Black Magic Is A Hoop Dream

Before there was March Madness, there was Black Magic, the story of basketball's black pioneers. I love sports, I love great films, and I especially love great, sports films. Filmmaker Dan Klores' Black Magic is a great, sports film and more.

Black Magic is an entertaining, engaging and emotional look at the all-but forgotten players and coaches from the Historical Black Colleges and Universities ("HBCU"). These civil rights pioneers and sports stars, like co-producer, Earl "The Pearl" Monroe and Willis Reed, tell us their stories.

The two-part, four-hour Black Magic documentary airs, commercial free, this Sunday and Monday night on ESPN at 9 pm EST/ 6 pm PST. Like all great sports films, Black Magic also has a fantastic soundtrack.

Basketball and Civil Rights

At its heart, Black Magic is a civil rights movie and Klores uses brutal footage to show the history of American discrimination and violence against blacks in all aspects of their lives.

These civil rights pioneers and sports stars tells us their heart-wrenching stories of violence, prejudice and poverty living in the Jim Crow South. Klores also reminds us that racism and oppression wasn't just limited to the South. Their tales are funny, sad, and inspiring. Some players overcome their humble beginnings and have successful careers despite discrimination, others aren't as lucky.

Klores is a wonderful story-teller. He weaves rare footage with personal testimonies and hits the archives to show us documents and photos that give us the insider's view of this world. Narrators Samuel L. Jackson and Wynton Marsalis help frame the story and illuminate the racist historical context. Their passion for the topic shines throughout the film.

The Secret, Illegal Game

In 1944, The North Carolina College for Negroes and Duke's white medicalJim school team had a secret, illegal game on a sleepy Sunday morning to see which team was the best. They defied the Jim Crow laws to play and picked Sunday morning to avoid detection as they all were too afraid to invite any spectators.

Too afraid to invite fans? I remember growing up in Seattle and hearing stories like this one and almost not believing them. I remember asking why blacks and whites couldn't play together and wondering if my relatives were pulling my leg.

Ironically, the civil rights movement assured that men like my father, NBA legend Bill Russell, could attend white schools thus diluting the incredible talent pools at the HBCU schools and driving sports revenue to majority schools. My dad didn't have the option of going to a HBCU since the University of San Francisco was the only school to offer him a scholarship.

When we spoke this morning, dad told me about traveling to the Northwest and Canada to play basketball after high school. My father learned to play hoops in Oakland, CA, not in the South. Nevertheless, it wasn't until this tour that he played in an official basketball game matched against a white player. No, he wasn't pulling my leg. It was the byproduct of de facto not de jure segregation that polluted this country.

I was especially moved by Bob Love's tale of redemption. I don't want to spoil it but hats off to Bob and to my hometown store Nordstrom. They are both class acts.

Thank you Dan Klores for telling this story that needed to be told and for preserving an important part of American sports history.

It's a shame that the ESPN website had a typo on my cousin Bob Hopkins stats when they unveiled their list of HBCU All-Time Top 10 College Basketball Players. Even though they listed him at #8, they incorrectly state he attended Grambling State University from '52-66, when he graduated in '56. These players don't get much ink, so it's disappointing that ESPN didn't catch the typo.

Black Magic airs this Sunday and Monday on ESPN @ 9 pm EST.

Follow Karen Russell on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Karen_Russell

Comments

[Temperancegirl]

It was a marvelous documentary, very moving.

And it seemed so en pointe to have it come out during a time when people don't understand why a man like Jeremiah Wright might be slightly bitter...

[RiceAndSalt]

Thank you Ms. Russell. I only watched an hour of the show, accidentally catching it while I was channel surfing.

It was heartbreaking to watch. Funny how a sport like basketball captures something in a microcosm.
What struck me most was Ben Jobe - I don't know if he ever finished his Ph.D, but his intelligence and
decency, much like Bob Love, just seemed to shine through in this film.

[Karen Russell - Huffpost Blogger]

I loved the Ben Jobe and Bob Love stuff too! It is a very emotional film. Best, Karen

[LafourmiRouge]

Thanks, Ms. Russell. Big props to ESPN for airing this great story. Even though I grew up during that era, I was firmly ensconced in white America and had no idea of the travails these guys went through. "Black Magic" made a good companion piece to "Glory Road", which also played on TNT this weekend. There is a scene in "Black Magic" that truly tells the tale - the black players of Texas Western get back to their hotel room after a big win, only to find it trashed, with epithets painted in blood on the walls.

[Karen Russell - Huffpost Blogger]

I am grateful to Dan Klores for preserving this important part of American history. Thanks for your comment. Best, Karen

[CatfishJohn]

,,, Ms. Russell--thank you for this essay on this extremely important and powerful documentary. just to consider the courage of Vanderbilt's first black player taking the court at various SEC bastions of hatred throughout the mid-1960's sec is inspiring and should be widely known...i recall a story where mississippi state fans actually threw a noose onto the court during his first visit to play in godforsaken starkville.....this being less than 2 years after the cheney-sch­werner-goo­dman murders...so many of todays basketball fans think the game, because of the predominance of black athletes playing at a high level, was always smoothly integrated... Yet a documentary could be done on your father's travails as a Celtic alone such as whenever the celtics visited st louis and their vile fans int he 1950's, the incident when the celtics went to lexington , ky. for an exhibition, the unspoken "quota" of the number of black starters and i am sure countless others...so many of todays hoops fans have no idea how even the greats like your dad and oscar robertson as well as the ordinary players of that 1950's -1960's pro era were subject to such awfulness...at a time when baseball and pro football had been successfully integrated, it's hard for many to realize that basketball was so damned backwards well into the 1960's in this nation...

[Karen Russell - Huffpost Blogger]

Like I said in my post, some of these stories are so horrible, I thought they were made up. Thanks for your kind words about my dad. Best, Karen

[BillAnthony]

Thanks for the heads up, probably would have missed it otherwise. I'm looking forward to taping and watching on Monday.

[Nommo]

Cleo Hill. Someone should write all that down in a book.

[Karen Russell - Huffpost Blogger]

Hey Nommo, I received a bunch of emails with the same suggestion. I hope you enjoy part two tonight. Best, Karen

[sarge]

Thanks, Karen, I just set the DVR (well, actually, my daughter did it for me). It airs at 6 PM in Seattle (PST).

Karen responds:

Thanks Sarge for time correction. I updated the entry. Enjoy!