Post by mitchum on Apr 14, 2007 10:19:49 GMT -5
.............how about Wendell Scott? While watching the piece on Robinson on the news this morning I got to thinking about the differences between how most pro sports treat their pioneers and the way the founding fathers of stock car racing are treated.
Jackie was the first black major league baseball player but still did his thing in front of a lot of black fans and with the support of many organizations that Wendell didn't have the benifit of.
Wendell also did it in the deep South within a VERY Southern sport at a time when there was building tensions. I never got to met Wendell but later got to work some shows with Mary and Sybil, his wife and daughter, and count myself fortunate to have been able to do so.
Wendell was a true pioneer and to this day is still the only African-American (how awkward that title seems applied to someone who should be remembered first and foremost as a RACER) to be successful in big time stock car racing. I think he deserves better from the "country" of France in the state of Florida.
And they're all models, as usual.
