He grew up in the cotton fields of Mississippi where his mother earned two-dollars a day picking cotton. He would leave those cotton fields for the city of Detroit and leave behind the mental and physical chains of slavery.
Spencer Haywood left those cotton fields for the playgrounds and high school basketball courts in Motown. Instead of picking cotton he made a career out of picking rebounds off the backboards and scoring baskets at record rates.
His high school basketball performances earned him a scholarship to Trinidad Jr. College where he averaged 28 points and 22 rebounds a game for one season. He returned home to play at the University of Detroit and averaged an eye popping 32 points and 22 rebounds.
Trinidad and the University of Detroit were just warm up stops on his basketball journey. He would be only 18 years old in 1968 when he led the United States Olympic team to the gold medal in Mexico City. This was the same year sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos made their historical statement against racial segregation in America. During the presentations of medals they silently raised their black fisted signature gloves in protest. The...
Read Complete Article at Bleacher Report - Sports & Society
Article is property of BleacherReport.com