COVER STORY
J. Leonard Hamilton: A Consummate Achiever and an Effortless Pioneer
J. Leonard Hamilton (Zeta Kappa 1971).
By Clarence Tucker
W hile conducting this interview, I was awed by the sheer volume of trails James Leonard Hamilton (Zeta Kappa 1971) has blazed in his personal and profes- sional life. Even more remarkable is the fact that on several occasions he accomplished these feats literally without trying. Brother Hamilton is an effortless pioneer who was the first African American basketball player recruited by his alma mater University of Tennessee at Martin, the first Afri- can American Student to be voted Mr. Volunteer at the university (an honor he won despite never campaigning for
first African American head coach in not only that university’s history, but the entire Big 8 (now known as The Big XII) conference’s history. His foundation set the stage for the Cowboys to end a 37-year NCAA tournament drought in the 1990-91 season. I could go on touting Brother Hamilton’s impressive career “firsts.” However, the “first” he is most proud of is being the first in his family to earn a college degree. He adopted his younger siblings, and made sure they had the opportunity to get their de- grees, thereby changing the trajectory of his family’s plight and breaking the cycle of poverty that had been so
it), a member of the charter line of the first African American fraternity on the campus, the Zeta Kappa of Kappa Alpha Psi®, and in 1971 at the age of 23 he was hired as the first African American assistant men’s basketball coach in Austin Peay State University’s history. Brother Hamilton went on to become the first African American assistant basketball coach at the University of Kentucky in 1974. During his 12-year tenure with the Wildcats his teams went to 3 Final Fours and won one National Championship. In 1986 he accepted the head coach position at Oklahoma State University and became the
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