious drug dealer. The paper did not publish the positive stories and contributions of Norris Roy, Fatty Taylor and Gary Mays, but published the story of a drug dealer who took lives of countless black young men. And to be honest, only a few of these media personalities can take a camera crew out on their own without the consent of an assignment editor who usually does not look like us. The one think they can do on their own is show some respect by showing up.

The three were great athletes and community icons. Their passing was just a blur on the local media radar screens in Washington, DC. You had to go to social media to find their stories of their lives and deaths.

There was a great tribute paid to Gary written by his friend, sports columnist Dave McKenna on the ESPN blog “Deadspin.” Wilbon became a deaf, dumb and blind.

THE DASH

“I read of a friend who stood to speak at the funeral of his friend. He referred to the dates on his tombstone from the beginning to the end.
He noted first came the date of his birth and spoke of the following dates with tears but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years. For that dash represented all the time he lived here on earth and only those he loved knew how much that little dash was worth.
He said, for it matters not how much we own, the cars, the house, the cash. What matters is how he lived and loved and how he spent that dash.
So think about this long and hard are there things you like to change? For you never know how much time is left—–that you can still re-arrange.
If we could just slow down enough to consider what is true and real and try to understand the way other people feel. Be less quick to anger and show appreciation more—love the people in our lives like we have never loved before.
If we treat each other with respect and often wear a smile remembering this special dash will only last for just a little while.
So when your eulogy is being read and your life’s actions are being rehashed will you be proud of the things they say and how you spent your dash?”

The celebrations of life of Norris, Fatty and Gary have left me thinking will I be proud of the way my “DASH was spent?”

Santa’s Helper, first black DC Police Chief Burtell Jefferson

Lets take a look and see how my DASH has been spent so far? I was the First, community advocate to host and coordinate a Christmas toy party that benefited thousands of needy elementary school children in DC, Md. and Virginia without grants or loans. First, community advocate to coordinate a city-wide DC Public Elementary School touch football league. First, student/athlete to pay tribute to his Spingarn High School administrators and teachers for their dedicated service. First, black to host and produce his own radio sports talk show in DC. First, radio and television personality to encourage pro athletes to reach back to enhance the growth of inner-city kids. First, black to host and produce his own television sports special in prime time on NBC affiliate WRC-TV 4. My special guest, Muhammad Ali. First, sports media personality to be named Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine. First, sports media personality to be cited in the Congressional Record on three different ocassions for work with inner-city kids. First DC Nike Sports & Marketing rep and the first DC Anheuser Busch Sports & Marketing rep. The first student/athlete to recieve “The Clarence Bighouse Gaines Community Service Award, Coordinated the first Celebrity Tennis tournament for the first ever Congressional Black Caucus Weekend at Hilton Hotel. The first sports media personality to campaign and get two pro athletes inducted into their halls of fame, Willie Wood (NFL 1989) and Earl Lloyd (NBA 2003). The radio and television personalities who came through Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports before their 15 minutes of fame read like a Who’s Who.

Willie Wood NFL Hall of Fame

Earl Lloyd NBA Hall of Fame

Note Worthy: The Earl Loyd documentary “The First to Play” is a scam. All have received the memo including the NBA Commissioner.

A DASH well spent.

 
The catcher                                                                                                                                                    
The batter

On January 15, 2018 Gary Mays went home to be with the Lord, he was 82 years old. His home going services will be held at the 19th Street Baptist Church. located at 4606 16th Street NW Washington, DC. The date: Saturday January 27, 2018. Viewing 10 am Service 11 am.

“Don’t ever look back because someone might be gaining on you.”  Gary never looked back.

In February 2011 I coordinated and hosted a series of Black History Moments in Sports in Washington, DC.  Much of the series was spend honoring unsung heroes in the DC Black Community where our history is often skipped over and chronicled by folks who don’t have a clue. For example, did you know Ms. Jeannette Huston Harris the “Historian” for the Nation’s Capitol is from Kentucky?

In February 1926 the legendary and great writer/poet Carter G. Woodson gave us Black History Week and in 1976 Black History Week evolved into Black History Month.  This disproves the myth of White folks giving us the shortest month of the year.  The month of February and the annual tribute was a Black man’s idea!

The most popular tribute was the one paid to Gary Mays who as a young child had his left arm blown off by an accidental blast from a shotgun, he was 5 years old. 

Gary attending a Black History Month tribute and shares a laugh with me and ESPN’s Michael Wilbon during the program.

Gary moved to Washington, DC from West Virginia at the age of twelve.  His story of growing up on the tough streets and playgrounds of Washington, DC should be on a movie screen.

He had a double whammy growing up as a black male child in America and with one arm.  Gary grew up in NW DC in a neighborhood raised by his grandmother where it would have been a challenge for a two armed kid. 

The bullies that he encountered would make today’s bullies look like choir boys. There were no driveby shootings from moving cars running away from the scene of the crime it was hand to hand combat. Thanks to his powerful right arm and hand he developed a knockout punch that allowed him to take names and kick ass. The powerful punch was developed early thanks to his uncle Charles Aubrey who was a semi-pro baseball catcher in West Virginia. During backyard catch games Gary was on the receiving end of his uncle’s many fast balls thrown high and sometimes low and in the dirt. This daily drill helped prepare him as young kid to be a one of a kind athlete. When Gary left for D.C. to live with his mother, one his Uncle Charles’ teammates gave him a parting gift, it was a baseball glove. The rest is baseball history and what legends are made of today. Once he arrived in DC he started playing organized baseball at the age of thirteen with young men years older on a team called the Georgetown Panthers. Gary picked Armstrong Technical High school to take his athletic skills to the next level. He was already a playground legend and still his baseball coach Major Robinson was a skeptic. He didn’t think Gary could make his team, but it didn’t take him long to make a believer out of Coach Robinson. He was not only a feared catcher, but he was also a power hitter, his bat was just as feared as his throwing arm. I grew up with my grandmother and my older brother Bobby played second base on the team and he would come home and tell me stories about the feats of his one arm teammate. I thought he was making these stories up until I saw “The One Arm Bandit” with my own eyes. I was a student at Brown Middle school in the early 50s when Gary and Elgin Baylor were the talk of the town.

My big brothers, Earl and Bobby (Gary’s teammate) with our mother, Hattie T and sister-in-law Ann

We grew up with my grandmother and Bobby would come home and tell stories about the feats of his one armed teammate.  I thought he was making these stories up until I saw “The One Arm Bandit” with my own eyes.

I was a student at Brown Middle school in the early 50s when Gary and Elgin Baylor were the talk of the town.

Brown Middle School is located at 24^th and Benning Road in NE DC.  It sits on a hill like no other school system in America.  There are three other schools located within a stone’s throw of each other.  First there is Spingarn High School the home of NBA Hall of Famers Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing, next is Charles Young Elementary, and directly behind it sits Phelps Vocational High School and at the end of the street there is Brown Middle School.  

The basketball court sits directly across from Brown was the site of some memorable playground basketball games that included the likes of Gary, Elgin Baylor, Dave Bing, Ralph ‘Daddy Grace’ Paige, Bernard Levi, Sandy Freeman, Earl Richards, Willie Wood, Willie Jones, etc.  Elgin and Dave are in the NBA Hall of Fame and Willie is in the NFL Hall of Fame. The late Len Ford of Armstrong is the other student/athlete in the NFL Hall of Fame. This feat makes the DC Public High Schools the only public school system in America that can make such a claim of having four student/athletes inducted into the pro sports hall of fame. Philadephia playground legend and NBA Hall of Fame inductee Sonny Hill said, “DC produces more great basketball players per capital than any other city in America.

The DC Public School system is the only public school system in America that can lay claim of having four student/athletes in the NFL and NBA Hall of Fames.

Directly across the street from Spingarn is the historical Langston Golf Course where I got to see Heavyweight Boxing Champion Joe Louis and legendary golfer Charlie Sifford up close and personal.

This unique school setting allowed me to watch my brother and Gary play the game they loved.

This historical hill and school system are now an endangered species.  In the near future this hill will be the home of the rich and famous with million dollar homes and condos replacing the schools on “The Hill.”

The golf course will become a country club for the residents who will definitely not look like us.  They will dock their boats on the Anacostia River and travel to National Harbor for a “Power Lunch”. They will take the streetcar on Benning Road in the mornings and evening as their mode of transportation to work and back home. 

There is no way in hell the city built street cars on Benning Road for Black and poor high school students to share with the rich!  “The Educational Hill” will disappear right before our very eyes and become the Residential Hill.

Gary said, “This has been in the plans for decades.”

When he became a high school senior he was built like a linebacker at 5-foot-11, 185-pound with an arm and wrist so powerful he threw would be base stealers out with ease.

The Washington Star, Daily News and the Times Herald ignored his great feats on the field of play.  Despite the non-recognition he was still named as one of three finalists for the Paris Trophy, given to the city’s top prep baseball player.  This was a statement in itself since the only thing preppy about Gary was he sometimes wore a sweater to school.

Gary won the sportsmanship award, but he didn’t win the city’s MVP award.  He was not chosen for the MVP or selected to play at the whites-only, season-ending All-High, All-Prep Game at Griffith Stadium.  Since he played in Division II athletics in the DC Public High Schools he was not eligible.

He was definitely worthy, according to the Washington Daily News, Gary batted .375, yielded zero stolen bases and didn’t make a single error. The paper noted that the recognition was earned and not based on “sympathy” it was his pure talent that got their attention.

In June 1954, the local newspaper “The Daily News” held its annual tryout camp at Griffin Stadium. Hundreds of hopeful young men and more than a dozen major league scouts were in attendance. During those three days Gary was the best player in the stadium.

This is the same ballpark where he once wasn’t allowed to compete in a prep all-star game.  In a camp-closing scrimmage, Gary threw out a base runner and hit the only home run, a 350-foot drive over the center-field fence. He was unanimously voted camp MVP.

He was dominate in a group of players that included future Washington Senator outfielder Chuck Hinton.  Chuck went on to have a 11-year major league career. Gary did not receive a contract offer and was never invited to a major league baseball camp for a tryout.

A Major League scout explained to the Daily News that Gary could never be an effective catcher because “he’s at a disadvantage on a ball thrown in the dirt.”  This statement was just a smoke screen and use to cover up his racist and bias attitude for not offering Gary a contract.

Gary dismissed the racial overtones as, “That is the way it was and no one ever said Life was fair.”

It was Gary’s basketball coach Charlie Baltimore that gave him the tag “The One Arm Bandit.”

One day in practice Coach Baltimore got pissed off after Gary had stolen the ball for about the sixth time he screamed at no one in particular, “How in the hell do you guys keep letting that “One Arm Bandit steal the ball?”  The name has been with him ever since.

In 1954 months before desegregation was outlawed in all public schools in America by the Supreme Court (Brown vs Board of Education), Armstrong and Spingarn High School played each other for the Division II basketball title.

Gary and his teammates would face the greatest basketball player to ever touch a ball in the annals of DC basketball—Elgin “Rabbit” Baylor.

In one of the biggest games in Division II basketball history and against all odds Armstrong would meet undefeated Spingarn and “The Basketball God” for the title.  The two teams had met twice during the regular season and Baylor had averaged close to 50 points in the two victories.

Armstrong Coach Charlie Baltimore knew he had no chance of beating Spingarn if he didn’t find a way to stop Elgin Baylor.  Just before tip-off he called his Captain Gary Mays and teammates together.

He instructed everyone on the floor to play a zone defense with the exception of Gary.  He was told to play Elgin Man to Man.  Coach Baltimore said “I want you to stay with Elgin regardless of where he decides to go including the bathroom and once he gets there, you sit on the toilet paper!”

The final score Armstrong 50 Spingarn 47.  Gary held Elgin to 18 points half of his regular season average on his home court, talking about against all odds!

Gary shoots over Spingarn defenders that including No. 23 the legendary Elgin Baylor

The defense Coach Baltimore devised was called a Box In One the same exact defense my high school Coach the late Dr. William Roundtree had asked me to play my senior year at Spingarn.  Until I heard Gary’s story on why he was able to hold Elgin to 18 points I was walking around thinking I was the first high school basketball player to play in a Box In One!

There were three other things that Gary and I had in common we were both raised by our grandmothers (early years), we were piss poor students and we both wore No. 23.

I was in the same boat with Pittsburg Steeler’s QB Terry Bradshaw you could spot me the C-A in cat and I still could not spell it.

The similarities end there he was easily the greatest all-around athlete in the city.  He could swim like a fish, played pool and held his own with the sharks and hustlers.

Gary was due to graduate in June 1954 but he had to return to Armstrong to get credits for English and a piano class.  He passed both courses and graduated in January 1955.

He wanted to take his athletic skills to the next level by attending college and had been asked by the legendary basketball coach Johnny McLendon to play for him at Tennessee State University in Nashville.  The late Coach McLendon was a class act and he was one of the finest coaches to ever coach the game of basketball.  He was an innovator and created “The 4 Corners.”

As bad luck would have it Elgin Baylor and Dunbar High School student/athlete Warren Williams came home on a college Christmas break and asked Gary to join them at the College of Idaho.

They made him an offer he could not refuse and Gary joined them for the 54 hour ride by train where Black faces were in short supply.  They joined R. C. Owens who would later go on to be an All-Pro wide receiver for the NFL San Francisco 49ers. 

During his pro career, he and NFL Hall of Fame QB John Brodie created “The Alley Oop” pass play.  The pattern consisted of Owens running straight down the field and Brodie throwing the ball as far and high as he could get it.  Owens would use his basketball skills to out jump the defender for the ball.

In the meantime at the college of Idaho, Elgin, Warren, Gary and R. C. were pioneers during the 50s.  There was an unwritten rule that no school could play more than three blacks at time, but the College of Idaho was different.

He reminded me of the great NBA legendary coach, Red Auerbach, as the basketball coach, Sam Vokes walked to his own drum beat.

He wore two hats, he coached basketball and football.  He needed players and he would not allow their color to be used to disqualify them.

The school was located in Caldwell, Idaho a small town located near the Oregon border.

The town of Caldwell took some getting use to when Gary decided to go to town he would stop the traffic.  People would stare at him.  The looks he received were looks of surprise and not hate.  They had never seen blacks before.

The locals were very friendly.  Winning can do wonders and the town’s folks fell in love with the black players.  The school’s basketball team was suddenly hot and could not be stopped.

Elgin averaged 31.3 points and 18.9 rebounds a game. R.C. Owens grabbed 37 rebounds in a single game.  The team went undefeated in the Northwest Conference.  Where once you could not give tickets away the school was now turning away fans.

Gary hardly ever got any playing time but he could have cared less!  He was having so much fun.  He and Elgin would put on “Globetrotter-like” dribbling exhibitions during halftime.

The town had really embraced the players and Gary says “I had the best seat in the house, on the bench.”

Gary played baseball for the Coyotes (the team’s nick name) and worked at a Caldwell sporting goods store.  He befriended the white owner, Pat O’Connor, a well-known war hero.  The two would go hunting and Gary would borrow a shotgun from a local dentist he had befriended.

O’Connor took Gary on sales trips along the Oregon border and he would speak to the school children.  He would entertain the children by tying and untying his shoes. The kids loved it but all good things must come to an end.

In a March 7, 1955, an article was published in Sports Illustrated that said, “The College of Idaho was winning games by admitting academically unqualified athletes.”  A blind man could see where the fingers were being pointed.

The fingers were being pointed at Elgin, Warren, R. C. and Gary.  They were identified as the “Usual Suspects.”

It was reported that Elgin earned all Bs during his first semester.  I would guess if you checked Elgin’s high school transcript you would ask yourself how in the hell could this guy get all these Bs?

Coach Vokes stood his ground for the Black athletes against the school administrators.  He was fired following the basketball season.

Elgin left for the University of Seattle, which he later led them to the Final Four. Warren Williams transferred to Virginia Union University in nearby Richmond, Virginia and Gary went back to Idaho in the fall, but he didn’t like the new basketball coach.  He quit school and returned to DC.

Once home he received a couple of letters from the owner of the Harlem Globetrotters, Abe Saperstein.  He offered Gary a tryout, but Gary decided he did not want to be a part of the Globetrotter’s side show.

He started his own construction company, drove a cab, ran a numbers book in what is now known as the DC, Maryland and Virginia lotteries. He open one of largest black own liquor stores in DC.

Gary was always a self starter.  It would be 50 years later before he returned to Caldwell, Idaho.  The occasion, the Coyotes were inducting the 1954-55 basketball team into its basketball Hall of Fame.

R. C. Owens and Gary were the only Black players to return for the induction ceremony.  The town folks remembered him and the weekend he spent there for the induction was a love fest.

Gary Mays was 75 years old and had a “Family Tree” that consisted of Donna his wife of 20 years, a daughter who has her college degree in Communications and a then 16 year old son who is a computer whiz.

He loved talking about his 9 year old cousin, Cameron who was then an upcoming track and field superstar or his cousin, A’dia Mathies, who was Miss Kentucky Basketball in 2010.

The 2011 Black History Month tribute, recognition by ESPN Magazine and the City Paper was great and long overdue.  The one thing that he enjoyed most was the discovery that he is the original “One Arm Bandit.”

The two men laying claim to that title were John S. Payne a rodeo rancher and Larry Alford II a golfer.  There are pictures of them using prosthesis to aid them in their pursuit of excellence.  Gary is the only one that uses the one arm to play in the Game Called Life.  This Black History fact made him “The Original One Arm Bandit.”

 

 

January is the month of champions: George Foreman was born January 10th–Joe Frazier was born January 12th–a King named Martin Luther was born on January 15th–and the Greatest aka Muhammad Ali was born on January 17th.

This day January 17, 2018 on the birthday of my friend Muhammad Ali another friend, champion and hero of the people was honored on Capitol Hill, Senator Bob Dole.

Congratulations to Senator Dole a true American hero. The former Senate Majority Leader was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor by President Donald Trump for his extraordinary service to his country. He was awarded two Bronze Stars for the wounds he suffered in combat in World War ll. The former Presidential candidate was honored for his service as a soldier, legislator and statesman. Senator Dole represented Kansas for 35 years in the U. S. Senate.

I met Senator Dole in July 1994 shortly after the death of my friend President Richard Nixon. He invited me and my wife Hattie to his Capitol Hill office after he had read my column written in the Washington Post relating to my experiences as a caddy for then Vice-President Nixon. While in high school I caddied at the Burning Golf Course in Bethesda, Maryland on the weekends to help my single parent mom make ends meet.

In 1957 I met and caddied for Vice-President Nixon and his friend Attorney General William Rogers. The friendship blossomed and in 1969 it would land me a Presidential appointment. Senator Dole was so impressed with my column relating to that experience with President Nixon, he entered it into the Congressional Record on the House Floor. This was my second entry into the Congressional Record. Congressman Lou Stokes (D-Ohio) would honor me first in 1978. He had read a column written by Washington Star sports columnist J. D. Beathea relating to my work in the inner-city with at-risk kids and youth gangs.

Bucket List: February 2017 visit to the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California

In 2007 Senator Dole invited me to be his special guest for a gathering of former Nixon’s staffers, the host was “The February Group.” The evening was unforgettable. I was lost for words when Senator Dole invited me to say a few words and re-live that golf course experience. The President’s daughter Tricia Nixon was standing nearby (see link). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li3Mcj9N63U

My success as a MAN and youth advocate is a result of my learning early in life that every black face I saw was not my brother and every white face I saw was not my enemy. And there was no requirement I had to kiss someone’s ring or their jackass on either side of the aisle to get along with them. In 1957 it was a chance encounter with Richard Nixon and William Rogers at the all-white exclusive Burning Tree Golf Course in Maryland and that chance encounter inspired me to be all that I could be. Fifty-years later Senator Dole reads my name on the House Floor honoring me in the Congressional Record. Look closely and you will see both black and white politicians reaching out across the aisle with no strings attached and giving me a helping hand to enhance the growth of our children via Kids In Trouble, Inc and not once asking me if I was Republican or Democrat.

Congressman Lou Stokes (D-Ohio) Jim Brown (NFL) HBell on “The Hill”

Senator Larry Womble (D-NC) Congressman Walter Fauntroy (D-DC) KIT tribute

In December 1985 Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) office staff volunteered as Santa’s Helpers to work with our non-profit organization for our annual Kids In Trouble toy party for needy children (see thank you note) Yes, a hero is more than a sandwich. Congratulations to my friend Senator Bob Dole.

The Black athlete has been shortchanged and a victim of scam artist as early as the 1940s. Heavyweight boxing champion, Joe louis felt victim through no fault of his own, he was not a learned man. He was easy prey. Louis was one the first known pro athlete to be taken to the cleaners by his handlers. He earned close to $5 million dollars during his 12 year boxing career. His take home pay was $800,000 after his handlers had taken more than their fair share. Louis left boxing broke and was hired as a greeter at Caesar’s Palace Casino in Las Vegas. He died broke in 1981. Billions of dollars are lost each year by black athletes who allow sports agents and their attorneys to pay their bills and give them an allowance until their next paycheck!!

This pattern of thievery of the black athlete continues today. Former Washington Redskin running back Clinton Portis lost 43 million dollars to fraud to men he thought had his best interest at heart. He comtemplated murder by gun for revenge. Instead, he can be seen during the NFL season roaming the sidelines as a color analyst interviewing Redskin players during a break in the action. Clinton Portis should be invited to NFL camps to speak with the rookies about safe guarding their money as someone who has been there and not done that! Former University of Maryland running back and former player for the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders Lamont Jordan squandered away a multi-million dollar contract. The bright lights and big city of Las Vegas introduced him to gambling, drugs, and the girls sin city. He is back home in Suitland, Maryland coaching kids and making cameo appearances on local sport shows. He later discovered the hard way, what goes on in Las Vegas does not stay in Las Vegas.

I was up close and personal when NBA Hall of Fame player Adrian Dantley’s agent David Falk use several millions of his dollars for his own investments without his knowledge. Falk also represented Michael Jordan,John Lucas, John Thompson, Jr. and his sons and a flock of former GT players (a Who’s Who). It was rumored that Coach John Thompson, Jr. was taking kickbacks under the table. There was boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard, he allowed his agent the late Mike Trainor to see and open his mail with the checks before he could see them. I had to pull him aside and tell him to make a change fast and in a hurry–I think I was too late.

The latest fraud is in the NBA “The First to Play” a story based on the life of NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd. The documentary makes its debut in theaters in February. I uncovered the fraud when the mastermind Arka Sengupta (Indian descendant) sent two black brothers to DC posing as Directors with names like Coodie and Chike. They interviewed Lloyd’s boyhood friends in Alexandria, Virginia where he was born and raised and later interviewed me in DC in May 2016. They disappeared without a trace after promising to return to the scene of the crime to show a preview of the documentary to the participants in Alexandria. They have been no-shows.

I smelled a rat when when I met the two Mikes, former Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise now a contributor for ESPN’s “Unbeaten” his stories I have often disputed and ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” Mike Wilbon. His Washington Post colleague John Feinstein said, “Mike Wilbon is the biggest ass kisser in sports media!” They were in the Wizard’s media pressroom making small talk when Wise said to me, “Harold I saw you in the documentary of the Earl Lloyd story, The First to Play in New York City, you were good.” I was surprised to hear that the documentary was being previewed. I called Ms. Char Bar who had spend untold hours of researching the project for Arka to see if she was aware of the status of the documentary. She had no clue, it was then I discovered that she had not been paid in full for her work on the project. Arka had bounced several checks and she smelled hustle and fraud.

He had a “Middle Man” who happen to be a woman named Jo Lee transacting financial business on his behalf. Every time he bounced a check Jo Lee had a new lie to tell Ms. Bar. She felt betrayed and ask me to intervene for her to see what the problem was. The feeling was mutual among the other participants.

Ms. Bar gave me his contact information (cell number and email address)and the rat Arka ran into his hole. It was then I started to write my findings on my blogs on theoriginalinsidesports.com and blackmeninamerica.com and posted on my findings on my You Tube Channel. I shared that information with the so-called Major Media heavyweights such as, James Brown, Mike Wilbon, Dave Aldridge, Sonny Hill, Courtland Milloy, Colbert King, Norman Chad, Terrence Moore, Bruce Johnson, Maureen Bunyan, Dave McKenna, Norman Chad, Kevin Blackistone, etc. They all took the position of the Three Little Monkies, “See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil and read no evil, with the exception of one. He made the call to Arka and the “Check was really in the mail” to Ms. Bar without a bounce.

Upon further investigation, I discovered NBA players had invested thousands of dollars in the project. The players and former players included, Tony Parker, Carmelo Anthony, Michael Finley, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul and no telling how many more have been suckered into this scam. Arka even talked ex-NBA player Finley into being the Executive Producer (smart move)of the project.

Known investors so far: Leonard, Parker, Finley and Carmelo

Michelle Roberts the new Executive Director of the NBA Players Association and first woman to head the union even signed off on this scam–she must be Billy Hunter in disguise. Hunter ripped the players off for decades as their Executive Director before they got wise and kicked him to the curb in 2013. I remember Billy as a slick talking WR when he tried out for the Virginia Sailors’ a minor league football for the Washington Redskins. He was cut and took a job as a U. S. Attorney in DC. NBA legends like Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Dave Bing, Bob Lanier and Sonny Hill also signed off in support of this scam. I will bet you a dollar to a donut not one them invested a dollar.

EARL LLOYD’S BRAIN TRUST

The Earl Lloyd “Brain Trust” counter clock wise, NBA legends, Sonny Hill (white cap), the late Earl Lloyd, Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson

When the scammer Arka was still hustling NBA players I contacted NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Michelle Roberts and San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich to alert them. Silver was the only one to acknowledge he had received my Priority Mailed letter. Please don’t allow any of the above names cry “I didn’t know!” In a conversation with my mentor Sonny Hill, he said, “The Family had been paid off” and I found nothing wrong with that. My question, “Was the family paid off or ripped off?” I asked Arka to delete my role in the documentary. I didn’t want to be a part of his hustle and scam.

I received a call from Ms. Bar just before the Christmas holidays 2017 saying Arka’s “Girl Friday” Jo Lee called asking for my number. When she called she wanted to apologize for the confusion relating to the bad checks and the Earl Lloyd project. Jo Lee claimed Arka owed her $55,000 and had left without paying her. This charade was now reminding me of the Albert and Costello classic comedy sketch, ‘Who’s on First?’

ARKA SENGUPTA THE BRAINS BEHIND THE SCAM ARTIST

NBA legend Red Auerbach, Washington Times sports columnist Dick Heller and HBell successfully campaigned for Earl Lloyd’s 2003 induction into the NBA Hall of Fame.

EARL LLOYD STORY HUSTLED: THE FIRST TO PLAY & THE LAST TO KNOW!

THIS IS THE LATEST PRESS RELEASE BY ARKA AKA ROBIN HOOD & HIS MERRY MEN!

Constant Beta Motion Picture Company, Creative Control and Abramorama are collaborating for the North American distribution of The First to Do It, a documentary about Earl Lloyd, the first African-American to play in the NBA. Abramorama had plans of a wide theatrical release for the film in February 2018.

Directed by Coodie and Chike, First to Do It was produced by Arka Sengupta and in association with the National Basketball Players Association, Michael Finley the executive producer, Tony Parker, Carmelo Anthony, Kawhi Leonard, PJ Tucker, Harry I. Martin, Amit Sharma, Jason Cole, David T. Friendly, Jack Lechner, Michele Roberts and Chrysa Chin. Anthony, Leonard and Chris Paul, as well as Hall of Fame players Oscar Robertson, Dave Bing and Bob Lanier, appear in the film. Deon Cole provides the voice of Lloyd.

First to Do It recounts Lloyd’s journey, from growing up in deeply segregated Alexandria, Virginia, to witnessing the first black U.S. president. It also outlines how the modern game was formed, from the fall from dominance of the Harlem Globetrotters to the introduction of the 24-second clock. Through the voices of current NBA stars, it also examines the legacy of desegregation in America and the ongoing role basketball has played in America’s inner cities. Made in full cooperation with Lloyd’s family, First to Do It was scheduled to make its debut at the 2018 All-Star Game in L. A. but it disappeared without a trace.

“The story of Earl Lloyd is an important part of the history of professional basketball in the U.S.,” said Sherrie Deans, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association Foundation. “His achievements and the times in which he lived provide important lessons for players and fans today. Our support of this film reflects our commitment to preserving the legacy of our players and our game, and the positive impacts that both have had on our society.”

The next time you see James Brown, Mike Wilbon, Sonny Hill, Courtland Milloy, Colbert King, Norman Chad, Terrence Moore, Bruce Johnson, Maureen Bunyan, Dave McKenna, Norman Chad, Kevin Blackistone, ask them if are they familiar with the Earl Lloyd story “The First to Play” coming to a theater near them in February?

CBS/NFL Studio Host James Brown & his guys on set (INSIDE SPORTS?)

Sam Jones–James Brown–HB–Earl Lloyd Bolling AFB Black History Month

Harold K. Bell has actively advocated for the rights of children his entire adult life. In 1965, after spending two years chasing his NFL dreams without any success, he returned home to Washington, DC. He was hired to work for the United Planning Organization. The organization hired three neighborhood workers for its self-help program – Petey Greene, H. Rap Brown and Harold Bell. In 1968, Harold was caught in the middle of the riots that hit inner-cities all around this country were experiencing after the shooting death of our Prince of Peace, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Harold was working as a Roving Leader (Youth Gang Task Force) for the DC Department of Recreation & Parks. He and co-worker Willie Wood (NFL Hall of Fame) walked arm-in-arm with the first modern day U. S. Marshall in-Charge appointed by the President of the United States, Luke C. Moore.

Santa’s Helpers, DC Superior Court Judge Luke C. Moore L-R Redskins LB Dave Robinson, WR Roy Jefferson and LB Harold McLinton (Santa Claus). Judge Moore and Chief Judge Gene Hamilton show their support for Kids In Trouble.

In December 1968, out of the ashes of the riots, the Bells found their non-profit organization Kids In Trouble (KIT). From 1968 to 2013, KIT hosted 45 straight Christmas toy parties for needy children in DC, Maryland and Virginia, without grants or loans. The KIT toy party benefited thousands of inner-city children. Today the NFL, NBA, MLB and the NHL have all copied his “reach back” programs to enhance the lives of inner-city children. Hattie and Harold Bell have been honored at the White House by President Richard M. Nixon, cited in the Congressional Record by Lou Stokes (D-Ohio), Senator Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) for their work with at-risk children.

Virginia Sailor teammate Georger Kelly is first Santa Claus in 1968.

In 1980, Washingtonian Magazine named Harold Bell “Washingtonian of the Year” for being a one-man community action program. He is a sports media pioneer in sports talk radio and was the first sports media personality honored by the magazine. Sports talk radio was a relatively new medium for black broadcasters in the 1970s. His first five (5) minutes of radio stardom was at the helm of two-time Emmy award winner, Petey Greene in 1967. In 1970, he found the original “Inside Sports.” The title for the show was suggested to him by his wife Hattie over dinner one evening. Hattie, is the daughter of the late Dr. Charles H. Thomas, Jr. In the 50s, Dr. Thomas was the President of the local chapter of the Orangeburg, S. C. NAACP and marched with Dr. King. He was inducted into The Black South Carolina Hall of Fame in 2007.

NAACP President, Dr. Charles H. Thomas, Jr. holding down the picket line

Dr. Thomas rescue his children, Loretta, Reggie and Hattie (in sun shades) from the Orangeburg city jail.

Inside Sports aired first, on W-O-O-K-AM in 1970. Its life span included WYCB-AM, W-U-S-T-AM, WPFW FM and WKYS-FM. In 1975, Bell became the first black to host and produce a television sports special in prime time on WRC-TV 4, an NBC affiliate in DC. His special guest was The Greatest, Muhammad Ali. Bell owns the copyrights to an interview collection that reads like a “Who’s Who” in sports. The Washington Post now owns the copyrights to Inside Sports!

Harold Bell’s commentaries and blogs spotlighted the trials and tribulations of the black athlete and have become a trilogy of classic proportions. Prior to Bell’s Inside Sports format, topics on racism in the front offices and on the playing fields of sports’ franchises in America were taboo. Harold Bell was the first to play message music and host media round tables, something unheard of on sports talk radio at that time. Bell challenged athletes for hard truths regardless of their stature. His interviews with superstar athletes from Muhammad Ali, Red Auerbach, George Foreman, Don King, Andre Agassi, Jim Brown, Sugar Ray Leonard, Dr. Harry Edwards or his partner in crime, the late boxing historian Bert Randolph Sugar are classics.

Bert Sugar a native Washingtonian celebrates “Bert Sugar Day” in his hometown

In 2007, Bell was referred to as “a little known Black History fact” by syndicated talk show host, Tom Joyner. Sportswriters Jim Beathea, Dick Heller of the Washington Star, George Solomon, and Donald Huff, of the Washington Post, Rick Snider of the Washington Times and Dave McKenna of the City Paper have all sang his praises. In addition, in 1980 radio and television critic, William Taaffe of the Washington Star cited Bell for his pioneering contributions to sports talk radio and television. He said, “Inside Sports is a jewel of a program-easily the most provocative radio sports talk show in Washington.” Heller called him “The Godfather” of sports talk, the good kind.”

The late Earl Lloyd, the first black to play in the NBA, was a guest on ESPN 980 radio with former Georgetown basketball coach, John Thompson, Jr. Mr. Lloyd was quoted saying, “Harold Bell may be controversial, but I have yet to hear anyone call him a liar.” Washington Times sports columnist Rick Snider said, “Harold, I have always admired the warrior inside of you. If we had more journalists like you, we would own this town instead of letting all the cheer leading media scam artists have their way. People are just too weak minded to resist. That’s sad, but true.”

Harold Bell successfully led a campaign with NBA icon the late Red Auerbach and DC sports columnist Washington Times’ Dick Heller to have Mr. Lloyd inducted into the 2003 NBA Hall of Fame after decades of omission.

His Original Inside Sports talk radio format can now be heard and seen on radio and television sports talk shows around the world. Historian and civil rights icon Dr. Harry Edwards said, “Harold your archives are valuable and should be given the broadest exposure. You should think of offering a disc of your programs to the new Smithsonian Museum of African American Culture & History (NMAAHC). A wing of the museum will be dedicated to the struggle in sports and will be titled “A level playing field.” Your work was a major force over the years in leveling the playing field, especially, in the terms in the struggle to define and project ‘our truth’ great job over the years and the timing is right for reprising that legacy now”.

The benefactors of Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports read like a “Who’s Who” in media, pro sports and sports talk media. Harold K. Bell is a man for all seasons. He embodies the courage of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the heart of champion, Muhammad Ali. While others lie and bite their tongues, he keeps hope alive!
“Harold Bell has been a lightning rod of a sports broadcaster for decades. His commitment and passion to protect children and those without a voice are unparalleled. You may not like the way he does things, but things get done and a lot of people are in better places because of his courage to act.” Gary A. Johnson is the CEO & Publisher of Black Men In America.com

CRITIC’S CORNER

“Harold and I have a lot in common. He too has persevered and stood fast for the principles in which he believes.” Muhammad Ali

“Harold I am so proud to see you have returned to work with young people whose lives once resembled your very own.” President Richard Nixon

“Harold, you help prepare me for the NBA” Dave Bing (NBA Hall of Fame)

“Harold Bell has always provided a platform for those without one” Jim Brown (NFL)

“Harold, I am the Welterweight Champion of the World today because you were there when no one else was.” Sugar Ray Leonard, Boxing Hall of Fame

“Harold has always been a voice for people who didn’t have a voice. He has always called them as he saw them. He has been an inspiration and motivation for me and a lot of other black broadcasters.” James Brown (NFL CBS Sports)

“Harold you have always been a voice for the people and we love you for it.” Judge Luke C. Moore (DC Superior Court)

“Harold Bell is a unique sportscaster, former athlete, youth leader and social critic all Rolled into one.” Bill Taaffe, (Sports lllustrated Magazine)

“Harold Bell and Inside Sports makes sense.” Red Auerbach (NBA Hall of Fame)

“Harold Bell maybe controversial but I have yet to hear anyone call him a liar.” Earl Lloyd (NBA Hall of Fame)

“Harold Bell is a One Man Community Action Program. I don’t think I have ever met anyone like him. ”Nicholas Blatchford (Columnist Washington Star Newspaper)

“Harold I thank you and my office staff thanks you for allowing us to be a part of your annual Christmas toy party for needy children.” Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC)

“Harold Bell is the Godfather of sports talk—the good kind.”Dick Heller, Washington Times

“Harold Bell is the Heavyweight Champion of sports talk.” Don King (Boxing Hall of Fame)

“Sports talk as you see it today all started in Washington, DC with Harold Bell and Inside Sports.” Johnny Sample (NFL Legend)

“Harold you can be a tough man sometimes but your work with children is commendable.” John Thompson (Georgetown University)

“Harold Bell if you had been white you would be a millionaire. People would have been calling Howard Cosell the black Harold Bell.” Gene Kilroy (Ali Business Manager)

“As his own success took him out of the projects, he could not forget who he once was and where he came from.” Lou Stokes (D-Ohio)

“No one is indispensable, but there are some people more necessary than others, Harold Bell is one of those people.” Washington Star Newspaper Editorial

“Harold you are my hero” Dave McKenna City Paper

“Harold Bell is a One Man Community Action Program and this city is far better place for him remembering where he came from.” Washingtonian Magazine

“Harold, I have always admired the warrior inside of you. If we had more journalists like you, we would own this town instead of letting all the cheer-leading media scam artists have their way. People are just too weak minded to resist. That’s sad, but true.” Sports Columnist Rick Snider

“Harold, I want to personally thank you for being my champion” Willie Wood NFL Hall of Fame

THE KING

Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday was January 15th and Muhammad Ali’s Birthday was January 17th the same time every year and February 21st has been designated as MLK Day in America. The The month of February is Black History Month. When you finish reading this blog please explain to me what does the black athlete in the NFL, NBA, MLB and the few black players in the NHL have to celebrate relating to these two great men? They spent their lives standing for something and not falling for just anything. These athletes should hang their heads and confess they have dropped the ball.

Recently a CNN media personality wrote a blog titled “What MLK Might Say To Donald Trump? My question and response would be “What MLK Might Say To Black America, especially, the black athlete?” See link below for ‘The Chosen One’ LeBron James as he puts his foot in his mouth and then has to apologize:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu8PD5gAsfs / He is one of the 40 Million Dollar Slaves and don’t have a clue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnkLBKgySkQ&fbclid=IwAR3PMjty8UjJhs8xMhbsZdOfVJ7mPfswVKwMwKtV1x5vRtrYgoymmA20CWE&app=desktop/The NFL & your son

In 1955 Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama refuse to go to the back of bus. She sparked the modern day Civil Rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King emerged as its leader. My first encounter with racial injustice in America was in 1960 when four black students who were enrolled at North Carolina A & T College in Greensboro, N. C. said, “Enough is enough!” On February 1, 1960 the four freshmen Ezell Blair, Jr. Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond walked downtown and “sat-in” at the whites only lunch counter at Woolworth’s Department store. They refuse to leave and that act of defiance revolutionized and inspired the Civil Rights movement.

CIVIL RIGHTS WARRIORS: THE 4 FRESHMEN OF NORTH CAROLINA A & T

The movement would move thirty miles south to Winston-Salem, NC and on to the campus of Winston-Salem Teachers’ College. Against the strong wishes of our coach the legendary Clarence Bighouse Gaines to stay away from downtown. There were four athletes who ignored his request, they were Al Mayor (DC), Barney Hood (Chicago), Luther Wiley (Lynchburg, Va.) and Harold Bell (DC). We piggybacked off of the Greensboro Four. I had no clue I would ever see that kind of racism surface again. It has been almost 60 years and in our every day walk of life, especially in entertainment and pro sports, racism has come out of the closet with a vengence. The Oscar BLACKout in Hollywood and the NFL boycott led by Colin Kaeperneck were again wake-up calls to Black America. Entertainment and sports have been the standard bearers for equal opportunity. These two entities are now being use as the vehicles to remind us that we are still considered “Second Class” citizens. “The Call to Arms”(a summons to engage in active hostilities) was led by a President, a NFL owner and a Pizza Mogul.

My first wake-up call to racism was in a sports arena in my hometown came in a sports arena known as the Capital Centre located in Landover, Md. in 1974. The arena was the home of the NBA Washington Bullets. It was shortly after I became a pioneering sports talk show radio host on W-O-O-K AM in Washington, DC.

My white colleague Frank Pastor and I were standing at the top of the arena waiting for a break in the action on the arena floor when he bought to my attention how the press table was divided. The divide, white media sat on the left side of half-court line and black media sat on the right side of half-court line. I then suggested we switch seats at the table and we did, quietly integrating the Washington Bullets press table. Several games later I notice everyone at the table had been issued a media guild but me, I brought the oversight to the attention of the Director of Media Relations (Mark Splaver?). He walked away without a word only to return a few minutes later to toss the guild on the table in front of me and walk away. This time I got up and followed him, but Capital Centre VP Jerry Sachs sitting in a front row seat stepped in front of me. He said, “Harold I got this!” During half-time Mark returned to the table and apologized for his actions. He said, “I was having a bad day and I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

Jerry Sachs and the late Hymie Perlo (Community Relations) were class-acts in every sense of the word. I remember when Bill Taaffe of the Washington Star wrote a lionizing column titled “Talk Show Host Harold Bell Blazes a Path Inside Sports.” Jerry wrote me a note of congratulations and had someone deliver it to me at the press table. When I was named “Washingtonian of the Year” by Washingtonian Magazine. Hymie playfully cussed me out and said, “You are getting a little too big for your britches.” This was the first time the honor had been bestowed on a sports media personality. There were some rough spots, but overall it was a great atmosphere for everyone, players, administrators, media and fans. It was like one big happy family. Bob Ferry (GM) and Bob Zurflu (Director of Sales) played in my celebrity tennis tournaments.


Even Jerry knew the format and topics of discussion I chose were unheard of. When the likes of Stephen A. Smith, James Brown, Michael Wilbon, Dave Aldridge,Glenn Harris, Bill Rhoden, Ken Beatrice and Kevin Blackistone arrived on the sports media scene, I had already open the door and set the table. They all followed my lead. In New York City Art Rust was a early black pioneer as a radio sports reporter, but he did not have his own talk show until the late 70s and 80s. The Inside Sports format changed the way we talk sports in America and the community involement of the pro athlete.

Redskins’kicker Mark Mosley and “Washingtonian of the Year” QB Joe Theisman

I remember Hymie Perlo called me into his office one day to tell me that the Bullets were looking for a replacement for Chuck Taylor on the Bullets broadcast, he had recommended me as the replacement, but his friend and owner Abe Polin said, “Harold Bell is a little too controversial.” Enter, James Brown who sought and received the support of Mr. Polin’s adopted son, Wes Unseld, but all in all it was a show of respect I have never forgotten.

owner Abe Polin thanks Wes Unseld for Bullets first World Championship (1974)

Nike reps John Phillips and I host party for the World Champion Bulletts and Elvin Hayes

Racism in entertainment and sports has come full cycle. People Magazine in 1996 wrote a cover story with racial overtones titled “Hollywood Blackout.” The magazine said, the reality is that when black folks come knocking on Hollywood’s door , the response is too often, is still “whites only.” Quincy Jones a mover and shaker and entertainment icon, said, there is a lot of racism going on and I would be lying if I said it was not.”

Pro sports it is an open and shut book when it comes to the mantle of racism. The NFL has no black owners, the NBA has one, MLB has none and in the NHL its hard to find a black player so it makes no sense to look for a black owner. There are 122 pro sports teams and only one blackowner, 32 NFL-30 NBA-30 MLB-31 NHL teams, and the beat goes on. The plantation mentality continues in pro sports.

The number of blacks working in media pressrooms at deadline are far, few and in between. According to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in sports in 2012 a study of minorities and women covering sports at America’s news outlets unfortunately it found very little change since it released its first study in 2006. As we head into 2018 the status quo remains the same.

According to the institute , 90 percent of the sports editors are white and an equal percentage are men, whites make up 86 percent of all assistant editors, and columnist. There are no major television or newspapers own by a black man or woman.

This blog brings me full cycle back to the Washington Bullets and their move from Capital Centre in 1997 to downtown Washington, DC. This era marked the period of gentrification in the Nation’s Capital. I didn’t follow the Bullets from Landover I was already home. Jerry Sacs retired in 1998 and Hymie died shortly there after. There are signs in the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL media press tables are still not color blind—stay tune.

ALERT: THE EARL LLOYD STORY “THE FIRST TO PLAY” HUSTLE IS ON AND COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU IN FEBRUARY!

The Black athlete has been shortchanged and a victim of scan artist as early as the 1940s. Heavyweight boxing champion, Joe louis felt victim through no fault of his own, he was not a learned man. He was easy prey. Louis was one the first known pro athlete to be taken to the cleaners by his handlers. He earned close to $5 million dollars during his 12 year boxing career. His take home pay was $800,000 after his handlers had taken more than their fair share. Louis left boxing broke and was hired as a greeter at Caesar’s Palace Casino in Las Vegas. He died broke in 1981. Billions of dollars are lost each year by black athletes who allow sports agents and their attorneys to pay their bills and give them an allowance until their next paycheck!!

This pattern of thievery of the black athlete continues today. Former Washington Redskin running back Clinton Portis lost 43 million dollars to fraud to men he thought had his best interest at heart. He comtemplated murder by gun for revenge. Instead, he can be seen during the NFL season roaming the sidelines as a color analyst interviewing Redskin players during a break in the action. Clinton Portis should be invited to NFL camps to speak with the rookies about safe guarding their money as someone who has been there and not done that! Former University of Maryland running back and former player for the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders Lamont Jordan squandered away a multi-million dollar contract. The bright lights and big city of Las Vegas introduced him to gambling, drugs, and the girls sin city. He is back home in Suitland, Maryland coaching kids and making cameo appearances on local sport shows. He later discovered the hard way, what goes on in Las Vegas does not stay in Las Vegas.

I was up close and personal when NBA Hall of Fame player Adrian Dantley’s agent David Falk use millions of his dollars for his own investments without his knowledge. Falk also represented Michael Jordan,John Lucas, John Thompson, Jr. and his sons and a flock of former GT players (a Who’s Who). It was rumored that Coach John Thompson, Jr. was taking kickbacks under the table. There was boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard, he allowed his agent the late Mike Trainor to see and open his mail with checks before he could see them. I had to pull him aside and tell him to make a change fast and in a hurry–I think I was too late.

The latest fraud is in the NBA “The First to Play” a story based on the life of NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd. The documentary makes its debut in theaters in February. I uncovered the fraud when the mastermind Arka Sengupta (Indian descendant) sent two black brothers to DC posing as Directors with names like Coodie and Chike. They interviewed Lloyd’s boyhood friends in Alexandria, Virginia where he was born and raised and later interviewed me in DC in May 2016. They disappeared without a trace after promising to return to the scene of the crime to show a preview of the documentary to the participants in Alexandria.

I smelled a rat when when I met the two Mikes, former Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise now a contributor for ESPN’s “Undisputed” and his stories I have often disputed and ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” Mike Wilbon. His Washington Post colleague John Feinstein said, “Mike Wilbon is the biggest ass kisser in sports media!” They were in the Wizard’s media pressroom making small talk when Wise said to me, “Man I saw you in the preview documentary of the Earl Lloyd story, The First to Play in New York City, you were good.” I was surprised to hear that the documentary was being previewed. I called Ms. Char Bar who had spend untold hours of researching the project for Arka to see if she was aware of the status of the documentary. She had no clue, it was then I discovered that she had not been paid in full for her work on the project. Arka had bounced several checks and she smelled hustle and fraud.

He had a “Middle Man” who happen to be a woman named Jo Lee transacting financial business on his behalf. Every time he bounced a check Jo Lee had a new lie to tell Ms. Bar. She felt betrayed and ask me to intervene for her to see what the problem was. The feeling was mutual among the other participants and me.

Ms. Bar gave me his contact information (cell number and email address)and the rat Arka ran into his hole. It was then I started to write my findings on my blogs on theoriginalinsidesports.com and blackmeninamerica.com and posted on my findings on my You Tube Channel. I shared that information with the so-called Major Media heavyweights such as, James Brown, Mike Wilbon, Dave Aldridge, Sonny Hill, Courtland Milloy, Colbert King, Norman Chad, Terrence Moore, Bruce Johnson, Maureen Bunyan, Dave McKenna, Norman Chad, Kevin Blackistone, etc. They all took the position of the Three Little Monkies, “See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil and read no evil, with the exception of one. He made the call to Arka and the “Check was really in the mail” to Ms. Bar without a bounce.

Upon further investigation, I discovered NBA players had invested thousands of dollars in the project. The players and former players included, Tony Parker, Carmelo Anthony, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul and no telling how many more have been suckered into this scam. Arka even talked ex-NBA player Michael Finley into being the Executive Producer (smart move)of the project. Michelle Roberts the new Executive Director of the NBA Players Association and first woman to head the union even signed off on this scam–she must be Billy Hunter in disguise. Hunter ripped the players off for decades as their Executive Director before they got wise and kicked him to the curb in 2013. I remember Billy as a slick talking WR when he tried out for the Virginia Sailors’ football team a minor league team for the Redskins. He was cut and took a job as a U. S. Attorney in DC. NBA legends like Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Dave Bing, Bob Lanier and Sonny Hill also signed off in support of this scam. I will bet you a dollar to a donut not one them invested a dollar.

The Earl Lloyd “Brain Trust” counter clock wise, NBA legends, Sonny Hill (white cap), the late Earl Lloyd, Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson

When the scammer Arka was still hustling NBA players I contacted NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Michelle Roberts and San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich to alert them. Silver was the only one to acknowledge he had received my Priority Mailed letter. Please don’t allow any of the above names cry “I didn’t know!” In a conversation with my mentor Sonny Hill, he said, “The Family had been paid off” and I found nothing wrong with that. My question, “Was the family paid off or ripped off?” I asked Arka to delete my role in the documentary. I didn’t want to be a part of his hustle and scam.

I received a call from Ms. Bar just before the Christmas holidays saying Arka’s “Girl Friday” Jo Lee called asking for my number. When she called she wanted to apologize for the confusion relating to the bad checks and the Earl Lloyd project. Jo Lee claimed Arka owed her $55,000 and had disappeared without a trace. This charade was now reminding me of the Albert and Costello classic comedy sketch, ‘Who’s on First?’

ARKA SENGUPTA THE THIEF & SCAM ARTIST


NBA legend Red Auerbach, Washington Times sports columnist Dick Heller and HBell successfully campaigned for Earl Lloyd’s induction into the NBA Hall of Fame.

EARL LLOYD STORY HUSTLED: THE FIRST TO PLAY & THE LAST TO KNOW!

THIS IS THE LATEST PRESS RELEASE BY ARKA AKA ROBIN HOOD & HIS MERRY MEN!

Constant Beta Motion Picture Company, Creative Control and Abramorama are collaborating for the North American distribution of The First to Do It, a documentary about Earl Lloyd, the first African-American to play in the NBA. Abramorama plans a wide theatrical release for the film in February.

Directed by Coodie and Chike, First to Do It was produced by Arka Sengupta and in association with the National Basketball Players Association, and was executive produced by Michael Finley, Tony Parker, Carmelo Anthony, Kawhi Leonard, PJ Tucker, Harry I. Martin, Amit Sharma, Jason Cole, David T. Friendly, Jack Lechner, Michele Roberts and Chrysa Chin. Anthony, Leonard and Chris Paul, as well as Hall of Fame players Oscar Robertson, Dave Bing and Bob Lanier, appear in the film. Deon Cole provides the voice of Lloyd.

First to Do It recounts Lloyd’s journey, from growing up in deeply segregated Alexandria, Virginia, to witnessing the first black U.S. president. It also outlines how the modern game was formed, from the fall from dominance of the Harlem Globetrotters to the introduction of the 24-second clock. Through the voices of current NBA stars, it also examines the legacy of desegregation in America and the ongoing role basketball has played in America’s inner cities. Made in full cooperation with Lloyd’s family, First to Do It will make its world premiere this week at the Hamptons International Film Festival.

“The story of Earl Lloyd is an important part of the history of professional basketball in the U.S.,” said Sherrie Deans, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association Foundation. “His achievements and the times in which he lived provide important lessons for players and fans today. Our support of this film reflects our commitment to preserving the legacy of our players and our game, and the positive impacts that both have had on our society.”

The next time you see James Brown, Mike Wilbon, Sonny Hill, Courtland Milloy, Colbert King, Norman Chad, Terrence Moore, Bruce Johnson, Maureen Bunyan, Dave McKenna, Norman Chad, Kevin Blackistone, ask them if are they familiar with the Earl Lloyd story “The First to Play” coming to a theater near them in February?

Note Worthy: I would have never guessed the sports media personality with the biggest balls didn’t even wear pants–Jemele Hill!

Who loves you baby: Love lost James Harrison & Ben Roethlisberger

When the NE Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers meet in the NFL Play-offs in January bragging rights and a trip to the Super Bowl will be at stake. The road to the Super Bowl in the AFC will definitely go through the NE Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Former Steeler LB James Harrison is the all-time sack leader for the franchise. He will be starting the New Year with the NE Patriots who in all likelihood will be blocking the path of the Steelers to Super Bowl XXXVIII.
Harrison got his engine started on Christmas eve at outside LB against the New York Jets in Foxboro. It was just one week ago he was kicked to the curb by the Steelers. He played 14 of his 15 NFL seasons there. In social media on Friday December 29th the 39 year old Harrison held his own press conference via Instagram and said, “I asked to be released, but was repeatedly told I would play. If anybody thought I signed a two-year deal with a team in the NFL at the age of 39 to sit on the bench and collect a check and a participation trophy, they were mistaken.” He appeared in just 5 games in the 2017 season with the Steelers.
Harrison is one of my favorite players in the NFL I like his competitive and winning spirit. He reminded me of myself as an athlete, in spirit only. I was nowhere near the athlete he is, but attitude, I always took the field of play thinking I was the best—it is there we are similar.
As the season was coming to a close I watched Harrison pout and squirm on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ bench. I knew it was just a matter of time before he and Mike Tomlin would butt heads.
It is often said, “It is best to be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” Former Steeler teammates should have taken heed. Many of Harrison’s former teammates were not too happy with him signing with their rivals in Foxboro, but he cleared that up quick and in a hurry. He said, “The Steelers made a business decision and so did I!”
One teammate LB Bud Dupree was quoted saying, “Basically you spit on your teammates, because the whole season you’ve shown yoursrlf as someone different than what you were supposed to be, a so-called leader to us. The spit Dupree was referring to was the spit aimed at the team’s head coach, Mike Tomlin and the Rooney family. He also said, “It is no one’s fault on our team why he got cut—he cut himself. He came in, and he didn’t want to do anything to make us better.” The team’s center Maurkrice Pouncey said, ‘He erased his own legacy here.’ Harrison’s legacy will outlive Pouncey’s, unless he switches positions and becomes the sack leader before his career ends in Pittsburgh.
This is where Coach Mike Tomlin missed the boat as a coach and leader. He should have called a meeting of his team and staff and reminded them, “Please no bulletin board material that the NE Patriots or Harrison can use for their next meeting in Foxboro, let your actions speak for themselves.”
The quotes coming out of the Pittsburgh locker room should be the one used by someone who is deaf (sign language). There is an old saying, “Let sleeping dogs lie!” Pro sports are overrun with liars and hypocrites, James Harris didn’t live a lie, he wanted out and his actions spoke for themselves.

The James Harrison situation hits close to home for me. I clearly remember my senior year on the basketball team at Spingarn High School in Washington, DC. The summer of 1958 I chose to spend my time on the playgrounds developing my jump shot for the upcoming campaign. My previous role, I was used as the team’s defensive stopper against our opponent’s top scorer.
The role was not glamorous enough for me I needed and wanted to see my name in the local papers. My new role didn’t sit well with my Coach Dr. William Roundtree. I was benched for selfishness (bad attitude) and then cut to make room for a member of the junior varsity. Coach Roundtree, understood if I was allowed to sit on the bench, I would be nothing short of a cancer to my teammates. Coach Roundtree made a business decision.
I transferred to our rival Eastern High School, they were in first place in our division. The Eastern Coach Bobby Hart welcomed me with open arms. Eastern was loaded with talent and I would probably have to play a secondary role. I was ready for whatever role Mr. Hart wanted me to play, but Coach Roundtree and the Spingarn administrators bust my bubble when they protested directly to Eastern against my joining the team. Mr. Hart called me into his office and reluctantly gave me the bad news, I would not be allowed to suit up against my old school. It was a business decision and I was on the short-end of business.
In 1963 my first year out of college I played minor league football for the Charleston Rockets in Charleston, West Virginia and former NFL Coach Perry Moss. I was the last WR cut and the four that made the final roster were all white. This was my first encounter with “The Race Card.” It was another business decision. My ego was a little bruised, but I made my way back home to DC and caught on with the Virginia Sailors. Here I would also have a similar encounter. The Sailors were a farm team for the NFL Washington Redskins. Again, I thought I was “The straw that stirred the drink.” My attitude, I was always open and never saw a football I could not catch. This “see me” thought pattern kept me in hot water with my coach Billy Cox (former Redskin player).

The team was very diverse the players were a good mix of both black and white. There were several guys who had played in the pros. You had to stay on your toes, because you never knew when the Redskins were going to send a player down to the club for seasoning to be called back at a later date or never. There was always the possibility that your roster spot was the one he was coming to take. The Redskins paid his salary, but our salaries were paid by the owners of the Sailors, one owner own Kay’s Jewelers.

This was a group of talented players like I had never seen before. Defensive back Mike Summer played high school football at Wilson in NW DC and he had a tour with the NFL Baltimore Colts, running back Hezikia Brazton (6’3 and 240 lbs) played the entire exhibition season with Baltimore and was the last cut. NFL Hall of Fame and Baltimore Colt player Lenny Moore said, “Hezy should have made the team.” There was big defensive tackle John Cash he played with the Denver Broncos for five years. The late Earl Richards was my hero growing up in our housing project Parkside in NE DC. He was a player/coach, and played center on offense and LB on defense. He was unparalleled at both positions—he was way ahead of his time.

My second year with the Sailors things got real shaky racially with the team. We had tryouts in SE DC in Anacostia Park and brothers came from all over the city to tryout. I think all those brothers in the park at one time sort of shook up our white coaches. The 68 riots were still fresh on their minds.

H. Rap Brown was my co-worker (Neighborhood Worker) with the United Planning Organization. One day Petey Greene (co-worker) Rap and I were walking by Harrison Playground located at 13th & V Streets, NW. There were several kids throwing a football around. Rap went inside the gate and started throwing the ball. He had the kids running pass patterns. Petey and I looked on in amazement.

I went inside and ran several patterns to see if he was for real and he was. He threw for accuracy and had some zip on the ball. Petey challenged him to go down to Anacostia and tryout for the Sailors. Rap came down the following evening with Petey acting as his agent for practice. He wowed bystanders and scared the hell out of our white owners and coaches with his pinpoint passing while wearing sun glasses and wearing a black tam over his bush. The problem, the team already had a black QB name John Thomas out of Southern University he was a magician with a football (Russell Wilson). Another business decision and Rap was cut the next day.
During those tryouts I was wary because I knew my job was on the line because of the behind the door politics that were taking place. The Sailors were a very unique minor league team, we were the crown jewel of the league. We flew commercial airlines to away games, our lodgings were in the Holiday Inn, the food was great, our checks never bounced and stories were written about us in the Washington Post and Star newspapers.
I lost my starting position later that season for a Redskin recruit and I was made a back-up. I was not a “Happy Camper.” Whenever we needed a crucial first down, Coach Cox would holler “Bell get in there!” I was still the man, but I didn’t understand and I should have. Coach and I had a run-in and I was cut—it was a business decision.

Virginia Sailors League Championship Trophy Ladd Stadium in Mobile, Alabama

James Harrison owes the Pittsburgh Steelers absolutely nothing and he owes the NE Patriots everything as it relates to his ability to perform at the top of his game. He was all business on the field for the Patriots at his old outside linebacker position wearing his familiar number 92. He recorded two sacks and five tackles in a 26-6 victory in the regular season final home game. The Patriots clinched the top seed and home field advantage in the AFC. At the close of business on Christmas eve on a Sunday afternoon in Foxboro, it was evident that James Harrison had made a business decision that was best for his family, and his pro football career–next stop Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Washington Bullet, Dave Bing tries to drive to basket around former Washington Bullet and then New York Knick player, Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe.

Black History is disappearing right before our eyes with the closing of Armstrong and Spingarn high schools in Washington, DC. This is a reminder that the DC public school system is the only public school system in the country that can claim they have two NBA Hall of Fame players and two NFL Hall Fame players all from the same city and the same system. Spingarn’s Elgin Baylor (1954) and Dave Bing (1961) and Armstrong’s Len Ford (1946) and Willie Wood (1955) history unmatched.

Sonny Hill a former NBA television analyst and Philadelphia playground legend recently said, “DC has produce more great basketball players per capital than any other city in the country.”

You would think with Bing being a native Washingtonian, high school and college All-American that local media would be aware of his community history. He was the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft of the Detroit Pistons and named Rookie of the Year. He also led the league in scoring in his second season averaging 27 points a game and he is a former player of the Washington Bullets/Wizards. This is what I would call more “Fake News” in local media. They want to bring you the news, but they don’t have a clue so they turn to “Fake News” or no news.

Dave Bing’s success in the NBA and in the community leads back to Kids In Trouble. A community program that thousands of kids in the DMV have benefited from without loans or grants. Bing said after his NBA rookie year, “Harold you help prepare me for the wars of the NBA!” I also think I help prepare him for the most important game being played in the world today–the Game Called Life. He in town in 2017 his mother Mrs. Jaunita Bing died in his adopted hometown of Detroit and he brought her back home for burial.

Several months later his childhood friend Roland ‘Fatty’ Taylor died in Denver on December 7, 2017. He was in Denver to lend “A Helping Hand” for the Taylor family. Dave orchestrated a second home going celebration for Fatty on Friday December 21, 2017 here in his hometown of DC in a Maryland suburb of Hyattsville. Fatty’s final resting place will be on the grounds of Ft. Lincoln Cemetery on the Maryland—DC line.

Fatty’s home going service brought family and friends together from his old neighborhoods of Foggy Bottom (Georgetown) and his old NE playgrounds of Watts Branch and Kelly Miller. Despite a lack of coverage by local news media, print, radio and television as it relates to notifying family and friends of his death, The first Baptist Church of Highland Park in Hyattsville was still packed and near capacity. Fatty’s home going was “First Class” in every sense of the word. There were several NBA Hall of Fame personalities in attendance, Dave Bing, Sonny Hill, John Thompson and former player Bob Dandridge.

One major media friend emailed me and said “Thanks for paying tribute to Fatty.” Another writer, Dave McKenna said, “I cannot believe no one wrote anything on Fatty Taylor. His nickname alone deserves a column. I found out too late.”

One friend who covers the NFL and writes for one of the major newspapers said, “Man I have known you for over two decades and I have watched your work in sports media and in the community–you have not changed. Too many of us take things personal, you cannot be in this business and have a thin skin with you around.”

Dave Bing’s generosity giving back is nothing new, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary on his return to Spingarn high school as “The NBA Rookie of the Year” to quell a gun disturbance, a Spingarn student was shot in front of the school after a Friday evening game between Spingarn and rival McKinley Tech.

In 1967 I was working with the Youth Gang Task Force (Roving Leader) for the DC Department of Parks & Recreation. My boss the late Stanley Anderson summoned me to his office and said, “Harold, that is your turf and school check it out”!

Back in the day I was gun-ho and thought I was the straw that stirred the drink.
When I arrived on the scene there were talks of revenge. The school was located on what was once known as “Education Hill” on 24th and Benning Road in NE DC. It was the most unique and a one of a kind school setting in America. ‘The Hill’ is also disappearing right before our eyes—thanks to “Gentrification”.

I tried talking to several of the students, especially the ones with the biggest mouths, but the knuckle heads were not paying me any attention. I decided to take a break and go across the street from the school and get me a hotdog at a small restaurant and student hangout called “Sporty’s”.

When finally got my hotdog I went outside and sat on someone’s steps next to the restaurant. While sitting there some students walked by talking about the NBA All-Star game being played in Baltimore. A light bulb went off in my head and there was Dave Bing’s name in bright lights. Dave was a rookie and having a great year and was voted to the All-Star team.

I decided to drive to Baltimore the next morning (Saturday) to see if I could locate Dave at the arena and God was on my side–he was dressed as a security guard. He directed me to the player’s entrance and about 30 minutes later Dave walks up with teammate Bob Lanier. He was surprised to see me and blurted out “Harold Bell what in the hell are you doing over here?” We shook hands and he introduced me to Bob. He went inside and left me and Dave to talk. I expressed my concerns about the shooting and asked if he could come to Spingarn on Monday morning to talk with the students. He said without hesitation, “No problem lets do it.” I kept my fingers crossed that there would be no retaliation taking place over the weekend.

Monday morning Dave arrives at the school around 10 am and walks into the Spingarn auditorium, there was standing room only, he was given a standing ovation. The reason for the standing ovation, they had just seen him play in the NBA All-Star Game on national television on that Sunday. His words of wisdom brought peace back to the school community.

Dave Bing’s roots have always been firmly planted in the DC community. He was living in Detroit, but his heart was in DC. Our partnership in reaching back together is legendary (as is our disagreements, it was never personal until the cheerleaders who didn’t have a clue added their two-cents to everybody, but me).

The community endeavors were many, we use Kids In Trouble, Inc as our platform. There were trips to his basketball camp in the Poconos Mountains, guest visits to the KIT Hillcrest Saturday Program to honor youth basketball, he co-hosted with me a first ever “Thank You” tribute to our Spingarn teachers and administrators who went where there was no path and left a trail for all of us. There were guest appearances on my radio sports talk show “Inside Sports” and a surprise appearance at my 40th wedding anniversary tribute. He is a “Man for All Seasons.”

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When Rev. William Roundtree our Spingarn basketball coach retired from the DC school system he decided to open his own SE Community Center on Good Hope Road in the shadows of Anacostia High School. I volunteered to lend a helping hand, but the struggle to help others and his health gave out. Coach Roundtree died and it was Dave who paid for his home going services.

Top: Coach Roundtree and Redskin WR Roy Jefferson host toy party for kids
Bottom: Coach and former Spingarn player Byron Kirkley are Santa’s helpers.

When the conversation leads to how much the NBA Cares it should start with Dave Bing. Today’s players lag far behind when it comes to the Man that started it all.

In 1968 the first NFL player who cared was Green Bay Packer defensive back and DC native Willie Wood. Willie and I were working as Roving Leaders for the DC Department of Recreation & Parks. When the riots hit DC on April 4th we were standing on the corner of 9th & U Streets, NW when someone drove by in a car and yelled “Hey Harold they just shot and killed Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee.” All hell broke loose shortly thereafter. Willie and I would found ourselves on the U street corridor walking arm and arm with the first black modern day U. S. Marshall in-charge, Luke C. Moore. Willie would play his way into the NFL Hall of Fame, Luke C. Moore would later become a sitting judge in the DC Superior Court and I would become a trail blazing pioneer in the community and the first black radio sports talk show host.

The Washington Redskins would follow Dave and Willie into the community, WR Roy Jefferson, RB Larry Brown, LB Harold McLinton, DB Ted Vactor, LB Dave Robinson and QB Doug Williams would eventually join the Kids In Trouble community reach-back team. Santa’s helpers in the media were led by Petey Greene, actor Robert Hooks, Bill Raspberry and Dave Dupree (Washington Post), Jim Vance, Fred Thomas (WRC-TV 4), Paul Berry and Maureen Bunyan (WJLA TV 7).

1968 Kids In Trouble first ever toy party. My Virginia Sailor teammate George Kelly is Santa. Willie Wood mailed a box of toys from Green Bay for the party.

Santa Helpers Judge Luke Moore, Redskins’ LB Harold McLinton, LB Dave Robinson and WR Roy Jefferson
The Washington Redskins would follow Dave and Willie into the community, WR Roy Jefferson, RB Larry Brown, LB Harold McLinton, DB Ted Vactor, LB Dave Robinson and QB Doug Williams would eventually join the Kids In Trouble community reach-back team. Santa’s helpers in the media were led by Petey Greene, actor Robert Hooks, Bill Raspberry and Dave Dupree (Washington Post), Jim Vance, Fred Thomas (WRC-TV 4), Paul Berry and Maureen Bunyan (WJLA TV 7).
Pro athletes like Bing, Muhammad Ali, Roy Jefferson, Red Auerbach, Freddy Scott, Lenny Moore, Johnny Sample, Sonny Hill and the late Harold McLinton were givers long before the NBA and NFL decided that they cared.

San Antonio Spurs’ Coach Gregg Popovich when asked why charitable endeavors were important to him. His response was classic, “Because we are as rich as hell, and we don’t need it all and other people need it. You are an ass if you don’t give”—according to Pop, John Wall miss the cut!

https://my.xfinity.com/video/basketball-stars-give-back-this-christmas-with-nba-cares-program/1123678275878/Comcast/TopVideos?cid=sf_vidtray_NBA&tab=Must%20Watch
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Dave returns to the ghetto to pass on words of wisdom while honoring Kids In Trouble youth basketball team (April 1968), several weeks after the DC riots.

Dave honors KIT MVP Hiawatha Irving as GT Coach John Thompson aka “Big Bad John” looks on (front and center of photo)

A GRIEVING MOTHER’S TEARS
By Earl Tildon / August 9, 1993

Who is Harold Bell? From where I sit, a man obsessed with youth and children’s plight. He 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 bend. 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 listento 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.”

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and say and do nothing.–Albert Einstein

Roland “Fatty” Taylor was a native Washingtonian. He grew up in NE DC and was a product of the DC Public School system. Fatty transferred from Spingarn High School and graduated from Fairmont Heights High School in Prince Georges County, Maryland. He died in Denver, Colorado on Thursday December 7, 2017, he was 71.

On Thursday December 21, 2017 Roland Fatty Taylor will return to his roots of Washington, DC for a home going celebration of his life with family and friends.

When I first met Fatty on the Kelly Miller playground in the late 50s he was just a little chubby guy hanging out with two skinny little guys, Dave Bing, and Donald Hicks. They would usually arrive early and shoot around until the bigger and older guys got ready to play. I would walk from my NE Parkside housing project a couple miles away on the weekends to Kelly Miller. This was where the best competition could be found. Fatty and his crew would become regulars among the spectators and often witness playground basketball played at its highest level. Kelly Miller was not a basketball court for the weak of heart or for cry babies.

Even though our athletic foundations were laid on NE playgrounds and at Spingarn, Fatty and I both graduated from Fairmont Heights. After graduation in 1959 I headed south to Winston-Salem State University to chase my dreams of playing in the NFL. During the summer breaks I would return home and find the chubby and skinny little guys had grown up and were now playing on the same courts with me (Kelly Miller, and Brown). During the Christmas break Spingarn would hold a annual varsity verse alumni basketball game and it was there I would encounter Hicks and Bing, but no Fatty Taylor. I later learn he had followed my lead and enrolled at Fairmont Heights. He would later tell me I had recommended the school, but I didn’t remember the conversation. I did remember telling him the basketball coach Kenny Freeman was a great coach who refused to let me play. My Spingarn football coach Dave Brown told Coach Freeman I was there to graduate and I was to play one sport only. I guess he took that conversation as a recommendation.

Fatty, Bing, Donald and I became good friends (I was more like a Big Brother). Sometimes I would arrive late and the games had already started. There was always a back-up for “Next” but if one or the other was on the winning team they would let me take their place in the second game and I would do the same for them. Fatty was a real aggressive player even back then. Donald held his own as a ball handler, but Dave was the best all around player of the three, but he was a “Cry baby.” He didn’t like contact. When we were on opposite teams, I played him one on one all over the court. I liked the challenge and he didn’t. I remember the summer at Kelly Miller like it was yesterday when he said, “Enough was enough” without opening his mouth. As usual I decided I was going to guard him. On that particular day I discovered he was much stronger then I remembered. He was only a sophomore at Syracuse, but he took me to school anyway. He no longer allowed me to push him around. He ran by me so fast and jumped so high I thought he was on a pogo stick. The message was loud and clear, ‘There was a new sheriff in town and his name was Dave Bing.’ The next summer I switched to tennis.

This encounter with Dave takes me back to a similar experience with Earl Monroe. He was making a visit to Winston-Salem to check out the school and he took a break to play in a pick-up game on a local playground one block from campus. I was sitting out in front of the dining hall after dinner shooting the breeze when my homeboy Richard “Jelly” Hansberry excitingly brought the news of this little black skinny guy was shooting the lights out at the playground. Barney Hood my roommate was a great jump shooter from Chicago he was sitting with me and decided we needed to go and check this basketball phenom out.

When we arrived at the court there were several ooh’s and aah’s taking place by the spectators and then we saw the skinny little black guy ‘Jelly’ was talking about. We had to wait our turn, we were second in line for the “Next” three. Luther Wiley was another roommate and basketball guard from Lynchburg, Virginia was our third player. Watching Earl trick and destroy the opposition made me very apprehensive about the task ahead. He did not let us down he tricked and destroyed us also. The best way I described the experience to Bighouse Gaines when he stopped by our dorm room later that night. I said, “It was like I had just come out of a Maytag washing machine that had been on spin dry.

Earl “The Pearl” Monroe and Bighouse Gaines attend a KIT Celebrity Fashion show

In 1966 Dave was selected in the 2nd round of the NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons. He averaged 20 points a game. He was named NBA Rookie of the Year.

Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe blocks Bing’s path to basket

DC Public HS All-Stars attend Bing’s basketball camp in the Poconos Mountain

I remember sitting in Frank’s Restaurant a popular in-crowd eatery on 8th U streets, NW, I was having lunch that summer day when Dave and my childhood friend Arnold George walked into the restaurant. We waved to each other and the two came over to my table. I got up to greet them. I shook hands with Arnold first and then Dave. We exchanged small talk and I told Dave how proud I was of him and jokingly said, “I taught you everything you know!” His response surprised me when he said, ‘Harold you help prepare me for the wars of the NBA’ and we both broke out laughing. He made a lot of player-haters mad because I would use hisown words to describe our relationship over the airwaves and in print media. It was not my fault I was the only one of his mentors that had a sports talk radio show and had a non-profit organization that he supported–unbelievable that kind of envy and jealousy still exist in our community today.


Dave Bing returns to his DC hometown to say “Job well done” Harold Bell

When Fatty graduated from Fairmont Heights I remember him asking me about Winston-Salem State and Bighouse Gaines and what was it like to play for him? I told him “Bighouse would kick your ass (not really)if you stepped out of line, but he saved my life when he gave me a chance to get a college education”. I called Coach Gaines and recommended Fatty sight unseen. Bighouse had former athletes like me all over the east coast as recruiters. He took my word and Fatty was all set to go to Winston-Salem, but he disappeared without a trace. I found out later through the grapevine, he had decided to attend Dodge City Community College in Kansas and the rest is basketball history.

HBell and Bighouse Gaines during his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame

Fatty and I had a lot in common, we were similar in size when it came to sports and neither one of us like to lose. I never saw a shot I could not make and a football I could not catch and Fatty never saw a scorer he could not stop. Plus, he had street sense and common sense.

He and Bing hung out with my younger brother Earl (known as The Bull) and they became a group of petty thieves. They could be found hanging out on weekends on the busy NE H Street corridor robbing businesses’ who left their cash registers unguarded. Thanks to his Coach William Roundtree, Bing avoided jail time for one of his petty crimes.

Sgt. Earl ‘Bull’ Bell from street rebel to Military MP to U. S. Army heavyweight champion to DC cop.

I was a hard nose basketball defender at Spingarn under the tutelage of Coach Roundtree. He use my athleticism, competitiveness and installed something called a box-in-one defense. It was designed for me to guard the opposing team’s top scorer while everyone else played zone. It was great until I discovered my name was never mention in the newspapers after holding the team’s top scorer below his average. My senior year I spend the summer on the playgrounds developing a jump-shot and all held broke loose the following school year. My new role as a scorer didn’t sit too well with my coach or my teammates. I was kicked off the team for selfish behavior. I immediately transferred to Eastern High School where I was going to hell in a hurry. Coach Brown stepped in and recommended me to the coaching staff at Fairmont Heights, saving me from the mean streets of DC.

My Spingarn teammate Spotswood Bolling was the lead petitioner for the DC public school system in the historical 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown vs Board of Education.

Years later I discovered Fatty had tried out for the Spingarn basketball team, but for some reason he and Coach Roundtree didn’t see eye to eye and he followed my lead and transferred to Fairmont Heights. The rest is basketball history.

Against all odds despite all the naysayers and player haters, he went the distance, all the way from Dodge City Community College, to LaSalle University,to the Sonny Hill Basketball League and the Philadephia 76ers in the 12th round. All of these institutions led him to a stella eight-year pro career in the ABA/NBA.

Fatty joined the American Basketball Association in 1969. After one year playing for the Washington Capitals, he moved with the team to Virginia where they became the Squires. It was here he spent the prime of his career, scoring 3,495 points, handing out 1,737 assists, and grabbing 1,715 rebounds in five seasons.

He became known as one of the few outstanding defensive players in a league known primarily as a “run-and-gun” operation. On the Squires Fatty played with former NBA stars Adrian Smith, ‘Jumbo’ Jim Eakins and Julius ‘Doctor J’ Erving. For one-and-a-half seasons he was a teammate of George Gervin. He has been credited with coining Gervin’s nickname “The Iceman” (he first called Gervin Iceberg Slim, but Iceberg Slim got lost somewhere in the shuffle and ‘The Iceman’ stuck. George flew in from San Antonio, Texas and was at Fatty’s bedside the night before he passed away. I was not surprised, because that is what friends are for and George Gervin has always been a class act. Fatty introduced me to George and Dr. J and they both participated on my Inside Sports radio talk show and are now Legends of Inside Sports.

Fatty retired in 1977 with combined ABA/NBA totals of 5,098 points, 2,563 assists, and 2,524 rebounds. He was named to the ABA’s All-Defensive first team in 1973 and in 1974. Fatty, never developed a decent jump shot, but the jump shooters respected and feared his “In Your Jockey Strap” mentality defensive skills.. He was known as a defensive stalwart.

In a recent conversation I had with our Philly mentor playground and NBA legend Sonny Hill, he said, “Fatty Taylor is on my all-time list as a great player, but he was a better human being. Philadelphia will be heart broken when they hear the news of his death, because this city loves him like he was one of their very own.”

Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode tours city playgrounds with Sonny Hill and HBell

He never forgot who he was and where he came from. He loved his hometown of Washington, DC and his homies. During his pro career he often reached out to me and would call and say, “Harold who you got on Inside Sports tonight—you want Dr. J? We are going to be hanging out together at a concert. Give me a time to call and I will make it happen.” He kept his word, as he did with ‘The Ice Man’ George Gervin, David Thompson and George McGinnis all NBA Hall of Fame players and all made guest appearences on Inside Sports—thanks to Fatty Taylor.

NBA Hall of Famer Big George McGinnis (Philadelphia 76ers)talk sports after game.

Fatty was like a little brother to me and sometimes he would make a mistake like most human beings, because we are all flawed. What I liked about him he never made excuses and would always say, “Harold I have to do better.” Sometimes he did and some times he didn’t, but I still loved him.

He sometimes traveled in the “Fast Lane” but I always told him, “If you got a problem you can always call and we can talk.” He and Dave Bing were really close and I knew he had mixed emotions, because I had to remind Dave who he was and where he came from on several ocassions. It was tuff love with me in every sense of word when it came to Dave. He was the first pro athlete to join my non-profit organization Kids In Trouble (1965). He led the way when it came to pro athletes reaching back into the community to enhance the growth and development of inner-city children. He cared long before the NBA. Dave’s problem, he was surrounded by too many homeboy cheerleaders.

Kids In Trouble visit the Dave Bing Basketball camp in the Poconos Mountains

Fatty, finally called me several years ago while he was home to check on some family members . I picked him up and we rode around DC for about 30 minutes and then stopped at Denny’s Restaurant on Benning Road in our old neighborhood to get something to eat. Benning Road and East Capitol Streets brought back memories of The Hood (the neighborhood), especially, when he saw the landmark Shrimp Boat still standing tall. He said, “Seeing the Shrimp Boat is like seeing the Washington Monument flying into National Airport, I know I am home.”

We talked about life and how far we both had come against all odds. He then broke the news that I had never expected to hear from a man, “I had breast cancer!” I sit there in silence for what seem like two or three minutes and he finally said ‘I am okay.’

He wanted to talk about his work with at-risk kids in the Colorado high school system. It was there he realized the need to form his own program, which resulted in the development of his non-profit organization “Taylor Made Playaz.” I jokingly said, “Sounds like Kids In Trouble to me.” He looked up and said, ‘Man, we have always followed your lead since we were little guys on the playground.’

He was especially proud of having to work with his son Kobe. Fatty had failed as an entrepreneur with several businesses that included restaurants and night clubs in Denver and one here in Washington, DC. He had finally found his calling, “Kids In Trouble.”

And then there was the work he was doing with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure for Breast Cancer. It started out being an uphill battle because men are only one/percent of the victims. After being cancer-free for several years, Fatty’s fight began all over again in 2009. He said, “I began having breathing problems following a busy summer traveling with my AAU basketball team. Doctors found blood clots in my lungs and I was diagnosed with cancer in my left breast. Man, I was all shook-up and I could not believe this was happening to me all over again. It was a wake-up call as far as a person thinking that they’re healthy and then one day they tell you its cancer again.”

Just as he had passed along his basketball knowledge to young players, he now wanted to help educate fellow breast-cancer patients, particularly men who might have felt confused and isolated. He wanted them to know they were not alone. Fatty was thankful that the cancer in his left breast was not as severe as it was in his right breast in 2000. I left Denny’s Restaurant that day thinking “Fatty is going to beat this cancer,” but his one on one up-close and personal fight with this deadly desease there would be no OT.

The Lord reached down on Thursday December 7, 2017 and said, “Come home my son and run the point guard and play defense for my team of All-Star coaches, Red Auerbach, Bighouse Gaines, Johnny McLendon, Dave Brown, William Roundtree, and players, Wilt Chamberlain, Connie Hawkins, Bad News Barnes, Earl Lloyd and Sid Catlett. Here you will never have to worry about fouling out.” As always Fatty Taylor went down fighting.

TRAIL BLAZERS: HBell–Red Auerbach and Earl Lloyd

L-R Fatty, HBell, Larry Brown and Petey Greene–Community Reach Back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTUC4qYYiRw / Final Tribute