The Blind Truth

“Because we had a black player on the team (and a star at that), names were called and epithets hurled just about everywhere we went, but two places were especially tough. One was the old Stedman High in Fayetteville, N.C. The other was Dunn High in the city of the same name. There was a billboard on the road leading into Dunn that read, “Stop integration and Communism. Support the KKK.” That caption was alongside a cartoon drawing of a guy on a horse in full Klan regalia. … That seemed surprising to me, even for way back then. I guess I should have been thankful they were keeping the local Communists in check. I had not realized what a threat they were in eastern North Carolina at that time.”

“One evening the Hornets were playing whatever team Reggie Theus was playing for then, and Reggie, a former all-star now nearing the end of his career, was not starting. My broadcast partner, Steve Martin, said something along the lines of, “I guess they (Reggie’s current team) don’t believe in him anymore.”

I said, “You mean they’re A-Theus?” “

The skin color thing does play differently abroad. I was at the beach near Rimini, Italy, with another American player named Frank Card when this little ol’ Italian lady came walking by. When she got even with us, she stopped and looked and looked. Then she walked over to us, got real close, and stared some more. Finally, she bent over and put her fingers on Frank’s leg, and swiped, like she was checking out some wet paint. Now, Frank was not a light-skinned black man like me. He was very, very dark, and apparently, this astonished the woman. She looked at his leg and then looked at her hand; I assume she was checking to see if it rubbed off.