Stephen A. Smith Discusses HBCUs and Their Impact

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00:00My name is Stephen A. Smith, not only of ESPN, but also of my own operation,

00:06Stephen A. Smith Show, over the digital airwaves of YouTube and iHeartRadio,

00:09and of course, a graduate of Winston-Salem State University.

00:13And I'm here with Ebony.

00:14Clarence Big House Gaines was introduced to me.

00:17He was the head basketball coach.

00:18He was a legendary basketball coach for the university,

00:21had a lot to do with integrating the sport of basketball,

00:24along with the late, great John McClendon, who was a mentor of his.

00:29And I was introduced to Clarence Big House Gaines by a former player of his,

00:32who was a family friend, by the name of Harold Funny Kitt.

00:36And he took me down to Winston-Salem for a tryout with Winston-Salem State,

00:44Clarence Big House Gaines.

00:46And he put me on a basketball court with them, and he said,

00:49you're on your own now.

00:50Coach is right here.

00:51There's a legend.

00:52He wants to see you play, et cetera, et cetera.

00:54So the coach put me on the basketball court,

00:56and I went around, around the court, and I was passing the ball.

01:00And the coach blew the whistle and told me to come over there.

01:04And I came over to him.

01:05He said, didn't they say they brought you down here because you could shoot?

01:10And I said, yes, sir.

01:11He said, well, then God damn it, shoot the basketball.

01:14And then I promptly went out, and I hit 17 straight three-pointers.

01:19And he signed me to a basketball scholarship on the spot.

01:22For me, being a part of an HBCU, you just

01:26learn the value of true support.

01:32Of course, we get that from family and loved ones.

01:35But when you go to an HBCU, you see the people that you're surrounded by.

01:41They share your hue, your background, where you're livelihood,

01:48where you come from, things of that nature, your culture.

01:51And because of that, you recognize that you're not standing alone,

01:55that you find yourself in a predicament and a situation

02:00similar to everybody around you.

02:02And it uplifts you because you're there to help one another.

02:07Very, very few people, if anyone, is rooting against you.

02:10Certainly, folks root for themselves, but it's a family kind of atmosphere.

02:14You feel a level, an innate level of accountability and responsibility

02:20to go about the business of doing the best that you can,

02:23because you know that your achievements ain't just for you.

02:27It's for the institution, and it's for the culture.

02:29HBCU Week, led by Ashley Christopher, who's done a phenomenal job.

02:34She does all the work.

02:35I'm the face of it from the standpoint of giving it the notoriety and publicity

02:39it deserves.

02:39But the real, real work is done by her.

02:42When we talk about over 8,000 to 10,000 scholarships and excess of $87 million

02:47being given out to students to attend HBCUs, 90-plus percent of that work

02:53is done by her.

02:54And so she deserves all the credit in the world.

02:57But I'm also going to give a lot of love and appreciation to Disney.

03:02So Disney on the Yard came about later in terms

03:05of working in concert with HBCU Week.

03:08And we've had various shows where Magic Johnson blessed us

03:12with his presence, Troy Vincent, the executive VP for the National Football

03:16League, who plays an instrumental role in making sure HBCU athletes get

03:21notoriety and get looked at by the National Football League.

03:25They showed up to the first HBCU Week show we did for ESPN on first take.

03:32Magic Johnson flew into town on his own dime, in his own time,

03:36to attend that show.

03:38You know, you got to be thankful for people like him.

03:40We've been to Howard.

03:41We're going to Tennessee State in the month of October.

03:44We're going to Atlanta-Clarke and Spelman, Morehouse, and all of that,

03:48and Atlanta in November.

03:50And we're making various trips.

03:51And we plan on continuing to do this.

03:52I get texts and calls all the time with people saying, come to my school,

03:56come to my school, come to my school.

03:58And I'm going to do all of that.

03:59I'm going to try to get to every HBCU I can just

04:03to make sure we bring the attention that HBCUs deserve

04:06so students out here can understand that is a viable option for them.

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