Harry Edwards, a towering figure in Bay Area sports history known for promoting athlete activism, has no plans to stop fighting against racism and injustice despite suffering from bone cancer.
“I am very much aware of the severity of the situation I am in and the reality of the circumstance,” he said in an hour-long conversation with the Bay Area News Group. “So you don’t spend a lot of time focused on the condition. You try to focus on the time you have remaining, realizing you are on the clock.”
Best known for his role in the 1968 Olympic protests by San Jose State sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Edwards also has collaborated over the years with some of the biggest names in pro sports, including Colin Kaepernick, to give athletes of color a voice.
Edwards, 80, did not use the word cancer or answer questions about his prognosis throughout the introspective conversation. He talked about his condition last week at the opening of the Dr. Harry Edwards Collection at San Jose State’s Special Collections and Archives. Edwards downplayed the disease, saying he was taking medication, said those in attendance.
“If I don’t feel bad, why should anybody feel bad?” he said in the interview. “You try to handle this with as much courage, dignity and grace as you can.
“It’s not an ending. I am just part of the flow.”
The survival rate generally is five years, depending on many factors, the American Cancer Society website says.
“To be honest, after seeing so much over these 80 years, I’ve come to be more curious about the process than I am concerned about the outcome,” Edwards said. “It is just my turn.”
Edwards, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of sociology, played a prominent role in sports protests in the turbulent 1960s by encouraging Black athletes to speak publicly about racial injustice.
The treatment of Blacks in the United States fomented unrest at San Jose State, then known as “Speed City” because of its wealth of world-class sprinters.
As a young sociology instructor, Edwards founded the Olympic Project for Human Rights in 1967, calling for a Black athlete boycott of the upcoming Summer Games in Mexico City. A boycott never materialized but sprinters Smith and Carlos protested on the victory stand in Mexico City with their famous and controversial black-gloved salute after winning gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the 200 meters.
Edwards also collaborated with Hall of Fame stars Jim Brown (NFL), Joe Morgan (MLB) and Bill Russell (NBA), and Kaepernick, the one-time 49ers quarterback whose kneeling during the national anthem in 2016 caused a national uproar.
Brown died last month, Russell last year and Morgan in 2020.
Oakland’s Jim Hines, the first man to break 10 seconds in the 100 meters and who won two gold medals in Mexico City, died on Saturday in Hayward. Ralph Boston, a three-time Olympic long jump medalist, died in April. He accepted his bronze medal in Mexico City barefooted to protest the poverty in the Black community.
“Our generation is making room for those who follow,” Edwards said. “It is simply that time.”
Edwards, a star discus thrower and basketball player, led demonstrations at San Jose State to protest Black students’ rights in an era when many could not find housing near campus because of their race.
He spent time with legendary Civil Rights figures Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, James Baldwin and Maya Angelou and also associated with leaders of the revolutionary Black Panther Party that originated in Oakland.
“I didn’t expect to live to be 30,” Edwards said. “I came up when members of the Black Panther Party were being shot down in the streets. Malcolm X was murdered, and Dr. King was shot.”
Edwards has recalled receiving death threats and having FBI agents surveil him and plant informants in his classes. He said police in the late 1960s ticketed him for failing to signal a left turn into his driveway.
Edwards’ impressive achievements might have surprised teachers from East St. Louis Senior High School, where he graduated in 1959 as a three-sport star.
Edwards earned an athletic scholarship to USC but recalled being unable to read the college admissions exam and walking out after reviewing two pages.
He attended Fresno City College for a semester, long enough to break the national junior college discus record and hold the school mark for 41 years.
Edwards transferred to San Jose State in 1960 at age 17. He said he did not receive a letter or phone call from his family in East St. Louis for two years. Edwards went to the house where he grew up only to find it empty. Neighbors told him Edwards’ father had abandoned the house a year earlier.
He returned to San Jose State, a place that helped him grow up, Edwards said.
He had a chance to pursue a professional sports career when the San Diego Chargers and Minnesota Vikings had him on their draft boards, although he didn’t play college football. The Los Angeles Lakers scouted the 6-foot-8, 250-pound Edwards as a potential defensive specialist.
He chose an academic career with a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. Edwards earned graduate degrees at Cornell University in New York before returning to the Bay Area to first teach at SJSU and then at UC Berkeley.
In 2017, he founded SJSU’s Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change and continues to honor athletes and others who risk their livelihoods for social justice, including women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.
He is a longtime consultant to the San Francisco 49ers, earning two Super Bowl rings with the team. Edwards also worked as a counselor for the Warriors for a decade and spent six years helping Major League Baseball develop and hire minority talent for front-office executive positions.
“He changed the way we look at sports,” said Cotton Stevenson, who has made documentaries examining SJSU in the 1960s. “Therefore, he changed the way we look at ourselves.”
Frank Slaton, an SJSU alum who played football and ran track, said his former sociology teacher is among the Bay Area sports giants.
“If you talked about Mount Rushmore, he is right there,” Slaton said.
The man known as the father of sports sociology recently finished a five-episode series on the history of athlete activism with accomplished filmmaker Jonathan Hock.
He also is completing a 14-hour video series, “The Last Lectures,” scheduled for release online in the fall.
Edwards is interested in his message getting shared and not the legacy.
“Nobody remembers who did what,” he said. “Who gives a damn in the end? You do what you do while you’re here and then you move on.”
Edwards is focused on his family. He and Bay Area educator Sandra Boze Edwards have been married for more than 50 years. The couple who live in Fremont have three children and grandchildren.
“It is a beautiful time of life,” he said.
Edwards also plans to continue assailing injustice for as long as possible. He recalled once saying social changes are diverse and dynamic – and there are no final victories.
“I’m not surprised we’re fighting for voting rights again and women are fighting against reproductive bondage again,” Edwards said.
“My last words probably will be, ‘I protest.’ ”
Harry Edwards, iconic Bay Area athlete and activist, faces ultimate fight
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