Fictional Black Athletes And The Importance Of Representation In Film

"Kenneth Shropshire, CEO of the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University

"Without a doubt, my favorite fictional Black athlete — from the movie 'Cooley High' (1975) —  is Cochise. It's the first movie, in my opinion, in a long line of movies where there's a Black athlete who's about to make it — and, spoiler alert, gets killed off some way in the end. For those a little bit young, think 'Boyz n the Hood.' Same story has been told over and over again. But this one was really the lead in this. And for me, too, it was impactful. I saw it with a bunch of guys I had gone to high school with, and we spent the whole time afterwards talking about who was who in the movie. And me and another guy, a basketball player, were the guys who had gone off and gotten scholarships and gone off to college. So we got labeled with the Cochise title. Although I played football, not basketball."