National and International Roundtable 1/2/13

Howie Evans is the Sports Editor for the Amsterdam News, and a long time basketball coach. The Amsterdam News is the oldest Black paper in America.

 

Evan’s work as a sportswriter for the Amsterdam News began because of a friendship with Wilt Chamberlain. The two used to play basketball in Mt. Morris Park on 120th Street and Evans says the newspapers would write “horrible stories” about Chamberlain. An infuriated Evans wrote a story in defense of Chamberlain to the Amsterdam News and it was published. The editor later called Evans and asked him to write a weekly article. Evans later became a columnist for the paper and covered the Jets, becoming the first black sportswriter in professional football.

 

Harold Mills was a Hydro Plane Racing champion and has earned his place in the hydroplane pantheon, most notably by earning the National High Points Championship for 2.5 Modified class.He's the first Black driver to take a part in the Unlimited Cup at Sea Fair Seattle...the enormous, summer festival in Seattle, Washington. Mills might be as deeply rooted in the sport as any driver; he's paid his dues and it finally paid off. And that alone might mean as much to Mills as any racial significance his being in the sport of hydroplane racing.