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Minium: Gerald Lee, ODU's "Gentle Giant," Led the Monarchs to a CAA Title and a Stunning Upset of Notre Dame

Gerald Lee rarely saw people of color when he grew up in a sparsely populated part of Finland. The country is one of the most homogeneous in the world, with nearly 98 percent of its population being ethnic Finns or Swedes.

Lee was born into a multiracial family -- his father, Gerald Sr., is a former American basketball star and an African-American who married a Finnish woman. At times when he walked down the street, Lee drew stares.

So when he enrolled at Old Dominion University in 2006, he was pleasantly surprised at the rainbow of faces he saw.