In 1965, against impossible odds, a black Durham, North Carolina high school basketball team fights bigotry and poverty, to become State Champions, fulfilling a vow five of them made as freshmen. Their records still stand. – A true story. Years before Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and many other legendary NBA stars, there were: Daniel McLaurin, William Harris, Michael Hayes; George Outlaw, John Bullock, Greg Munroe, Marshall Hill, Jimmy Mercer, Larry Crawford, and Hollis Vines. These and other feared members of Durham, North Carolina’s, Hillside High School Hornets basketball team were known as “The Pony Express.”
Consider this: former NBA star, John Lucas was once their ball boy. Of course, you have likely never heard of these trailblazers. That’s fine; credit ‘Jim Crow’ bigotry and wide-spread concealment of black achievement, for that. You could, once do that, but no longer. In paraphrased words of the late, Dr. Martin Luther King: “Truth pressed to earth will rise again.” So, let it rise.
