Farrakhan’s Call To Black Coaches - Recapture The ‘Gold’

What an odd configuration of space and time.

Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, speaking to the Black Coaches Association on the occasion of the association’s eighth annual convention here near Disney World.

From a modest beginning, the Black Coaches Association has grown in power and influence and now consists of 2,000 members in all sports, from predominantly white schools as well as historically black schools.

Extending an invitation to Farrakhan was a bold step for an association that runs on membership dues and is looking for sponsors.

“We like to bring a different element to the convention,” said Rudy Washington, the executive director and co-founder of the coaches association. In 1994, the association invited Jesse Jackson to speak. Last year, Al Sharpton was the invited guest. “Next year we may invite someone like Thomas Sowell or Cornel West,” Washington said, referring to the conservative economist and the Harvard scholar. “We get so consumed by sports, recruiting, that we aren’t exposed to different perspectives and views of how we relate to the rest of the black community.”

There was a distinct difference between this convention and others. Indeed, this was a unique experience for coaches, by nature conservative and militaristic.

For one, the lobby at the Marriott World Center was a very different place. Normally the sole domain of coaches dressed in sweats and shorts, Saturday morning the coaches mixed easily with Farrakhan’s security force - young African-American men attired in neatly pressed suits and bow ties.

The coaches submitted to the polite but firm searches before entering the large ballroom - men on the left, women on the right.

A few moments before the program, one of Farrakhan’s aides asked if some members of the Black Coaches Association would join the minister on the stage as representatives of the association.

Washington explained that might be difficult because many of the coaches were concerned about being closely identified with the Nation of Islam leader because they might be subject to repercussions from their employers. Simply inviting Farrakhan was a huge leap for some coaches, many of whom work at predominantly white schools.

Finally, Kenny Williamson, an assistant basketball coach at Seton Hall and one of the co-founders of the association, joined Washington on the stage and they sat on one side as hosts.

Two Nation of Islam ministers sat on the other side of the stage. They were joined by Bighouse Gaines, the legendary Winston-Salem State University basketball coach who retired in 1993. Gaines knew Farrakhan as an 18-year-old freshman track athlete at Winston-Salem named Louis Eugene Walcott.

“He was as articulate then as he is now,” Gaines said. “He was a very intelligent kid. And talented. He’s always been a leader, always been a communicator and he’s been a people person. He was an unusual student. You could see back then that he was no ordinary Joe.”

When he finally entered the room, Farrakhan was greeted with heathly applause, though the most fervent cheering came from Nation of Islam members in the audience.

For more than half an hour, Farrakhan spoke in generic terms about the concept of coach as teacher, mentor and Rock of Gibraltar in the lives of young men and women. “No one gets anywhere in life without a coach,” he said.

Farrakhan spoke about things that many of the coaches know painfully well: the breakdown of values and the disintegration of the home. He called for them to “re-erect the standard.” He said young athletes are like babies, empty vessels waiting to be filled with information.

This was all very nice, but most of those who had come wanted to hear how or if Farrakhan would address economic empowerment as it related to the multibillion dollar industry of sports - an industry whose heartbeat in large part is fueled by young African-American athletes.

At 12:20 p.m., Farrakhan leaped into empowerment in typically rigorous style. He discussed the diamonds and gold and cocoa in Ghana and said, “Someone in Europe sets the price - undervalues what comes out of Africa and overvalues what comes out of Europe.”

African-Americans don’t have diamonds or gold or oil. “What do we have that white folk value?” he asked. The answer was supple athletic bodies that black communities freely supply to high schools and colleges as part of an expansive athletic food chain.

Obviously, this didn’t come as news to most of the 600 coaches who attended Farrakhan’s talk. Indeed many of them coached players who are playing or have played professional sports. The news was that the Nation of Islam, with solid infrastructure and populist appeal, was apparently turning its attention to perhaps the most obvious stream of black wealth emanating from but not controlled by the black community. Athletics.

The Nation of Islam was the first black organization to understand the significance of the black athletic presence. In 1963, Malcolm X recruited the boxer then known as Cassius Clay into the organization.

Saturday afternoon, Farrakhan called on the coaches to help recapture the “gold” the African community has let slip away by working on the spiritual and cultural content of the athletes’ character.

“Take you Bible off the shelf,” he said. “Dust it off.”

After the speech, Farakhan received a standing ovation as he was ushered off stage. Coaches mobbed the table where copies of his speech were being sold for $8.

Rudy Washington stood off to the side, looking drained but relieved.

“This was not an endorsement of the Nation of Islam,” Washington said. “This was an opportunity to hear a man speak who has the ear of my children.”