William C. Rhoden is an American sports journalist and author, who formerly worked as a columnist for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 until 2016, when he joined

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

's The Undefeated as a writer-at-large, where he is currently employed. Rhoden is also a visiting senior practitioner at Arizona State University as well as the director of th
Rhoden Fellows
program.

Background

Rhoden was born in 1950 in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He attended

Morgan State University Morgan State University (Morgan State or MSU) is a public historically black research university in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the largest of Maryland's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). In 1867, the university, then known a ...

from 1968 to 1973, and played on the 1968

Morgan State Bears football The Morgan State Bears football team competes in American football on behalf of Morgan State University. The Bears compete in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, currently as a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEA ...

team that beat the Grambling Tigers in

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the orig ...

, the annual match known as the "Whitney Young Classic".

Career

After graduating from college, he worked for the '' Afro-American Times'', ''

the Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...

'', and eventually ''

Ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when ...

'' where he became a columnist for magazine from 1974 to 1978. In 1983, Rhoden joined the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' staff as a sports columnist. In 2006, he published his first book, the ''Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete'', an original and perceptive analysis of the racist history and current reality of professional sports in the United States.

Etan Thomas Dedrick Etan Thomas (born April 1, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Washington Wizards, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is also a published poet ...

, a major activist and retired professional basketball player, praises this book and claims it is a "necessary read for all young athletes."

References

External links

Appearances
on C-SPAN
Bill Rhoden on Sports (BROS)
podcast on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming s ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhoden, William C. 1950 births Living people African-American sports journalists African-American writers American columnists American sports journalists Morgan State University alumni People from Chicago The Baltimore Sun people Sportswriters from Illinois Sportswriters from New York (state) The New York Times editors The New York Times sportswriters 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people