Member-only story
History is Everywhere, Do You Know What You’re Missing?
The Bordeaux Bridge in Nashville (AKA Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge)
I played basketball in high school, where I received minor acclaim. I was All-City my senior year at Marshall-University High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I wasn’t heavily recruited, mainly by a few rural Minnesota colleges. I received hundreds of letters from schools nationwide for being a National Merit Semifinalist after scoring well on the PSAT test. I went to Fisk University in Nashville based on my grandparents' strong encouragement, who knew more about HBCUs than I learned in Minnesota.
When I enrolled at Fisk, I considered my basketball career over. I participated in pick-up games in the gym and soon discovered that my high school coach, the recently departed Ed Prohofsky, had prepared me well. I was fundamentally sound, played good defense, and, most importantly, was 6'6", which was a good height for Division II Basketball. I was encouraged to try out for the team. Three weeks before practice officially started, prospects like me and returning players showed in front of the gym for a mandatory run to the Bordeaux Bridge. The run was about 4 miles round trip.
It soon became clear that the returning players found the run obligatory and sought only to complete it without…
