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The Rev. Jesse Jackson stood mesmerized on the baseline, intently watching the Chicago Bulls warm up before an NBA playoff game against the Indiana Pacers.
He was comfortable and at ease in an atmosphere that clearly offered a familiar environment for the civil rights leader.
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Jackson, who died on Tuesday at age 84, was an athlete from a young age, and throughout his life he immersed himself in the world of sports — as a player, as a fan and as an advocate. He accepted a football scholarship at Illinois, then transferred to historically Black North Carolina A&T after a year. He was a quarterback on the Aggies team that won a conference title in 1964 and was inducted into A&T’s athletic Hall of Fame twenty years later.
“What is not a well-known fact is that Rev. Jackson, first of all, he was a football player,” said CK Hoffler, Jackson’s attorney for 38 years. “He himself, as a former athlete, understood the plight of athletes.”
While Jackson was in his element at that Bulls-Pacers game back in 2011, he couldn’t just blend in. Standing near professional basketball players, he had a 6-foot-3 presence that loomed largest of all. He even cast a shadow over Bulls star Derrick Rose — the league MVP that season and fellow Chicago icon whom he made the trip to Indianapolis to support.
His sports experiences fueled a deep passion for ensuring that athletes like Rose were given equal opportunities and treatment, regardless of race, gender, sport or native country.
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“He’s always been an advocate of greater inclusion, whether it was fair pay and other things for athletes throughout the country and throughout the world,” Hoffler said. “Athletes from overseas, ensuring that they got a fair shake as well. That was part of what (he) felt was fair. That was part of his social justice.”
Jackson’s advocacy knew no boundaries. At times that meant taking bold, public stands. At others, that meant enduring tough negotiations behind closed doors.
“The Harlem Globetrotters, they had their own cartoon,” Hoffler said. “They did a lot of community building, and they were just iconic in and of…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/sports-helped-shape-jesse-jacksons-193303640.html
Author : CLIFF BRUNT
Publish date : 2026-02-18 19:33:00
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