Friday, March 29, 2024

Five Black female sports trailblazers that deserve more shine.

March 10, 2020 by  
Filed under News, Opinion, Sports, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) March is known as Women’s History Month, when the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society are highlighted. There is no questions that throughout the history of the world and United States that women have been vital to the success of this world and the country of the United States. Black women in particular have to navigate an American society that dehumanizes people deemed “black” and is dismissive and hostile towards women in many aspects. The field of athletics does not properly acknowledge women of all ethnicities and backgrounds despite the history that is made seemingly daily by women in sports including by contemporaries including Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and Simone Biles. Here are five Black women, in no particular order, who are or have been trailblazers in sports or athletics in various capacities:

1. Toni Stone (baseball)-When the phrase “baseball trailblazer” comes to mind, Jackie Robinson is the first person who immediately is thought of but baseball fans everywhere should respect Toni Stone. Stone was the first woman to ever play professional baseball as a regular on a big-league team. In 1953, Stone made history as the second baseman for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro League. Her story is so unique that it has recently become an off-Broadway play at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City. Stone definitely deserves to be mentioned along Negro League luminaries like Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell.

2. Robin Roberts (television)-Almost everyday, Robin Roberts warms the living rooms of millions of people on ABC’s morning television show Good Morning America. Younger viewers might forget that Roberts first became nationally known as an ESPN sports reporter and anchor on ESPN’s SportsCenter. If it was important for black boys to see Stuart Scott as an ESPN anchor during the 1990s and 2000s as aspirational, it was just as important for black girls to see Robin Roberts on television for ESPN. She also became the first woman to co-host “NFL Primetime.” Her breast cancer diagnosis and health battles made Roberts an even more public figure but she has bravely fought in a positive spirit and earlier this year celebrated being at Disney for 30 years.

3. Jackie Joyner-Kersee (track and field)-The 2020 Summer Olympics are a bit of a question mark over concerns about the coronavirus. Should the Olympics continue expect to her the name Jackie Joyner-Kersee at some point as she is one of the greatest athletes, male or female, in Olympic history. Joyner-Kersee was not just a sprinter, she competed in the seven-event heptathlon and won three golds, a silver and two bronze medals over four separate Olympics. In 1992 in Barcelona, she became the first athlete to win the heptathlon in consecutive Olympic Games. Joyner-Kersee was inducted into the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2004 and was featured on the front of the breakfast cereal “Wheaties” in 2004, an significant honor for athletes.

4. C. Vivian Stringer (basketball)-The national public has been aware of the Rutgers women’s basketball coach following her handling of Don Imus’ sexist and racist public comments in 2007. The world saw how classy she and her players handled the situation and should not forget that she has been a top notch basketball coach for a long time. Starting her college basketball head coaching career at Cheyney University, the country’s oldest historically black college, Stringer has put herself among the greatest coaches in college basketball history, which is a remarkable feat in a sport that needs more great black women to receive leadership opportunities.

5. Laurel J. Richie (basketball)-The WNBA is celebrating a groundbreaking new collective bargaining agreement largely due to black women leading the way from the players’ side. The WNBA itself made history in 2011, when Laurel J. Richie was named President of the Women’s National Basketball Association and became the first person of color to lead a major national sports league. Under Richie from 2011 to 2015, the WNBA improved its talent base under former college stars including Maya Moore, Skylar Diggins-Smith, and Nneka Ogwumike. Although she is no longer focused on sports in her current position at Synchrony Financial and Bright Horizons, she assumed the role of Chair of the Board in 2017 at Dartmouth College, her alma mater.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines


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