Monday, August 16, 2010

Like A White Shadow

A few years ago, TigerBlog found himself laid up for nearly the entire summer after undergoing neck surgery.

As an aside, he's fine now.

When the Department of Athletics said that it wanted to send him a get-well gift and asked what he would want, TB didn't hesitate before saying this: "Season 4 of 'The Sopranos.' " That's the season that has Christopher's intervention, the episode where Ralphie insults Johnny Sack's wife, the hysterical one where the crew meets up with Lou DiMaggio's gang in Rhode Island and ultimately Carmela's infatuation with Furio.

Hey, what more could you want if you couldn't get off the couch for a few weeks?

As gifts go, entire seasons of your favorite shows on DVD are hard to beat. Maybe an I-tunes gift card comes closest.

In the same vein, TB received a gift a few weeks ago that equals "The Sopranos." And what was it? Season 1 of "The White Shadow."

If you're a male in TB's age range, then your response to the statement of "TB got season 1 of 'The White Shadow' " was this: "I loved 'The White Shadow.' " If you're, say, the head men's lacrosse coach at Princeton, your response was something like "I watched that every day in college. I get it next."

"The White Shadow" ran for three seasons and 54 episodes from 1978 through 1981. The title character was Ken Reeves, a former NBA player whose 10-year career (either mostly or all with the Chicago Bulls) ended with a knee injury and who subsequently became the basketball coach at Carver High, a fictional high school in South Central Los Angeles.

While there, he coaches a group of poor, mostly black kids who at first don't trust him and then ultimately come to respect the way he pushes them to achieve in basketball and life while at the same time giving them someone they can turn to when they need him.

The title comes from a line at the end of the first episode, when the coach informs his still-skeptical players that he's with them every step of the way and one of them replies "yeah, like a white shadow." Reeves was played by Ken Howard, who stood 6' 6" and was given the nickname "the white shadow" when he was the only white starter on his high school basketball team at Manhasset High School on Long Island.

The show includes some great characters, and the names Thorpe, Jackson, Hayward, Salami, Gomez, Goldstein and especially Coolidge are familiar to anyone who ever turned in. The show was very entertaining, and every episode had its moments of humor and basketball.

There were three things that really made the show stand out above just that.

First, the team was famous for singing in the shower after games or practices, and the players did their own a-capella work.

Also, before this, there hadn't really been a show on TV (at least one that TB can think of) that had this many prominent black characters who were allowed to be portrayed in an honest fashion. At the same time that "The White Shadow" was on, there was a show called "What's Happening" that was also on, and its predominantly black cast fit more of the stereotype of what TV execs thought largely white audiences would watch. "The White Shadow" completely challenged that notion.

Then there were the subjects that the show tackled, including: alcoholism, teen pregnancy, STDs, drugs, gambling, gangs, race relations, literacy, crime and more, including what is considered the first interracial kiss in an American TV show. Several episodes end with games that the team loses at the buzzer, and there is even one stunning moment in the show in which one of the most popular characters is shot and killed during a robbery at a convenience store.

In the context of late 1970s television, this didn't fit the formula of either breezy sitcoms with simple characters or police dramas with very clear good guys and bad guys.

"The White Shadow" isn't remembered as an important groundbreaking work of American television history, but it should be. There haven't been too many shows that have come along that have changed what was thought to be possible for a television show, but "The White Shadow" definitely did that.

Reeves, the head coach, was a Boston College grad, something referred to many times during the show. Princeton and Boston College have only played once, in the 1983 NCAA tournament, a game that BC won long after Reeves would have graduated. For the record, that game was played in Corvallis, Ore.

What Reeves would have done is played against Princeton alums in the NBA throughout his career.

Back in the 1970s, Princeton had six players who played in the NBA: Geoff Petrie, Brian Taylor, Armond Hill, Ted Manakas, John Hummer and of course Bill Bradley.

In fact, there are episodes of the show that refer to Reeves and his inability to guard Bradley.

Princeton's unofficial motto of "In the nation's service" has led a great many alums to go down the path of careers and volunteer work in cities all over the country and the world. Organizations like Princeton Project 55 or Teach For America and others have been great starting points for young alums.

What Reeves did in coaching Carver High is in keeping with that philosophy. In another ground-breaking way, the players at the team at times rebel against their coach and are skeptical of his intentions, often calling him a "white knight" who's "out to save the ghetto."

In the end, though, it's clear that his intentions were genuine and that he was a great influence on the players and the school. The late Marv Bressler always talked about how the best teachers are the ones who stay with their students long after their classes end.

Reeves clearly fit that profile, as well as the Princeton athletics motto of "Education Through Athletics, even if he wasn't a Princeton grad.

Or, for that matter, a real person.

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