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CONTENTS FERBRUARY/MARCH 2019
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Kayla White NCAA National Champion
14
Avoid The Crash Eat Well and Prepare
08
End of The Road WSSU Baseball Ends
10
NFL Career Underway Darryl Johnson
Jimmy & Charlene The Team of New Level Performance
Is Key 12 Nutrition Eating Healthly For Athletes
Spunq Sports Magazine is published bimonthly and is distributed in the Triad areas of North Carolina. We are not responsible for the comments made by our advertisers or the individuals that are featured. Please send all feedback and comments to spunqsports@gmail.com. This publication can’t be reproduced or republished without the written consent of the publisher. 2019 All Rights Reserved - Mykel Media Company, LLC
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Getting Ready For Summer Sports Editor’s Note - Terry L. Watson It’s that time of the year again. The warmer months have arrived and we must prepare ourselves for the summer. With the summer also comes sporting events and games, and the dangers. One of the most important things we must do while enjoying the outdoors, is to practice good playing habits, and preparing and taking care of our bodies along the way. We must hydrate with the correct fluids...put the soft drinks away. Now is the time for some old fashioned water. Sport Drinks are good, but we must not consume too much of them. We must also eat properly, before we play and after.
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Terry L. Watson EDITOR
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Terry L. Watson Juniuos Smith III
In conclusion, please remember to get plenty of rest. Our bodies require a proper reset period in order to function from day to day. Drink well, eat properly, and get plenty of rest. These are key tools that we must utilize in order for us to have a pleasant and wonderful summer sporting season. PHOTOGRAPHY
JLG Photography Mykel Media Company, LLC Still Shots Photography
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FOOTBALL
JIMMY & CHARLENE New Level Performance 6
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Information by NLP We are a husband and wife team who are passionate about helping you unlock your day performance and health. Our passion is to see trainees exceed their thoughts of the best body they can have. We want clients and athletes to experience what it is like to blow past their competition on and off their field of performance. We believe there is nothing you cannot accomplish with a renewed and strong mind. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” - Romans 12:2 What can we say? We have been around the block a few times, tested our methods on several clients, are certified, and best of all get Results. We want every trainee to have a better understanding of how to use our systems to build a healthy more fulfilling life. We know that many of people have been misinformed on how easy increased performance can be achieved by numerous DVD’s, gadgets, and infomercials. We want you to know that reaching maximal performance is hard work, but we will show you how to feel energized & have fun while obtaining your goals.
Programs Offered
NFL & High School Combine Training Whole Women Bootcamp Most Fit Businessman Online Training Camp Testimony - Kaitlin McGoogan Coach Jimmy and Coach Charlene with NewLevel Performance have gone above and beyond with taking my daughter’s training to the next level. My daughter is a high school discus and shotput thrower and had seen success in the discus arena. Since beginning to train at NewLevel Performance she increased her personal best in shot put by over 5 feet. This increase gained her a 2nd place finish at the 4A NC State Indoor Track and Field Champions and is also #20 on the NC All-Time Indoor list. The gains were also seen in the discus circle.
For more imformation about New Leverl Performance, please contact Jimmy and Charlene.
www.newlevelperformance.com 336-257-9151
Kaitlin was able to increase her discus by 10 feet. Just this season, Kaitlin has a new Personal Record of 135’5”, which currently places her #36 on the NC All-Time list. Words can not express the gratitude and thankfulness we have for the NewLevel Performance team, for the patience and efforts with my daughter. We look forward to even greater success in the future.
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BASEBALL
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WSSU Baseball Comes To An End Info and Photo Courtesy: WSSU Athletics Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) announced a realignment of its athletics programs that will return men’s golf as a varsity sport and eliminate baseball. Men’s golf is expected to debut in spring 2020. The 2019 season will be baseball’s last at WSSU. The decision is a result of a careful analysis of the athletics department budget and roster of sports. In 2017, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) eliminated baseball as a conference sport, forcing the university’s program to play as an independent. The costs associated with playing as an independent are significantly higher. By making this transition, all 10 WSSU varsity sports will be aligned with the CIAA. WSSU will continue to honor its agreements with student-athletes on the baseball team who have athletics scholarships. The university will work with any student-athletes who wish to transfer their credits and eligibility if they choose to compete at another university. “Eliminating a sport is always painful,” said interim Director of Athletics George Knox. “Our first concern is the academic and athletic experience of our studentathletes. We will work with the team members who are affected by this decision to ensure their success either here at WSSU or at other universities. While we are sad to say goodbye to the sport, the team’s successes will always be a part of this university’s history.” There are 35 men on the roster for baseball with four scheduled to graduate in May. The university expects to bring on a roster of up to eight student-athletes with the addition of men’s golf. Recruitment for a parttime coach will begin this spring with the goal of filling the position by July 1. WSSU’s last Winston-Salem-based baseball game was played on Tuesday, April 23, at BB & T Ballpark. The last scheduled game was on Sunday, April 28, in Asheboro.
By Vic Carucci Courtesy of Buffalo News
FOOTBALL
Photo taken by Dexter Johnson (NC A&T)
Former NC A&T Lineman Darryl Johnson Every day at 4:30 a.m., Darryl Johnson Jr. knew it was time to get up. He didn’t need an alarm in the bedroom of his family’s home in Kingsland, Ga. His father, Darryl Johnson Sr., took care of that. He’d roust his two sons out of bed and on their way to a workout that would last anywhere from an hour to 90 minutes. The ritual began when Darryl Jr., was 12 and his brother, Darvaughn, was nine. It involved running – with and without parachutes attached to their backs – as well as cone and ladder drills. Then it was off to school. Darryl Sr. didn’t know if the investment of time and sweat would lead anywhere. He just wanted his kids to understand the importance of having a strong work ethic, the kind that gets him up every morning for those long, hard days of operating a crane at the Georgia Port Authority. “I was always a guy that believed in work,” Darryl Sr. said. “So that’s what I was teaching them at a young age.” “We talk about it now,” Darryl Johnson Jr. said with a smile. “I’m like, ‘Dad, you were crazy, that was crazy.’ But it got me here.” Here was One Bills Drive. The 6-foot-6, 253-pound defensive end had just finished his first practice at rookie minicamp on Friday. North Carolina A&T defensive end/outside linebacker Darryl Johnson Jr., shown here against Charlotte in 2017, was a seventh-round draft pick by the Bills. As a seventh-round draft pick, the first of the team’s two final choices last month, the former North Carolina A&T standout faces an enormous challenge to make enough of an impression over the next four months to land a roster spot. Logic would suggest that no more than five of the Bills’ eight draft picks are going to have the chance to make a contribution this year, and that the four taken in the first three rounds have a built-in advantage because of their draft status. But Johnson isn’t conceding a thing. 10
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“I just feel like I’m made to play in the NFL,” he said. “I feel my best football’s ahead of me. I’ve got a lot to work on and a lot to improve on. And, working with my coaches, they’re going to put me in the right spot to help.” Needing to beef up their pass rush, the Bills made the defensive line a draft priority. They invested their first pick, ninth overall, in highly touted former University of Houston tackle Ed Oliver, who will fill the spot vacated by the retirement of Kyle Williams. Ends Jerry Hughes and Shaq Lawson are still around, but their futures beyond this season are uncertain. And although the Bills didn’t address the exterior of the line until the final round, and North Carolina A&T is a small school from which they had never drafted a player, there was some deep thinking behind the selection of Johnson. The fact he entered the draft after his junior year, which isn’t typical for small-school players, didn’t faze the Bills’ player-personnel staff after seeing how productive he was the past two seasons. In 2018, Johnson was named Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year after finishing the season with a conference-best 10.5 sacks, 50 tackles, seven quarterback hits and a forced fumble. In 2017, he earned AllAmerica honors from the American Football Coaches Association after generating 40 tackles, 6.5 sacks, four forced fumbles and recovering two fumbles.
“My story’s so crazy,” he said. He then explained that he attended three high schools: Savannah Christian Preparatory School, Jenkins High School in Savannah, and Camden County High School in Kingsland, where he lived with an aunt and his parents would commute to his games. “They didn’t see that young man over there working his butt off,” Johnson, in reference to himself, said of Savannah Christian and Jenkins High coaches. “They already had their guys, their premier guys.” He said he developed a massive chip on his shoulder that continues to motivate him. With limited playing time through his high school career, Johnson had little film to send to college programs, so larger programs ignored him. It took the help of his coach at Camden County, Welton Coffey II, to help convince North Carolina A&T to give Johnson a partial scholarship. “It was my only option and I was going to take advantage of it,” Johnson said. “And I took advantage.”
Johnson played at 232 pounds last season. However, he bulked up to his current weight on the advice of his Georgiabased personal trainer, Chip Smith, and others with a feel for what would enhance his chances in the NFL.
“He is one of those guys who is willing to put in the extra time and give the extra effort and do the little things to be special,” N.C. A&T coach Sam Washington was quoted as saying on ncatagges.com after the Bills drafted Johnson. “That is what separates him from the rest. It doesn’t hurt that he is also very athletic and can run, run. He has the attributes every coach dreams of.”
“I’m 250 now and (Smith) was like, ‘You can get bigger,’ ” Johnson said. “And a lot of my coaches saying, ‘You can easily be 270-265.’ Whatever they need me to be, that’s what I’m willing to do.” Such thinking was ingrained in Johnson for as long as he can remember. His father and mother, Marsha Johnson, had an inkling that Darryl Jr. was cut out for a contact sport from the time he was a baby and had a tendency to slam his toys and other items on the ground. It earned him the nickname “Bam,” as in “Bamm-Bamm Rubble,” the ultrapowerful baby from Flintstones fame.
Johnson became the third player from North Carolina A&T to be drafted in three years. The others are running back Tarik Cohen, by the Chicago Bears in 2017, and offensive tackle Brandon Parker, by the Oakland Raiders in 2018. Before Johnson, two other MEAC defensiveplayer-of-the-year honorees, tackle Javon Hargrave from South Carolina State, and linebacker Darius Leonard, also from South Carolina State, were third- and second-round selections by the Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts, respectively.
The early morning workouts he and his younger brother, who eventually chose to give up sports, did become a bit more sophisticated through the years. When Darryl Jr. was 15, the family moved an hour north to Savannah. Darryl Sr. began taking his sons to the Savannah Mall, where they would work out at a fitness center that a friend of his who worked there would open early for them.
“You’ve always got to look up to the guys before you,” Johnson said. “They’re doing their thing, so, hopefully, one day, I can follow in their footsteps. I just always had heart and believed in myself and believed in my work ethic. And that takes you a long way. “That’s why I’m here.”
“I was just kind of crazy with it,” Darryl Sr. said by phone. “Their mother would handle all the other stuff, but I was always spending money on training gear.” Despite all of the workouts and playing at the youth level, Darryl Jr.’s high school career was far from distinguished. It also was far from conventional. 11
NUTRITION
Nutrition for Everyday Athletes
Information by www.eatright.org Focus on carbs for energy. Choose whole-grain bread, crackers, cereal, pasta and potatoes for lasting energy. Save sports drinks for an energy boost during endurance sports or training sessions lasting more than an hour. Spread out protein foods. Active bodies need protein to support growth and build and repair hardworking muscles. Young athletes should spread protein foods throughout the day, having some at each meal and with most snacks, such as eggs and whole-grain toast with fruit for breakfast or a sandwich with low-sodium deli meat on whole-grain bread with yogurt and raw veggies for lunch. Plant-based protein foods like tofu and beans also are great choices. Use caution with fatty foods. Fatty foods slow digestion, which is not ideal for an athlete facing a competition. Greasy, fried foods and fatty desserts are filling and may leave your athlete feeling tired and sluggish. Skip the fries or pizza before practice, and keep fat content on the light side. Eat with food safety in mind. Nothing will slow down your athlete more than food poisoning – having stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea after eating. Make sure you store snacks at proper temperatures to prevent spoilage. Keep cheese, yogurt, meat, eggs and salads made with mayonnaise in a refrigerator or cooler. Shelf-stable items such as nuts, granola bars and whole fruit can be tossed into a sports bag without a problem.
Flow with fluids. Good hydration should begin early in the day before kids even set foot on the playing field. Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water during the day leading up to a game, especially in the two to three hours before game time. Continue to drink during the game (about 1/2 cup every 15 minutes) and afterward to rehydrate after sweat loss. Water should still be kids’ go-to drink for exercise that’s under 60 minutes. Training sessions over an hour may require a sports drink to replace electrolytes lost through heavy sweating. Timing is everything. When you eat is just as important as what you eat. Your body needs two to three hours to digest a regular meal such as breakfast or lunch before an athletic event, while a small snack such as a granola bar can be eaten 30 minutes to an hour in advance. Load up at meals but don’t overeat, and keep snacks light as you get closer to game time. Topping it off with milk. In addition to water, fat-free and low-fat milk also are smart ways to help young athletes meet their fluid needs. But that’s not all. Just one cup of milk packs 15 to 24 percent of the protein most school-aged kids need in a day. It also delivers important nutrients of which most young athletes don’t get enough, such as calcium, which is critical for building strong bones, transmitting nerve impulses, and helping muscles contract, as well as potassium for fluid balance. Eating right on gameday is your athlete’s secret weapon for top-notch performance, whatever the sport. Here’s a sample game day nutrition plan: Pre-game breakfast. Gather together the family for a pregame breakfast about three hours before the event. Serve sliced and lightly grilled potatoes paired with scrambled eggs and fruit such as berries along with calcium-fortified orange juice or fat-free milk for a nutritious pre-game meal. Don’t light-load or skip lunch. Many student athletes compete after school making lunch an essential fuel source. Lunch should be hearty and represent as many food groups as possible, including whole grains, lean protein, fruit, vegetables and low-fat dairy. During the game/practice. Make sure your child keeps hydrated before, during and after practices and competitions. Dehydration results when your child athlete fails to adequately replace fluid lost through sweating. Dehydration that exceeds 2 percent body weight loss harms exercise performance, so make sure your child is well hydrated throughout the game with small amounts of water. Remind your child to replace fluid losses after exercise with lots of water. Also look to foods such as bananas, potatoes and fat-free or low-fat yogurt or milk. They contain potassium and carbohydrates which are important to replenish after exercise.
Post-practice or afternoon game snack. The hours after practice or a weekday competition may necessitate snacking before your family dinner. Make sure to have pre-prepared snacks ready when your kids arrive home hungry from a tough after-school practice or game. This can include sliced fresh fruit, low-fat yogurt and smoothies. Post-game family dinner. For a tasty and filling post-game family dinner, include all five food groups — protein, grains, vegetables, fruit and dairy. Serve baked or broiled lean cuts of meat such as chicken breast, salmon or tuna. Include whole grains, for example, whole-wheat pasta with a low-fat tomato or cheese sauce. Toss in vegetables or include a side green salad. Then, complete your meal with fruit for dessert, such as baked apples or pears accompanied by a glass of low-fat or fat-free milk. Or create an instant yogurt parfait with layers of low-fat vanilla yogurt, fresh, frozen or canned fruit, and crunchy whole-grain cereal.
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FITNESS
Avoid the Crash: Fueling Young Athletes for Long Summer Days For youth athletes, the longest days of the year involve day-long tournaments, two-a-day practices, tough conditioning camps, and generally being out in the heat from sun up to sun down. Long summer days make an athlete’s food and fluid demands much different than during colder, less active months. Insufficient nutrition in a hot and demanding environment can lead to poor performance and recovery, as well as cramps, nausea, or even heat illness. Thankfully, preventing these ailments and keeping an athlete properly fueled isn’t rocket science. With a combination of the below methods (and some experimentation) you can help your athletes avoid a dog-day crash. Staying Hydrated Through Fruits and Veggies Staying hydrated while playing sports is vital regardless of season, but perhaps doubly important in the summer months. This doesn’t just mean carrying around a bottle of water at all times (though that’s certainly not a bad habit), but also eating foods that help rehydrate before, during, and after playing sports. Aptly-named, watermelon is perhaps the most obvious food that both nourishes and hydrates. This fruit is over 90% water and has a low sugar content. Grapefruit, strawberries, cantaloupe, grapes, honeydew, oranges, peaches, pears, and pineapple all also contain similar amounts of water and are enjoyed by most kids. Maybe less appealing to a youth athlete’s palette but no less rehydrating are many vegetables such as cucumber, zucchini, and carrots. Throw some combination of these, the aforementioned fruits, ice, and coconut water into a blender and you have one super-hydrating (and tasty) summer beverage. 14
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Saved by Sodium While too much sodium can have debilitating effects for the average Joe, for competitive athletes it can be the difference between still being able to play hard in the fourth quarter and crashing hard on the bench. For the average American, the USDA recommends an intake of less than 1500-2300 mg of sodium per day, however for an athlete in hot conditions this demand is higher. Insufficient sodium levels can result in cramps, headaches, nausea, and hyponatremia (a low concentration of sodium in the blood). To combat this intense sodium loss, slightly up the intake of sodium leading up to and during intense summer sport days. This can be done through sources that help fulfill athletes’ other nutritional needs at the same time, such as vegetable juices, soups, whole grain snacks like crackers and pretzels, rice cakes, condiments, prepared or cured meats, and sports drinks. The Day(s) Before How an athlete performs during a long day of practice or games is largely dictated by what they take in the day before. Just as beginning to drink water when you become thirsty likely means you are already dehydrated, waiting until the day of a long summer training session to load up on the necessary macronutrients and calories is already too late. In addition to drinking water steadily throughout the days prior, serve up a big and balanced meal that has a good balance of protein, fats, and carbs the night prior. Some favorites of many competitive and professional athletes are whole-grain pastas with chicken or fish with sweet potatoes and other vegetables. While there is little evidence to support traditional “carbo-loading” as necessary, adequate energy intake is necessary so athletes can recover from previous efforts and replenish muscle glycogen. An athlete who consumes a varied diet and adequate total energy will fully replenish glycogen stores within 24 hours of a workout or game. Snacks for Short Windows in Between Exercise For long practice days or tournaments where athletes only have a few hours to take a break and eat something, an athlete’s food choice is incredibly important. Although an athlete might insist they can go for a pizza or a burger, greasy food won’t sit well or lead to strong performance when it comes time to play again. Complex carbs (such as those found in whole grains, potatoes, and brown rice) go a long way in fueling athletes. For short windows in between activity, however, they might digest slower than desired and feel ‘heavy’ in the stomach. Similarly, while protein’s role in helping the body repair and recover can’t be understated, in a short turnaround situation proteinheavy snacks might feel overly heavy in the stomach. Simple carbohydrates are absorbed and utilized much faster by the body, like those found in bananas, dried fruit, and white bread. Simple carbs are not all created equally, and often the most-easily available (like in baked goods and candy) are overly-processed and can cause a spike and subsequent crash in blood sugar. Snacks that combine fruit or vegetables with some additional carbohydrate from grain and a little protein and fat to help the energy last longer. Things like peanut butter and banana sandwiches, yogurt and granola with added fruit, or fruit with nuts and cheese. For quick refueling, the International Olympic Committee recommends a target carbohydrate intake of “1g per kg of body mass per hour for the first 4 hours [of activity], with frequent small snacks.” Figuring Out a Plan Sports nutrition is far from an exact science. Figuring out what works best for your athlete is largely subject to trial and error and tinkering with others’ guidelines and suggestions. There are too many variables in an athlete’s age and physical condition, the weather, duration and type of sporting activity, and the amount of time in between activity for there to be a one-size fits all solution as it pertains to keeping youth athletes fueled during the summer. If you are the chief meal preparer and/or snack provider to your athlete, learn if they are adequately fueled or not by asking questions about how they felt near the end of a high-activity day. Their answers might let you know what tweaks need to be made to their meals or if special healthy snacks need to be sent with them. While diet can significantly impact how an athlete feels in the heat, there is no perfect combination of food and fluids that can combat being out in the sun too long. Sources: https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf https://www.coach.ca/sodium-facts-for-athletes-p154692 /https://hub.olympic.org/athlete365/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/1378_IOC_NutritionAthleteHandbook_1e.pdf APRIL/MAY 2019
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TRACK/FIELD
Kayla White Brings National Championship Home To NC A&T
Information and Photo by HBCU Buzz NC A&T Aggies has its first national champion in track and field. Kayla White won the 200 meters tonight at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ala. The senior from Miami covered the distance in 22.66 seconds. And a bonus for Guilford County: High Point native Tamara Clark, running for Alabama, finished second in 22.99 seconds. Earlier in the day, White finished second in the 60-meter hurdles in 7.92 seconds. Southern Cal’s Chanel Brissett won in 7.90 seconds. The A&T women’s team finished seventh in the team standings with 18 points. Arkansas won the team championship with 62 points. Conventional wisdom today says children must start at a young age in their chosen sport if they want long-term success. Not true says senior North Carolina A&T sprinter Kayla White. White did not start participating in track and field until the 11th grade. On Saturday, she became the first-ever N.C. A&T track and field athlete – indoor or outdoor – to win an NCAA national championship when she won the 200 meters at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Indoor National Championships at the CrossPlex. White won the 200m in 22.62 to reclaim the fastest time in the world in 2019. White recorded the world’s fastest time in 2019 on Feb. 2 when she ran 22.82 at the University of Arkansas’ Tyson Invitational. Anavia Battle of Ohio State took the crown by running 22.80. That fastest 200m runner in the world once again resides at North Carolina A&T State University, a little school on the east side of Greensboro. White really wanted to show off the for the athletes who didn’t decide their sport until later in life by doubling as a national champion, but she finished second in the 60-meter hurdle final to Southern Cal’s Chanel Brissett who finished in 7.90 to White’s personal-best 7.92. “Kayla is a great athlete which we have seen time and time again,” said Duane Ross, the Aggies director of track and field programs. “Our plan this year, her senior year, was to do this.” Ross said White has been a tremendous team leader for an Aggies team that just completed winning three straight indoor conference titles in both men’s and women’s track and field. Therefore, before her 200m race, he freed her momentarily from her team leadership duties. “I told her this was about her. It wasn’t about me, it wasn’t about the team. It was about her being selfish and coming out of this race as a star,” Ross told his multiple first-team All-American. White’s first and second place finishes gave the Aggies 18 points for the championships tying N.C. A&T for seventh place nationally among such schools as South Carolina and Alabama. “I came into the 200-meter final with a chip on my shoulder because I felt the hurdles race was mine too. I really ran well in that race,” said White. “Going into the 200 race I just wanted to stay focus because I didn’t want to leave here without at least one national championship.” That is not a bad weekend for a sprinter who was a dancer until the 11th grade. White said she had dreams of making it big dance until a high school track coach saw her hanging out at Miami’s Southridge High School. While others saw White’s God-given long legs as a pathway to her being a dancer, he saw something else.
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“He said why aren’t you running track?” White recalls. “I had never done it before, so I decided to give it a try.” The “try” did not earn her a lot of college offers. In fact, it wasn’t until she helped her high school’s 4×100 relay team qualify for regionals that she caught the interest of Alabama A&M. But Ross did not give up his pursuit. When the scholarship to Alabama A&M did not work out, White got a call from Ross. Ross gave her an opportunity many other colleges in America were not offering. Six years later the duo has combined to make White the best indoor 200m sprinter in the world. It can also be said there is no shame in being the second-best 60mh runner in the country. With those two factors in place, the recent convert to track and field has a message. “Come to A&T,” White said. “Athletes think you have to go to a big school to improve as an athlete. A school like A&T will teach you how to get better if you stay focused on the objective. It is like a family here.” White still has her senior outdoor season ahead of her. Before that even starts she is already a two-time first-team All-American in the 60mh. She is also a first-team All-American in the indoor 200m and a second-team outdoor All-American in the 4×100 and 100mh. She has combined to win an amazing 14 MEAC indoor or outdoor titles in her career. Now, she can dance all the way to the podium to claim her national title. “I wanted this moment so bad coming into my senior year. I wanted to make sure I stayed focused during the offseason,” said White. “I trusted my training and it is paying off. It really means a lot coming in here from an HBCU because you really don’t see too many people coming from small schools and being able to compete against the Power Fives. I wouldn’t classify myself as just an HBCU sprinter though. I’m one of the best sprinters in the nation.”
Meet The Black Jockeys Who Helped Create The Kentucky Derby
Info and Photo By www.talkrealsolutions.com
After the Civil War, most horse trainers, grooms, and jockeys were Black men. In fact, of the 28 winning jockeys of the first Kentucky Derby, 15 of them were African American. However, according to the Los Angeles Times, this didn’t last long because once the Jim Crow era began in the early 1900’s, African Americans were banned from the sport. But this doesn’t erase the history of the Kentucky Derby or the fact that there were definitely Black jockeys who helped created and popularize it. For example, Oliver Lewis, a Kentucky native who was born into slavery in 1856, rode across the finish line to first place in the inaugural Kentucky Derby in the year 1875. James “Soup” Perkins is another one. He too was born and raised in Kentucky, and in 1895, at the age of 15, he became one of the youngest jockeys ever to win the Kentucky Derby. Finally, there was Isaac Burns Murphy, who competed in the Derby 11 times and won in 1884, 1890 and 1891. He was known as one of the best jockeys to ever race. The history of the Kentucky Derby is undeniable!
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