Opinion: Sports hold stories of inclusion

Watching my long-lost Arkansas Razorbacks fall to Baylor in an Elite Eight showdown on television reminded me of the intersection between sports and our American culture.

Despite the defeat, the game brought back memories of the days of Nolan Richardson, the first African-American basketball coach at the University of Arkansas who also became the winningest UA basketball coach ever. He led the Hogs to three Final Four berths and one NCAA championship, but he ultimately got fired for mouthing off against famed Athletic Director Frank Broyles. He sued the university for discrimination, lost the lawsuit and eventually retired in Northwest Arkansas from his hall of fame coaching career.

Through it all, he gave the racists in my home state plenty to hate. He was big, Black and loud in his opinions. He made an indelible mark on both basketball and Razorback athletics — and I saw a glimpse of that in the fast-paced action this year’s young Razorback team brought to the court.

Other racial and ethnic minorities in sports have made their mark on American culture, in their own way. New Mexico’s native daughter Nancy Lopez, born and raised in Roswell, is another hall of famer — she became the best professional golfer to ever come out of New Mexico, and yet the Roswell Country Club wouldn’t allow Mexican Americans to play on their golf course, so she was excluded. Now, Roswell has a golf course named after her.

Other athletes of color have made their marks on the American landscape. Sometimes they were bold, as were Tommie Smith and John Carlos when they raised their fists in a Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympic games, or subdued, like Jesse Owens, when he showed the fallacy of Adolph Hitler’s view of white supremacy by winning four Olympic gold medals in 1936 — in Berlin, no less.

But sports’ influence on culture goes back further than that.

Maybe it started with Jim Thorpe, born in 1887 to a Native American mother and an Irish American father. He has to be considered one of sport history’s greatest all-round athletes, even if they did strip him of his 1912 Olympic gold.

Also during that time there was heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson, who was arguably tougher and more dominant in the ring than the late-great Muhammad Ali. From 1908 to 1915, Johnson was the heavyweight champion of the world, defeating all-comers and leading the white novelist Jack London to call for a “great white hope” to defeat this unstoppable African-American fighter.

The story of Jack Johnson is an incredible one. Born in Galveston, Texas, to former slaves, he went on to marry white women as he brutalized his opponents in the ring. At one point he holed up in Las Vegas, N.M., for a bout, but my favorite story about Johnson comes out of Georgia.

The story goes that once, as a lover of fast cars, he was speeding along a red-dirt road in Georgia when a white cop pulled him over and said he’d just earned himself a $50 ticket for speeding. Johnson pulled out a $100 bill, gave it to the officer and told him to keep the change — because “I’ll be coming back through.”

Delve into any and all of the aforementioned sports heroes and you’ll see how they became bigger than their sport — and pushed America toward greater inclusion. And that is very much part of our great American dream.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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