SAN JOSE — Jim Brown was there. Not even his crumpling posture, being fortified by a Cleveland Browns cane, diminished his presence.
Dr. Harry Edwards there. The whole mood danced to the rhythmic prose of his lofty thoughts. Tommie Smith, legendary for his gloved fist at the 1968 Olympics, was there. So was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Kareem.
But you know who shined at this epic panel at San Jose State University? Anquan Boldin. The face of the modern athlete activist.
The draw for this event — the inauguration of the school’s new Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change — was the legends.