July 22,2014
^portlanh (Obstruer
Sharing Memories with Freeman Williams
Basketball great back on campus
to preview film about his life
A recent screening o f "Inner City
o f Champions" took place on the
Portland State University campus
and allowed Viking fans, boosters,
teammates, athletes and staff to ex
press their affection for legendary
PSU basketball star Freeman Will
iams.
The movie tells the story o f Wil
liams and his teammate Dwayne
Polee at Manual Arts High School
in south central Los Angeles where
they were able to put aside inner-
city adversities and overcome the
obstacles o f drugs, abuse, family
poverty and violence. More impor
tantly, years later after careers in the
NBA, they return to become coach
and role models at the very same
high school where their hoop dreams
began.
in 1978. He went on to play six sea
sons in the NBA for the San Diego
Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, Utah Jazz
and Washington Bullets.
Inner City o f Champions won the
Los Angeles Underground Film
Festival Award last year.
Williams and movie creator and
producer Frederick Hawthorne at
tended the July 15 screening that
was viewed by some 200 people at
Hoffmann Hall.
After many handshakes and pho
tos, the film was screened, then
Williams and Hawthorne took part
in a question-and-answer session
that remembered Freeman's 81 -point
game (official Howard Mayo who
worked that game was also in atten
dance and spoke) among other ca
reer highlights at Portland State and
throughout his career.
Freeman Williams played bas
ketball at Portland State from 1974-
78. He scored 3,249 points in his
caree r - second only to Pete
Maravich in NCAA history. Will
iams was a first team All-American
Legendary Portland State
University basketball star
Freeman Williams returns to
the PSU campus for a
preview o f “Inner City
Champions,” a documentary
film about his life in south
central Los Angeles.
photo by A nthony
The Struggle of Black Athletes in Oregon
History brought to
light in new book
O livia O livia
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Portlander Herman L. Brame is taking on
sports history in his new book, The Long
Ebony Line: The First 100 Years o f African
American Athletes in Oregon, Circa 1860 -
1960.
Brame got immersed in the subject early
this year when he started offering live pre
sentations about the early history o f African
American football players in Oregon for the
Oregon Historical Society. He took his lec
tures to the University o f Oregon and Or
egon State University, where he discovered
that the subject would be useful as a full book
that might be available to everyone.
Brame hopes that his book and lectures
will provide the foundation for a documen
tary on the same subject, and said that his
target audience are young people and spe
cifically teenage youth. He said the graph
ics-based book could also provide easy-
reading material for adults in search o f the
same information.
Brame also plans to follow up The Long
Ebony Line with a second book that focuses
specifically on the 60s and 70s.
“The 1960s in particular provided a his
torically significant confluence o f the Civil
Rights Movement and athletics,” he said,
and for this reason he feels like a second
book exclusively focusing on the time period
could be especially informative.
Brame himself was a track and field runner
and the University o f Oregon during the 60s,
and graduated from Jefferson High School in
Portland.
The Long Ebony Line takes us through
the great Black athletes o f Oregon, and shows
us everything from the lynching o f young
M ichael L eighton /
T he P ortland O bserver
photo by
spina column
TM
An ongoing series of questions and answers about America's natural healing profession.
0
Dr. Billy R. Flowers
boxer Alonzo Tucker in 1902 to the appoint
ment o f Vera Johnson to the Roosevelt High
School team in Portland, as she became
Oregon’s first Black female varsity high
school athlete in 1959.
“Racism in athletics is often countered by
the objective measurement o f ability found
most often in athletic competition,” said
Brame o f these moments in Black athletic
history. “Sometimes you benefit from things
that were hard won and you don’t even
realize it,” he sa id ., “Like a baseball game,
staying at a hotel, or joining a team. I wanted
people to know. My hope is that young
people reading this will be a new vessel for
this history and that they’ll carry it forward.”
For updates on Bram e’s lectures and news
on his book, follow him at Oregonstars.com.
Herman L. Brame o f Portland and his
new book The Long Ebony Line: The
First 1 0 0 Years o f African American
Athletes in Oregon, Circa 1 8 6 0 - 1 9 6 0 .
THE
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