Jim Blackburn headshot

Jim Blackburn

Albemarle High School
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There’s always those that aren’t quite racist but on the border and say, “Okay, let’s do a token and get that problem off the table.”  But that wasn’t my dad.  My dad wanted to have as many Black athletes as he could, knowing that recruiting for any athlete is difficult — it was difficult at that time at the university.  He was not interested in tokens.  That’s why he told the administration that the only ones he’s going to be recruiting, one, they got to be able to get into school, yes, but they’ve got to be able to start and play a lot.  Because if they just came and sat on the bench and were tokens, it would actually do damage to the future recruitment.