Kentucky’s basketball game against Miles College serves ‘a greater cause’
Kentucky’s exhibition game Friday against Miles College, one of this country’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, is the latest example of John Calipari seeking to help where he sees help is needed.
It follows the announcement of Kentucky starting a “Unity Series,” which will be games in the next five seasons against HBCU teams from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The first game will be against Sean Woods-coached Southern on Dec. 7.
In partnership with the McLendon Foundation, Calipari was also instrumental in the launching of the Minority Leadership Initiative, which seeks to help people begin careers in athletics.
“It speaks to the character of the man,” said P.G. Peeples, the president and CEO of the Lexington Urban League. “Cal is a caring person who just always wants to do the right thing in terms of humanity.”
When asked why Calipari seeks to help in this way, Peeples said, “He told me that his mother always told him to pay forward. And he said he’s always tried to live up to that.”
This way of life predates Calipari’s arrival as Kentucky coach by decades.
Anton Brown, who played for Calipari’s UMass teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s, recalled a telling example from that time. On a road trip, the UMass players happened to be watching an episode of an award-winning PBS documentary titled “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement.”
The series covered the years from 1954 to the mid-1980s and noted such events as Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on a bus and the murders of Emmitt Till and Martin Luther King Jr.
“A lot of guys were blown away by stuff they were seeing,” Brown said. “So, they were like, you know what, we’re not going to go to practice today. We’re going to boycott.”
Calipari was in the hotel lobby waiting for his players to gather before riding a bus to the gym. He called Brown, the team captain, to ask, where is everybody?!
When Brown told him about the PBS series, Calipari came to the room and joined the players in watching the documentary.
“He almost came to tears,” Brown said. “And he told the players, hey, you know what? We’re not practicing today.”
Recalling this about 30 years later, Brown said, “I have a lot of respect for him for doing that.”
When asked how Friday’s exhibition game came about, Miles College Coach Fred Watson said UK contacted the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference seeking a recommendation of an opponent.
“With his sensitivity to HBCUs and our plight, Coach Cal wanted to play an HBCU,” Watson said.
Coincidentally, Watson is a longtime friend of Brown. The two share the hometown of Columbia, S.C., and played together on teams as young men.
That Calipari sought an HBCU team to play did not surprise the Miles College coach.
“I’m a follower of Coach Cal,” Watson said. “I know his heart. I know what he’s doing for us. I know how impactful he’s trying to be. It’s just awareness.”
Watson expressed gratitude for the “pretty good” financial guarantee Miles College will receive.
“It’s going to make a huge difference,” he said. “Obviously, our budget can’t provide a lot. Our budget covers things we have to do. There are things you just want to do. This guarantee will allow us to do things we just want to do.”
A film room and extra pairs of shoes are among the things his program wants to do that the $20,000 guarantee will allow, Watson said.
“When you’re at an HBCU, there are a lot of people who do a lot of lip service and are aware,” Watson said. “But (Calipari) actually has an intentional plan behind his awareness. When he puts a plan in place to help, he’s putting actions to words.”
‘That’s how you know it’s genuine’
Of course, there can be blowback. Criticism erupted on social media when Calipari joined the UK players in kneeling during the national anthem before last season’s game at Florida to call attention to systemic racism. Likewise, social media criticism followed the UK coach joining the players in wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt for a video produced during last year’s preseason.
While acknowledging that such actions can help team bonding and recruiting, Watson said there is risk.
“It also could affect his donors,” the Miles College coach said. “But when something is in your heart, you can’t be political. That’s how you know it’s genuine because he takes those risks (in the service) of a greater cause.”
C.B. Akins, the retired pastor of Lexington’s First Baptist Church Bracktown, said he considered Calipari’s actions “appropriate.” Akins, a member of UK’s Board of Trustees from 2011 to 2017, pointed out that a majority of the players are Black.
“How can you ask a team to be with you and believe in you when you’re not with the team and you don’t believe in your team?” said Akins before adding, “HBCUs are the primary producers of Black doctors and lawyers and engineers. I think he’s taking advantage of the opportunity he has in his position to really make sure a school like that has a lift.”
Peeples expects this social awareness and active response will continue into the future.
“He always talks about teaching his players to share, teaching his players to pay forward,” Peeples said of Calipari. “That is the best example for them to see how to do it. I think the record shows that his players have paid heed to that.”
Of the 10 seasons the NBA has given a Community Assist Award, two have gone to former UK players: John Wall in 2015-16 and Devin Booker in 2020-21.
Former UK players have received the monthly recognition eight times: Anthony Davis three times, DeMarcus Cousins twice, Booker twice and Wall once.
Friday
Miles College at No. 10 Kentucky
What: Preseason exhibition game
Where: Rupp Arena
When: 7 p.m.
TV: SEC Network
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 8:16 AM.
