UNDER THE BANNER
What's Going On In and Around Black College Sports
A LOST TREASURE: Veteran sportswriter Ralph Wiley, who had stints at both
Sports Illustrated
and ESPN, died of a heart ailment Sunday. The Knoxville
College graduate was 52. Wiley was known for his
candid writing style and his unique perspectives as he went
from sportswriter with SI to commentator on ESPN. He
once appeared as a regular on ESPN's The Sports
Reporters and most recently was a columnist for Page 2 of
ESPN.com which reported this week that he had
written 240 columns since the section started in 2000. Wiley, a
1975 graduate of Knoxville College, passes three weeks after
the death of a fellow alumnus and colleague, Vernon
Jarrett. A former president of the National Association of Black
Journalists, Jarrett died on May 23 in Chicago at the age of
86. "Knoxville College is noted for producing
nationally-recognized African-American journalists," says
Barbara R. Hatton, president of the college. "And to have two giants
in the field of journalism die within three weeks of each
other is a blow to the profession and brings deep sorrow to
our Knoxville College family." Jonathan
Rodgers, now president and CEO of TV One network, was the first Black
to work as a reporter at Sports Illustrated in the late 1960s.
He was followed at SI by George E. Curry (Knoxville '70),
now editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service, in the
early 1970s. Wiley began writing for Sports Illustrated in 1982
and remained there for 10 years, producing 28 cover stories.
At Knoxville, the Memphis native played wide receiver on
the football team and obtained his first professional
journalism job, writing sports for the Knoxville Keyana-Spectrum,
a weekly. After his student days, Wiley began as a copy
clerk for the Oakland Tribune but quickly got a staff job and
was writing a regular column when Sports Illustrated hired
him in 1982. Wiley also wrote six books, and co-wrote
another four. Among them were four books of essays,
including "Serenity: A Boxing Memoir," "Why Black People Tend
to Shout," "What Black People Should Do Now:
Dispatches from Near the Vanguard," and "Dark Witness: When
Black People Should Be Sacrificed (Again)." He also penned
"Best Seat in the House: A Basketball Memoir" (with Spike
Lee) and Born to Play: The Eric Davis Story."
© 2004 Azeez Communications, Inc.