Fresno City College marked the beginning of Black History Month with opening ceremonies on Jan. 31.
“What we are trying to do is educate the broader community on the contribution of African Americans,” said Dr. Ned Dofoney.
Doffoney introduced the keynote speaker, Lynette Woodward, who spoke about the rewards of perseverance and hard work.
Woodward told stories about her life, from her beginnings In Wichita, Kansas to her greatest accomplishment — becoming the first woman to play on the Harlem Globe Trotters basketball team, a team which is very popular in America.
“Her story was very inspiring, what she had to go through and all of her accomplishments,” said Adriana Ramirez, an Art major.
Woodward recalled her determination to succeed when she attended the University of Kansas where she was a two-time Academic All-American.
Woodward also set a record for the number of goals scored by any individual in women’s college basketball with 3,649 points.
Woodward was a natural for the 1980 Olympics in which American athletes could not participate. In 1984, she was also captain of the Olympic team that won the Gold Medal in Los Angeles.
Later, Woodward starred in Italy’s women’s professional basketball league. She led the league in scoring and she helped her team win the championship.
Woodward still remembers getting that first phone call to try out for the Harlem Globe Trotters.
She said she didn’t think any further than the fact that she was just going there to play basketball and that she really believed in herself as a basketball player.
She said she told officials at the Globe Trotters, “You need to look no further; I am the one.”
She still went through a rigorous audition, beating out 25 other 25 women to win the coveted position as the first female on the team.
“Her presentation was about how she achieved her level of accomplishment and becoming a legend in her own time,” said Monique Kelley, an Instructor of Accounting at FCC. “For African American folks, we don’t have to read the history books to realize we have legends walking among us.”
Kelly also said that the lesson of Woodward’s life is very pertinent to young people everywhere, particularly for students who sometimes “do not believe in themselves.”
She said one of the most important parts of Woodward’s story is her patience throughout her trials, adding that she tells her students, “How do you eat a whole elephant — piece by piece.”
Priscilla Lockhart, majoring in Accounting and fashion merchandising, said she remembers seeing the Globe Trotters when she was a child. “I still have a program with her and the other Globe Trotters in it,” Lockhart said.
Sue Farmer, one of the many people who stayed after the ceremony to get Woodward’s autograph, is one of the two co-coaches of a Sunnyside High school girls’ basketball team.
Farmer said she wished she could have brought her players to the ceremony but didn’t have enough time to get them together. She said, “They would have benefited so much” from the event.
“What we have been trying to get them (her players) to do is to believe in themselves, that they can be successful and to have more resilience and not get down on themselves,” she added.
Timothy Stewart, a first year student at FCC said, Woodward’s story was powerful “because a lot of young women, especially young black women don’t know these many windows are open for them.”