> . . . Tom Macmillan was a relatively
liberal congressman. Bill Bradley, less so. >
Actually McMillan, who is from a district near mine, is/was pretty conservative democrat. Bradley may be a shade more liberal.
>> Bill Russell, loner, but deeply thoughtful, who knows where he came from,
and understands racism >>
Russell spoke at my university about a century ago when I was an undergrad, and he WAS a radical. At his speaking gig, a bunch of us held a meeting in front of the gym where he was to speak; showing off is what we were doing. He stopped to listen for a good while. We probably helped persuade him the left was not likely to amount to much.
Jabbar and Bill Walton were radicals in a California kinda way.
Locally we had John Riggins of the Redskins, who distinguished himself by leading the team during the football strike, on one occasion donning a Fidel Castro-type outfit. He spent some time in Greenwich Village in his younger days. He also endorsed some AFL-CIO initiatives.
Startling as it may seem, no golfer radicals, I'm sorry to say. In fact, few democrats among them. The Ryder Cup team was not inclined to meet w/President Clinton until the captain browbeat them into it. Big exceptions are Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman.
I happened to see "He Got Game" last night, which included cameo appearances by most every big-time basketball coach and a bunch of top players too. Interesting in light of the fairly harsh indictment of the sociology of the college game depicted in the film.
mbs