Another stellar lineup for the NABJ Pioneer Awards
CLEVELAND— It wouldn’t be NABJ (National Association of Black Journalists) for me if I didn’t attend the annual Sam Lacey Pioneer Awards.
Over the years I have had the opportunity to not only listen to the winners’ speeches, but also talk with them afterwards: Joe Frazier, John Chaney, Sonny Hill and Donald Hunt in Philadelphia (2011); Maritza Correia, Doug Williams and Lee Roy Selmon in Tampa (2009); Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and James Harris in New Orleans (2017); Spencer Haywood and Willie Horton in my hometown Detroit (2018); Don King, Regina Miller and Reggie Theus in Las Vegas (2007); and Ferguson Jenkins and Dorothy Gaters in Chicago last August.
At last Friday’s event at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Cleveland, the third-floor large meeting room was packed with not only the honorees, their families and friends, but also Black sports journalists, both seasoned and aspiring college students.
NBA star LeBron James was among the seven Pioneer Awards — fifth-grader Zaire Williamson, a student at one of the several schools James has supported over the years, accepted on his behalf. Archie Griffin, Desmond Howard, Dr. Madeline Manning Mims, Renee Powell and Barbara Turner were the other winners.
Two received Lifetime Achievement Awards — Justice Hill and Jayne Kennedy.
All award winners have Cleveland or Ohio area ties, including the late Jim Brown. His wife Monique accepted for the NFL icon when he played for the Cleveland Browns in the 1960s before he walked away from football to pursue acting. He also convened the “Cleveland Summit” in 1967 where he and other Black athletes gathered to support Muhammad Ali’s protest against the Vietnam War.
Mrs. Brown was among several Lacy Pioneer winners who spoke to the MSR after the 90-minute dinner program: “Being a pioneer not only in film, in television, in sports as an activist, there was a lot more and you can’t really sum it up in three minutes,” she stressed.
“There are so many things that he did… A lot of people don’t know that Jim discovered Earth, Wind and Fire and got them their first recording contract,” she pointed out.
“He just touched so many lives as a catalyst for change,” Mrs. Brown said proudly. “Jim took great pride in being an American citizen.”
Dr. Madeline Manning Mims was the first American woman to win Olympic gold in the 800 meters in 1968, a record that held for 53 years. She ran in four Olympics (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980). “This is such a unique opportunity to say thank you to many of these Black journalists that I had met during my time,” she stressed.
“The Black journalists have been the ones that have been keeping doors open and breaking down barriers,” added Renee Powell, the second of only eight Black women to compete on the LPGA Tour, competing in over 250 tournaments. Powell’s father was the first Black to build, own and operate a golf course in the U.S., the Clearview Golf Club that her family still operates today.
Archie Griffin and Desmond Howard are Heisman Trophy winners. “Jim Brown was my hero,” admitted Griffin, the only two-time winner. “I wished I had the opportunity to know Sam Lacy. That man did a lot of work really pushing for the Black athlete to get the recognition that they deserved.”
Said Howard, “To be able to do it in front of my family in the place that made me who I am, it couldn’t get any better than this.”
Barbara Turner missed last Friday’s Minnesota-Washington WNBA game to attend the Lacy’s — she is a Mystics assistant coach. She was a high school All-American, played on back-to-back UConn championship teams, and was a first-round WNBA draft pick who played overseas before moving into coaching. “I can’t say how much this is an honor just to be recognized, especially in my city,” Turner pointed out.
Hill is a four-decades-plus journalist, educator, mentor and longtime voice of Black journalists. Kennedy was the first Black woman to win Miss Ohio USA in 1970 and the first Black woman to be a sportscaster on a national NFL broadcast as co-anchor on CBS’s “The NFL Today.”
“I love sports and I know a lot about sports,” Hill said.
Next week: More on Jayne Kennedy’s groundbreaking career
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.