Black Magic on ESPN

Ben Jobe is a great American.

 

I knew I recognized the director's name from somewhere, Dan Klores heads a huge PR firm in New York and it was retained by Brad Grey and Anthony Pellicano in the lawsuit filed by Gary Shandling. He's also been in the middle of some other controversies. That said, I thought the doc was pretty good. Black Magic was also the nickname of Earl Lloyd, an early pioneer in the sport.

 

It'd be kind of neat to see how an HBCU conference would fair as fully-funded I-A programs.

Put together a league like this and see what happens.

FAMU
Hampton
North Carolina A&T
South Carolina State
Grambling
Southern
Jackson State
Texas Southern
Prairie View

With 85 scholarships this would probably be a better football league than the Sun Belt and possibly the WAC.

 

Figuring you'd definitely be watching, I actually thought of you when he took a shot at GWB last night.

What's next? Dreaming about you?

And P.S. to those wondering: Black Magic was also one of Earl Monroe's nicknames...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_2_38/ai_n24323674

 

I used to eat up reading my parents' old Britannica books of the year 1959-72 (my parents got rid of them, dammit), but I don't think I've really appreciated all the shit that went down in that period, and shit done to people, until watching stuff like "Black Magic" now. (I write this after having seen the interviews of the South Carolina State shootings). Maybe it's because I'm older, or maybe it's the distance from the time, but I have a far greater appreciation for what a different world it was then -- and not to get political, but why Jeremiah Wright talks one way and Barack Obama talks another when it comes to race relations.

 

That's not the only reason he's a great American.
It is a bonus, though.
I thought Part 2 got a little rambling, but the Oranegburg stuff was compelling.

 

That's funny because I actually liked part 2 a little more than part 1. To me, part 1 was too much "here was this great player who was never appreciated because he was black and didn't get the opportunity to play to a mass audience." After a couple of examples, I was like, OK, I get it already, let's move on.

But if you read that link I posted above, it looks like this project was originally intended to be a Ken Burns like marathon, so we should both be glad it was cut down to what it was.

 

Colleagues and former colleagues covered Jobe's teams at Southern. He was the first coach they'd heard speak of "the white devil." He was also the first coach to refuse to speak to them except after games. Needed a quote for a feature? Better ask after the game. Working on your advance for Saturday? Ask questions after the game Wednesday.

Intriguing man, for sure.

Thanks for starting this thread. I watched Part 1 and recorded Part 2. Will watch when I can.

I had no problem with the title. It has many layers, even if they aren't obvious to many.

 

Even though the last 20 minutes were a little unwieldy, I thought the whole film was a big success. I saw that Part 1 rated well -- that's great to see. Last night I was especially moved by the Orangeburg material, and I also enjoyed Chris Paul's intro. It felt personal, and it gave me a good feeling about Chris Paul.

 

I watched this for the first time last night and enjoyed it. I remember Earl Monroe talking about this project about two years ago but I didn't think much of it. It gives a good account of the history of collegiate and professional basketball from the African American point of view.
It's well worth the time to watch.