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Strength in Your Character By President Greg Crawford In the spring of his junior year at Miami, Wayne
Embry ’58 got a call from his father. He needed to come home to Springfield, Ohio. As the oldest grandson, he was close to his grandfather, and his grandfather was dying. Wayne writes in his autobiography, The Inside Game, about how startled he was to see his grandfather so thin and in such pain. He recalled the many conversations they’d shared while going fishing and doing chores together on the family farm. “My grandpa had warned me there would always be some people who did not like me because of the color of my skin. He would also tell us not to let anyone else’s words or actions keep us from success. ‘Don’t let other people’s problems be yours,’ he would say. ‘Your strength will be in your character. If you work hard and respect people, you will effect change in the way people treat you.’ ” Wayne Embry ’58 has Anyone who knows Wayne knows he heard those words as a challenge, and, as continued to break with every challenge ever put before him, down barriers during Wayne persevered until he succeeded. His example and legacy have opened doors for his more than 60 years generations of Black students and studentin the NBA. athletes, at Miami and across the country. Wayne was the only Black student in his high school. He told his parents about the taunting and declared after the first week he wasn’t going back. They would have none of that. By his junior year, he was voted most popular. During his college career, when he played center for the men’s basketball team, he again broke down racial barriers as one of Miami’s first Black student-athletes. He has continued to break down barriers during his more than 60 years in the NBA, first as a five-time All-Star center with the Cincinnati Royals and then as a world champion player with the Boston Celtics. You are invited to write to President Greg Crawford When he was named general manager of the at president@MiamiOH.edu. Milwaukee Bucks, he became the first Black GM in Follow him on Twitter @MiamiOHPres. pro sports. He has said that whenever he doubted
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himself, he’d reflect on the pictures of legendary Miami coaches lining the walls at Withrow — Paul Brown, Ara Parseghian, Weeb Ewbank, and so on. Now Wayne Embry is the legendary Miamian inspiring others. In recognition of his contributions, we have installed a statue in front of Millett Hall of him performing his signature hook shot — our first statue honoring a Black alumnus. Off the court, Wayne says, the best thing that happened to him at Miami was meeting his wife, Terri Jackson. He believes Terri was the true activist in their family, never more so than during Dr. King’s march from Selma to Montgomery. Wayne and Oscar Robertson, his Royals teammate and roommate when playing on the road, were in their hotel room in Philadelphia on March 20, 1964, when the phone rang. Terri was on the other end, telling him that she and her good friend Yvonne, Oscar’s wife, were joining the march to protest that Blacks were being denied the right to vote across the South. “They had to lie flat under blankets in the back of a truck in order to get to the airport safely,” Wayne Wayne was so proud of Terri recounts. “Both said the when she graduated from experience changed their Miami in 1960. He enjoyed her ceremony as much as his own. lives because they had (COURTESY O F EMBRY FA MILY ) never been exposed to that kind of violence or hatred.” During the statue’s unveiling, Miami honored Terri and Wayne with its Freedom Summer of ’64 Award for their life’s work as civil rights champions. Sadly, Terri passed away in August. She is greatly missed. We at Miami are extremely grateful to Wayne and Terri and their pioneering achievements that have inspired such diversity and inclusiveness.
