OUR MOTHER AND HER LOVE

A little while ago, we started introducing our readers to our mothers – three women now deceased but who remain with us as we go through each day.  Rob began by sharing his feelings on the life and recent death of Electa Wiley.  Now, it’s time to learn about the wonderful woman who shaped Henry’s life...

My first memories are of images and a voice. I learned at some early point in my life the images were pictures in books and the voice was my mother reading to me before I could comprehend. In subsequent conversations, I recognized those images as she showed me the books she had read to me from while I was still in her womb, continuing until I could read alone.

Freda Jones grew up in Warren, Arkansas where her nickname was “Honey” because of her personality.  That loving, pleasant, upbeat, hopeful personality served her well all her life. She met my father, Henry L. Jones, Sr., at Arkansas Baptist college.  They married in 1943 and I was born in 1945. She dropped out of college after my birth to take care of me and the second son they had four years later, Kenneth Wayne Jones. 

Her decision reflected no lack of commitment to her education or to her teaching career. She simply did not want to leave our care to anyone other than herself.  After Kenneth and I reached elementary school age, she returned to college, driving to Pine Bluff each day and graduating from Arkansas AM&N – now U of A Pine Bluff – in 1958. She taught in the elementary grades in the Little Rock school system for 30 years.

My brother and I benefited from her meticulous preparation each night

for the next day’s learning experience for her students. As we watched, listened and learned I do not exaggerate when I say Kenneth and I experienced love from the most loving and caring person we have ever encountered. This love was not extended to us only but to the kids in the neighborhood, the children at church and Sunday school, the students she taught, and almost anyone else who crossed her path.  She taught us hate and bitterness were not options, but hope and faith must rule our lives. I still hear from students she taught.  One of them wrote recently:

“My reflection on the life of Mrs. Freda Jones reveals a truly, truly, blessed life.  This woman of God, woman of faith, wife, mother, educator, cook, petite, elegant lady impacted my life from the 5^th grade of elementary school at Booker T.  Washington in the South end of Little Rock, to my later years. As I entered the gospel ministry and furthered my theological education, I was blessed to be one of the many she prayed for. Thank you, Mrs. Jones, for your life-long impact and influence on my life. I shall never forget you. It is because of your sweet, caring, Christian spirit I am what I am today. I owe you.  Thank you. I love you.”

I guess her nickname was always appropriate.  

I visited my mother as she lingered in the hospital just before her death. The rainy day reflected my sadness as my tears seemed to merge with the downpour. But I experienced joy as I recalled:

                                       IMAGES OF LOVE

Remembering pictures before understanding

And works before comprehension

A mother reads to an infant; an adult remembers the images and words

The love in those beginnings

Two boys knew only love

From the mother who answered all questions

(she said it’s the only way they can learn)

Explained all Dilemmas

And soothed all wounds

They saw her love of the lovable

And the not so lovable

Because we were watching?

No, it was just her faith requiring it

And we were the beneficiaries

We had cinnamon rolls after the snow storm

And pick-up sticks after the teachers’ meeting

Books and love and pecan pie and love

And lectures and love and church and you can do it

And love and take your time and love

And you’ll be fine and love

For He is watching

And love and love and love and love

We saw, felt, breathed and bathed in her love—

She gave in life—we must with each breath

Carry that love into each day as she continues

To spread that love where love is unending.

She told us to listen

Even to the clamor

Of a boisterous and undisciplined world

For if we listened

We could hear the small voice

Revealing the secrets of the universe

Follow that voice and your paths

Though not easy

Will lead to eternity

We’re still listening Mom

You just keep talking.

RETHINKING THE ISSUE: Black Coaches and Racism

  We began this blog in the summer of 2016 with a series on why black college football coaches and sports executives sometimes seem doomed to fail and why a black coach or executive likely would not succeed them.  We used the examples of Texas football
coach Charlie Strong and Houston Texans General Manager Rick Smith, both of whom were under fire from fans and media.Now things have happened that cause us to ask if the world is changing.  

In the last few weeks, institutions with which we are very familiar have picked black basketball coaches to replace failed black coaches.  The University of Arkansas—Little Rock (mostly known now as just “Little Rock”) named Clark Atlanta

University coach Darrell Walker its men’s basketball coach, succeeding Wes Flannigan.  The University of Memphis replaced Tubby Smith with Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway We understand differences exist between a power

five college program like Texas or an NFL franchise on one hand and mid-major college basketball programs like UALR and Memphis on the other.  We’ll examine those differences, but we think the fact these institutions took the path they did remains worth considering.  We should note Rob graduated from both Little Rock and Memphis and Woodson served on UALR’s Board of Visitors for ten years. 

 

 

 

Charlie Strong and Rick Smith

In three posts in July and August of 2016, we explored the difficulties Strong and Smith were having as pioneers in their respective positions.  We noted the view, expressed openly by some and privately by others, that if the Longhorns and the Texans pulled the plug on Strong and Smith, black men wouldn’t replace them.  In November 2016, we saw the handwriting on the wall for Strong and predicted Texas would try to hire Houston coach Tom Herman.  

Texas fired Strong that month and picked Herman.  Smith dangled for another year, but stepped aside after the 2017 season, ostensibly to deal with his wife’s health problems.  Nobody expects him back.  The Texans selected a white general manager, Brian Gaine.  We are not here to argue race discrimination led to either outcome.  The facts are what they are.

 

Darrell Walker and Penny Hardaway

Darrell Walker led the second wave of really good basketball players at Arkansas under Eddie Sutton.  He followed the Sidney Moncrief/Ron Brewer/Marvin Delph triplets and played on excellent Arkansas teams.  The Knicks picked Walker 12^th overall in the 1983 NBA draft.  He played ten years before starting a coaching career that has seen him lead the Toronto Raptors for two seasons, work as an assistant for four teams, serve as interim coach of the Washington Wizards, and coach the WNBA’s Washington Mystics.  He shifted to college coaching at Clark Atlanta where he turned a losing program into a two – season, 45-18 run.  Little Rock expects similar success after a 7-25 disaster under Flannigan in 2017-18.

Hardaway played two seasons at Memphis, then enjoyed an NBA career spanning 1993-2007 during which he was paid $120 million.  Hardaway was initially academically ineligible to play at Memphis, but rebounded with a 3.4 grade point average and returned to earn his degree in 2003.  Memphis hired him to replace Smith, whose career has taken a downturn since his 1996 national championship at Kentucky.

 

Yes, there are differences

The reasons for these different outcomes are obvious and obscure.  First, football isn’t basketball and basketball isn’t football.  When Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles hired  Nolan Richardson

as the first black head coach at a major southern university  he reportedly acknowledged that basketball was becoming a black sport. It follows that coaching would eventually reflect that. Black players filtered into the coaching ranks, creating a pool of young, talented coaches who could move from assistant to head jobs.  While some succeeded and some failed, sheer numbers meant the availability of more black coaches and that more coaches with the qualities athletic directors seek are black. Darrell Walkers and Penny Hardaways don’t grow on trees.  Both have resumes many basketball programs desire in a coach.  For a host of reasons, the process of developing that pool of potential black head coaches has proceeded more slowly in college football.

College football remains the flagship program in most athletic departments.  It’s the one thing an athletic director and university president cannot mess up.  Football pays the bills and university leaders can leave it in the hands of only someone they trust totally.  Is it not possible many ADs and presidents feel they can’t chance a second “experiment” with a black coach?  Indeed, that’s exactly how one sports talk host referred to Strong’s tenure in suggesting Texas wouldn’t hire a second black coach if it decided to dump him.  We wonder if ADs and presidents feel the same pressure with regard to basketball.         

Finally, we think fan bases for college basketball have gotten blacker.  We’re through two generations of integrated southern colleges and universities, meaning more black former students and families identify with once all-white or mostly white colleges.  Our children grew up following the same college teams as anyone else’s kids, not the case in our early years. Then it was rare to know a black graduate of a “white” school.  Acceptance of black coaches generally probably follows from this development.

The hiring of Walker and Hardaway doesn’t mean the problem we identified with Strong and Smith has disappeared.  But, the differences between the sports notwithstanding, we still regard their employment as steps in the right direction and some indication the world is changing for the better.  And you think?