This free public event begins at 5 p.m. in the Founders Loge at Reser Stadium (second floor, east side entrance).

Created by the Association of Faculty for the Advancement of People of Color at OSU, the “Power of One Film Series” will feature films based on individuals who have had an impact in changing society through their struggle to bring about social justice.

The first film in the series is “Glory Road,” based on the true story of Don Haskins, the head coach at Texas Western College in El Paso in the mid-1960s. Haskins was the first Division One basketball coach to recruit and play a full team of African American athletes against white athletes in a major tournament. Haskins broke an unwritten code of team segregation that had existed since basketball became a major sport on colleges across the United States and his desegregated team won the NCAA championship in his first year of coaching.

Clips from the film will be shown and a brief historical overview of OSU basketball will be provided. A panel discussion will follow that focuses on the desegregation of basketball across the United States and at OSU.

The open discussion will include Robinson, who has coached the OSU men’s basketball team since 2008; former coach Valenti, who in 1965 brought about the desegregation of the OSU basketball program; Charlie White, the first African American OSU basketball player recruited with a full scholarship in 1965; Norman Monroe, first African American walk-on player; and Larry Griggs, a former collegiate player and director of the OSU Educational Opportunities Program from 1985 through 2008.

The panelists will discuss their experiences in coaching, playing and coping within a culture of segregation.

For more information on the series, contact Dwaine Plaza at 541-737-5369 or Alex Sanchez at 541-737-8202. The event is co-sponsored by the OSU Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.

Request for accommodations for disability should be made to Anne Gillies at 541-737-0865 or anne.gillies@oregonstate.edu by Monday, May 16.

Presidential politics came home to OSU last week when men's basketball coach Craig Robinson became "brother-in-law-elect" to Barack Obama. Robinson is seen here addressing the Democratic National Convention in August. (photo: Associated Press)

NOTE: Listen to Craig Robinson on Thursday’s “All Things Considered” from National Public Radio by clicking here. — Editor

Just like a new coach might hope at the beginning of a new season, Craig Robinson knew his brother-in-law’s Presidential campaign had a “real possibility” of succeeding.

“What we had to do was keep our eye on the prize, our nose to the grindstone,” said Robinson, Oregon State’s men’s basketball coach and brother of Michelle Obama, wife of President-elect Barack Obama.

Nine days ago, the hope became a reality as U.S. voters gave the Illinois Democrat 52 percent of the popular vote and a two-to-one margin in the Electoral College. His election as not only the 44th U.S. president but the first African-American president in the nation’s 232-year history dominated international news coverage.

Friday afternoon, Robinson was looking forward to a quiet weekend with his wife and children to let the reality of it all sink in. “These people I’ve known all my life are now the president and first lady,” he exclaimed.

Standing on stage at almost midnight on Nov. 4 and towering over his brother-in-law, Robinson felt “a powerful rush” as 120,000 people in Chicago’s Grant Park cheered, screamed, and cried after Obama’s acceptance speech. The coach had been an important part of the campaign, representing Obama at more than 50 events over the past year.

“Yet it was very humbling, too, quite an honor to be standing there with Barack and representing America,” said Robinson.

He was in the room when his brother-in-law took phone calls from President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee. He took the stage with the rest of the family after Obama’s victory speech, and was awed by both the crowd’s energy and the moment.

“It’s so powerful, so emotional to realize all that has transpired to get us to this point today,” Robinson said, not only for the Obama campaign, not only for African Americans, but for all America.

For all the historic precedent of the past week, however, Robinson is now in “business as usual mode. My focus is to try to turn a basketball program around.”

Robinson in April inherited an OSU program that is coming off an 0-18 season in the Pac 10, carrying a 21-game losing streak and looking for its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1990.

A few hours after Chicago, he was back on the job, watching film, running a practice and looking for ways to make OSU better.

It would be naïve to say that the notoriety of being the coach whose brother-in-law is president of the most powerful government on Earth won’t affect the OSU program, Robinson said. “If we get invited into some (recruits’) homes because of it, that would be fine.”

He doesn’t feel apprehensive, he said. “It just that more people will be watching to see what we do.”

Spoken just like a new coach hoping for a “real possibility” of success at the beginning of a new season.

~ by Ed Curtin