What's Going On In and Around Black College Sports
HARRIS STEPS
UP: Former Grambling and NFL quarterback James Harris,
who has spent the last six years as pro personnel director for the NFL's
Baltimore Ravens, was named last week as the Jacksonville Jaguars' new vice
president of player personnel. Harris, 55, a former black college player
of the year during his career at Grambling (1965-68), who worked alongside
Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome in building the Ravens team that won
Super Bowl XXXV, was set to interview for the Seattle Seahawks general manager
job and had also interviewed for a similar position with the Chicago Bears.
Before joining the Ravens, he was the assistant general manger of the New
York Jets (1993-96) and also was a Tampa Bay scout for six seasons. Harris
played 12 years in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Rams and
San Diego Chargers. One of the league's first black quarterbacks, Harris
passed for 8,136 yards and 45 touchdowns and was named as the most valuable
player in the 1975 Pro Bowl game.
CLUB VIOLENCE: Two incidents over the past week involving violence at or around nightclubs have resulted in tragic consequences for black college athletes.
In the wee hours of
Friday morning, Jan. 24, a shooting just outside The Varsity, a local
nightclub in Baton Rouge, La., claimed the life of 23-year old James
Allen, a Southern University student and offensive guard on
the Jaguars' football team. According to unofficial reports from
witnesses, Allen was involved in an argument with an unidentified male
at a fast food restaurant just down the street from The Varsity. After
leaving the argument, Allen was confronted again before entering the club
and was slain. In an official report from the East Baton Rouge Coroner's
office, the 6-2, 305 lb., sophomore offensive guard, died of brain trauma
after being shot once in his head. Currently, the Baton Rouge Police Department
has very few leads and is still trying to work things out in the early
stages of their investigation.
An early Sunday morning shooting inside Club Focus in Leflore County, Mississippi, left one man dead and another, Mississippi Valley State student Michael Archie, a starting forward on the Delta Devils basketball squad, paralyzed from the waist down. Archie, 20, and two others were wounded in the shooting, including MVSU volleyball player, Danielle France, 19. "The doctors are saying he will not have the use of his legs - that he is essentially paralyzed from his waist down," Carol Archie said Monday afternoon from her son's room at the University Medical Center in Jackson. Archie, 20, was shot in the side, apparently by a stray bullet, while trying to leave the club. Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks said Alonzo Hemphill, 27, forced his way into the club at gunpoint, was hit by at least four bullets and died after allegedly firing gunshots toward the dance floor. Sheriff's deputies arrested club security guard Johnny King, 35, on a murder charge. King was ordered held without bond. No gun has been recovered. No one is certain who fired the bullets that hit the three wounded men until tests are completed, Banks said. King told investigators he was responding to gunfire outside the club when Hemphill walked in with a gun in his hand. That's when Hemphill was first shot, Banks said. King told authorities he fired five more times as Hemphill tried to flee the club. "King said somebody knocked him down, and when he was falling down, his finger was still on the trigger of the gun," Banks said. The shooting occurred hours after Mississippi Valley State's 87-68 home win against Prairie View. Archie scored 11 points in that game. France, 19, and Toland Hudson, 25, of Itta Bena, were near the dance floor when the shooting occurred, Banks said. France, who was hit in the shoulder, was treated at Greenwood Leflore Hospital and released. Hudson remained in the Greenwood hospital in good condition with a gunshot wound in a hip. Archie is the team's third leading scorer, averaging 11.2 points per game for the Southwestern Athletic Conference school. He had started 10 of the university's 15 games this season.
© 2003 Azeez Communications, Inc.