Venus Williams has overcome many things on her way to being one of tennis’ all-time great champions. She has excelled as a Black woman in a white-dominated, country club sport. She’s battled recurring illness, and she’s also been a stalwart in fighting for and winning pay equity for women players at Wimbledon. Yet nothing she’s previously experienced, even enduring racist heckling several years ago at Indian Wells, compares to what she’s encountered over the last couple of weeks. That’s because Williams was initially, and as it now turns out wrongly, accused of causing the death of a 78-year-old man in…
Author: Ron Wynn
A cursory look this week at headlines and sports coverage in various publications both print and online underscored the biggest problem currently facing Major League Baseball. It is simply getting the attention of many sports fans. What was once the unquestioned national pastime now finds itself being bumped off the front pages by the NBA, NHL, NFL, even boxing, despite the fact that it is now July, and Sunday marked the halfway point of the season for many teams. Instead, the sports pages and talk shows were dominated by discussions about Steph Curry’s record contract, the firing of Phil Jackson…
It’s been over a decade now since the NBA Players Association made arguably its worst decision ever. They negotiated a change that dictated a player had to attend college for at least a year prior to becoming eligible for the draft. This was supposedly done to prevent high school players who weren’t ready for the pros from making a mistake by declaring too early, thereby forfeiting an opportunity to develop in college. It was also going to eliminate the necessity for NBA teams to have scouts and general managers going to high school games and having to include looking at…
Even though there are far more Black players in the NHL than in the PGA or NASCAR, the myth still persists that it is an all-white league and that Blacks don’t play the sport. Many people don’t realize there was an all-Black professional hockey league in Canada decades before the NHL. The Coloured Hockey League was formed in Nova Scotia in 1895, and lasted until 1930. It featured 12 teams and some 400 players, and is credited with such innovations as allowing the goaltender to leave the net and play the puck, and helping establish the slap shot. Still, from…
This has not been the greatest of years for Major League Baseball, though the excitement of the NHL playoffs and Golden State’s blowing through the NBA playoffs has overshadowed their problems. First, the National League lost until at least August the services of Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman. Freeman was having his finest year, putting together a MVP caliber season for an otherwise dreary team, before being hit on the wrist by a pitch. That was soon followed by an even more dismal event. Mike Trout, the reigning American League MVP on his way to quite possibly his best…
The Pittsburgh Penguins became the first National Hockey League’s first repeat champions since the late ’90s Sunday night with a 2-0 victory in Game 6 over the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena. The game winning goal came with less than two minutes remaining in regulation (1:35) and was scored by a former Predator. Patric Hornqvist was the Predators final pick in the 2005 draft. His shot was banked in off Pekka Rinne’s left elbow, and was the only goal he allowed in another outstanding home performance. Carl Hagelin’s empty net goal only padded the final score. Sidney Crosby was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as…
Track and field doesn’t enjoy much notoriety in this country other than in Olympic years. Over recent decades, the sport has gotten less and less coverage and exposure on television, in newspapers, magazines and online. Lots of high schools have either de-emphasized or in some cases dropped it, while others only use it as a way to get exercise in the offseason for football and basketball players. Some major events like the Penn Relays that used to be huge network showcases only get sporadic mention now, while even an event like the World Championships doesn’t get the coverage that it…
The Nashville Predators have been dominating play in the opening two games of the Stanley Cup Final except for brief explosive surges by the Pittsburgh Penquins. Wednesday night Pittsburgh scored three goals in roughly three minutes (3:18) to break open a close game and post a 4-1 victory that gives the Penquins a 2-0 lead. Jake Guentzel, Scott Wilson and Evgeni Malkin scored, driving Predators’ goalie Pekka Rinne out of the game. Guentzel’s two goals give him 12 thus far, tops among playoff scorers. His 19 total points are the most by any American-born rookie. “It’s crazy,” Guentzel told the…
There have been a host of stories written over the last few days about the massive cuts recently made at ESPN, the cable sports giant. A lot of folks have offered explanations for why more than 100 folks were laid off in this latest round, which follows another set of cuts made earlier on the production side. Some reasons being given include the impact of folks cutting their cable/satellite subscriptions, the monetary losses being suffered by increasing rights fees being paid to sports leagues, even political fallout for ESPN’s supposed “liberal” bias (a joke considering they are a multi-national corporation…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — Nearly 60 years (57 to be exact) a 21-year-old Tennessee State University music major Ernest “Rip” Patton decided to get personally involved in the fight for social justice and equality. He joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and became a prominent member of the Nashville Movement. He participated in the Lawson Workshops, was involved in Nashville’s sit-ins, and became a Freedom Rider a year later. At one point he found himself in the notorious Parchman Farm Penitentiary, sent there along with others for daring to enter a “white only” Greyhound bus station’s waiting…