Ernie McCray
EDITOR’S NOTE: Former Tucson High School and University of Arizona basketball standout Ernie McCray is a legendary figure to Tucsonans and Wildcat fans. McCray, who holds the Wildcats’ scoring record with 46 points on Feb. 6, 1960, against Cal State-Los Angeles, is the first African-American basketball player to graduate from Arizona. McCray, who now resides in San Diego, earned degrees in physical education and elementary education at Arizona. He is a longtime educator, actor and activist in community affairs in the San Diego-area. He wrote a blog for TucsonCitizen.com before the site ceased current-events operations earlier this year. He agreed to continue offering his opinion and insight with AllSportsTucson.com about Arizona Wildcats athletics. McCray also writes blogs for SanDiegoFreePress.org.
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When I reflect on the last piece I wrote, “A Holiday Season with Tamales and Smiles,” I realize that pretty much all of 2014 was a year of smiles for me.
The year got off to a running start, moving like water rushing from a stream to a river to the ocean. Time truly does move fast…
Family wise, there was much to smile about as all my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, on the whole, appeared to be moving along in life rather nicely. My granddaughter, Kinya, whom I rarely see, and her children, visited in the summer from Memphis, Tennessee, and being around them made smiles come easily. Lyric, my youngest grandson, turned one, and I can’t be around him for a second before he elicits a smile from me…
The weather, all year, was like summer mostly, feeling so good, so soothing, so easy on the old skin and bones, somewhat scary in its un-season-ness, but warm weather inspires smiles, never-the-less, if the truth is to be known…
I looked up one day and my musical friend, Pete Seeger, was gone, but I smiled anyway just thinking about him and his way with a song… Steve Fisher, at about the same time, in response to a piece I had written about him and his athletically gifted basketball team, called to thank me on the telephone. That made me smile because I think, as they say today, he is the bomb, one of the best hires SDSU can claim…
Politics was in the air. David Alvarez got my vote for mayor. His loss, in my mind, eased the public affairs scene in San Diego back to the same old same old, but I smiled just knowing that some aspects of the old days, in some ways, are over and done…
Teresa, one of my older daughters, had a tumor on her chest declared benign and as I breathed a sigh of relief, with the biggest of smiles, I was told that a friend of mine had ended his life, unable to withstand the pain of having lost his husband. I remembered how excited they were when the Golden State allowed a man and a man and a woman and a woman to say “I do” and they got married, it seemed, about 1.5 seconds after they were allowed to. Joyfulness mingled with sadness in those moments of the year, as that is just the way it is at times… We take our smiles when we can…
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Ernie McCray during his Arizona playing days. His 46 points in a 1960 game remains a school record (University of Arizona photo)
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Ernie McCray looks back on 2014 with a smile
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At about mid-year Maria finished a portrait of me and I was as taken with her artistry as I was with the beauty of her humanity. She gets a lot of smiles from me…
And it becomes kaleidoscopic: the scene in Ukraine became insane… I spoke at a memorial for Tanja Winter, a dear friend, a mentor in my activism, in my delving into our country’s shameful behavior in Central America in the 80’s… I talked to classes at San Diego State about multiculturalism and growing old gracefully and shared ideas with high school kids on how to stay motivated as writers and addressed a forum at San Diego’s venerable Catfish Club regarding the need to treat students as human beings who are to be loved and respected if we’re to play with concepts like “narrowing achievement gaps” and such… Maria and I spoke to the club, on another occasion, in behalf of “Yes on 47,” a proposition that is now in the early stages of reducing several low level crimes from felonies to misdemeanors… I became involved with some kids at the Spring Valley Middle School who, as “Natural Helpers,” are go-to people on their campus when students are in trouble, in need. My time with them was filled with the smiles that come from doing something that is worthwhile…
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And I had the thrill of sitting back and smiling proudly when my beautiful sidekick was honored for her life’s pursuit of helping counselors work in underserved communities and when she was one of the California State University Latino/a Caucus’s “Faculty Making a Difference” honorees… And I got some recognition, too, an Unsung Hero Award for my contributions to education in San Diego since the early 60’s. Pats on the back feel good to me…
So much to smile about: spending time with Maria and her beautiful family in Hawaii… Putting “On the Corner of Rhythm and Rhyme,” my thoughts on making a better world for children, on stage, in the form of spoken word poetry and tap dance choreography… Discussing my basketball days with the U of A on a podcast with Javier Morales, one of the best sports writers around, a Tucsonan like me…
In closing I should say that there were a few things in 2014 that really got me down, you know, things like wars and kidnapped girls and Maya Angelou dying and Gaelano and Michael Brown being shot down, but I just wanted to focus more on what made me smile than what made me frown.
I had the biggest smile on my old face when the clock struck 12 and 2014 became a year in the past and, in the spirit of such cheerfulness, I say: Happy New Year. May 2015 bring you many a smile.
