Jackie Robinson was good BUT...........

[LUKE'57]

.............how about Wendell Scott? While watching the piece on Robinson on the news this morning I got to thinking about the differences between how most pro sports treat their pioneers and the way the founding fathers of stock car racing are treated.

Jackie was the first black major league baseball player but still did his thing in front of a lot of black fans and with the support of many organizations that Wendell didn't have the benifit of.

Wendell also did it in the deep South within a VERY Southern sport at a time when there was building tensions. I never got to met Wendell but later got to work some shows with Mary and Sybil, his wife and daughter, and count myself fortunate to have been able to do so.

Wendell was a true pioneer and to this day is still the only African-American (how awkward that title seems applied to someone who should be remembered first and foremost as a RACER) to be successful in big time stock car racing. I think he deserves better from the "country" of France in the state of Florida.



And they're all models, as usual.

[tigeraid]

Excellent work as always. Wendell Scott rarely got his due, and while he DID win a race in his career, it was never officially acknowledged by NASCAR because of the status quo at the time. He was indeed a pioneer.

[tonioseven]

Cool stuff!! I remember seeing the movie about him when I was young; Richard Pryor (r.i.p.) played Wendell.

[gasman03]

Originally Posted by tonioseven

Cool stuff!! I remember seeing the movie about him when I was young; Richard Pryor (r.i.p.) played Wendell.

that would be 1977's "Greased Lightning"

[tonioseven]

Originally Posted by gasman03

that would be 1977's "Greased Lightning"

Yeah, I forgot to mention the name of the movie!

[chato de shamrock]

The popularity of the sports short handed him. Lets say, for example, someone in arena football setting records left and right compared to Emitt Smith winning a title and retiring. The guy at arena football wont get the recognition he deserves when his work and sport he's involved in has to go up against a much, much, much more popular sport and much, much, much more recognizable face. Im a huge baseball fan (far, far, far more than I am a model building fan) and I did a report on Robinson back in high school and found that he wasn't the first A.A. baseball player. There was another player around but man, at this moment, I cant remember why Robinson got the recognition the other A.A. player didnt. I believe he also came up to the majors days before J. Robinson.

Go Dodgers!