Basketball Legend’s Gift Turns ‘Frustration to Hope’

George Hicker ’68 and his wife, Kathy, have created the Hicker Family Professorship in Renewing Democratic Community.

Chris Faricy, left, and Jim Boeheim ’66, G’73 shared the stage on Friday, Sept. 9, for a conversation-style event titled “Renewing Democratic Community: Basketball, Leadership and Citizenship.” Faricy is associate professor of political science and the inaugural Hicker Family Professor in Renewing Democratic Community, while Boeheim is the head coach of the Syracuse University men’s basketball team.

BY JESSICA YOUNGMAN

On the first day of his Introduction to American Politics class, Chris Faricy imparts a message to his students that will serve as a guide for the semester.

“We will not speculate on how American government should work or evaluate whether what the government does is good or bad,” he tells them. “Instead, we will investigate what the government is and how it works.”

Faricy, associate professor of political science at the Maxwell School, takes a similar approach in his own scholarly work: he examines how, when and for whom American democracy works. His forthcoming book will examine whether the creation of new social and economic benefits for citizens will revitalize public trust in the federal government and democracy.

For his teaching and subject area expertise, Faricy has been selected to hold a new professorship created in hopes of advancing civil discourse and mutual understanding in today’s polarized political climate. Syracuse University basketball legend George Hicker ’68 and his wife, Kathy, have created the Hicker Family Professorship in Renewing Democratic Community.

Combined with funds pledged by the University in support of the Forever Orange Faculty Excellence Program, the endowment totals $2 million. Launched in early 2022, the program strives to advance academic excellence by generating the resources needed to recruit and retain diverse and talented faculty in a highly competitive academic landscape.

“The generosity of George and Kathy Hicker will go far to advance our work at Maxwell,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke. “Their goals align with Professor Faricy’s work to bring evidence to promote dialogue and understanding. He is especially skilled at cultivating a learning environment in which students are engaged in understanding our political systems and the impacts of public policies on different communities and stakeholders.”

Faricy will hold the professorship for its inaugural term of five years. In addition to American politics, he researches social policy, income inequality, tax policy and public opinion on government spending. He authored Welfare for the Wealthy: Parties, Social Spending, and Inequality in the United States (Cambridge University

Press, 2015) and co-wrote The Other Side of the Coin: Public Opinion toward Social Tax Expenditures (Russell Sage Foundation, 2021).

“The Hickers’ gift supports our work to examine how American democracy can better function during an era of increasing diversity, social stratification and political polarization,” says Faricy.

Hicker, who received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Maxwell School and the College of Arts and Sciences, is president of the Los Angeles-based Cardinal Industrial Real Estate. He played for the Orange in 1966 when the team averaged 99.9 points per game and advanced to the NCAA’s Elite Eight regionals in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hicker remembers his elation turned to disappointment when he and teammates arrived at the hotel.

The check-in clerk told Coach Fred Lewis that the team’s four Black players had to stay at a different hotel. “I’ll never forget his words—he said, ‘Tell them to keep our plane warm, then, because we’re not playing,’” recalls Hicker.

Lewis’ words forced the hotel to reconsider, and the team got to stay together.

Hicker has reflected on the hotel scene throughout his life, especially amid the social reckoning of recent years. “More than 50 years have passed since that hotel incident and yet we as a nation are still plagued by racism and intolerance,” says Hicker. “It is not where I’d hoped our country would be—it is deeply unsettling, especially combined with what seems like weekly mass shootings and a deep political divide.”

Hicker says funding the professorship is an investment in the future. “It turns some of our frustration to hope,” he says.

MORE ONLINE: Visit maxwell.syr.edu/hicker-professorship to read more about the Hicker Family Professorship in Renewing Democratic Community