John Chaney’s Message Was Always Clear, in Support of Black Athletes

In the early 1980s, Gary Charles showed up for his final exam in a physical education class at Cheyney University with a dislocated elbow in a cast. He expected his instructor to look at the state of his right arm and give him a pass on the portion of the test where he would have to shoot baskets.

Instead, John Chaney told him there was nothing wrong with his left hand. Use that to shoot.

“He said, ‘Life ain’t going to be easy, either,’” said Charles, who became an influential youth basketball coach. “‘He was trying to get me ready for the real world.”

Chaney, the Hall of Fame basketball coach, died on Friday at age 89. He spent a decade at the eponymous-sounding Cheyney, the historically…