The University of Mississippi Athletics
NFL Great Kellen Winslow Opens UM History Symposium
Aug. 5, 2002
OXFORD, Miss. - Kellen Winslow, TV analyst and Pro Football Hall of Famer, comes to Oxford Sept. 25 to headline the 27th annual Porter L. Fortune Jr. History Symposium examining race and sports.
A five-time Pro Bowl tight end, Winslow was the San Diego Charger's first round draft pick in 1979 and became one of the NFL's best.
Scheduled for 7 p.m., he plans to talk about the role of today's black athlete in the on-going process of racial equality in sports, said Charles K. Ross, symposium organizer and UM assistant professor of history and Afro-American studies.
The symposium began in 1975 as an annual conference on Southern history and reflects the diversity of Southern experience, as well as continued scholarly interest in it, Ross said. All sessions, which are free and open to the public, are in the E.F. Yerby Conference Center auditorium.
Speakers and their topics for Sept. 26 are John Carroll of Lamar University, "Fritz Pollard and Integration in Early Professional Football," 9 a.m.; Kenneth Shropshire, University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, "Sugar Ray Robinson and the Birth of the Celebrity Athlete," 10:30 a.m.; Rita Liberti, California State University at Hayward, "Fostering Community Consciousness: The Role of Women's Basketball at Black Colleges and Universities, 1900-1950," 1:30 p.m.; Michael Lomax, University of Georgia, "Separate but Equal: The African-American and Latino Experience in Spring Training, 1946-1961," 3:30 p.m.
On Sept. 27's program are Gerald Gems, North Central College, "Sport, Race and American Imperialism," 9 a.m.; Earl Smith, Wake Forest University, "The African-American Student Athlete," 10:30 a.m.; Patrick Miller, Northeastern Illinois University, "Muscular Assimilationism: Sport and the Paradoxes of Racial Reform," 1:30 p.m.; and C. Keith Harrison, University of Michigan, "The Uneven View of African-American Ballers, Ball and Ballin: A Textual and Content Analysis."
For more information about the symposium or for assistance with a disability, contact Charles K. Ross, 662-915-5978 or by e-mail at cross@olemiss.edu. The Web site address is www.olemiss.edu/depts/history/symposium.