COVER STORY
pervasive previously within it. James Leonard Hamilton is a man whose life is focused on faith, family and achievement. As he stands at the very pinnacle of his profession with 600 career wins and fresh off his third consecutive Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA tournament, he agreed to sit down with The Journal and share a part of his journey to Kappa Alpha Psi and coaching super-stardom with us. Journal: Good afternoon brother. I’d first like to tell you how much The Journal appreciates you taking time out of your schedule to do this interview. I have some questions I’d like to ask you. So let’s start at the beginning. Tell me a little about your family life and upbring- ing? Hamilton: Being in the south in the 50’s and 60’s, obviously we grew up during a time of segregation. We realized there were things we could and could not do, but as young kids growing up we kind of just stayed in our lane as a result of what our parents told us. We didn’t realize at the time what segregation really meant.
Drinking at the Colored water fountains, using the Colored bathrooms, sitting at the back of the bus, they were things we did because that’s what our parents told us to do. There were certain places you didn’t go, you know. You didn’t go to the department store lunch counters to eat, certain restaurants you couldn’t go inside, and even when you went to the drive-in there were only certain places that you could park. We just rolled with it and didn’t really understand what we were going through. Now as we got older during the 60’s when the marches started, and the sit-ins and demonstra- tions started my parents kept me away from anything that they thought could be potentially dangerous. I grew up with a good mother and father. The wisdom that I gained from them I think had a lot to do with any accomplishments that I have ever made. My father was a truck driver, he only finished the 9 th grade. Even still he was very bright and intelligent. He always scored very high on any test that he ever took. My mother only finished the 7 th grade. She was a deeply religious person, and as a child growing up, I never lived more than 40
yards from my church. So, from the time I was a child, even when I was a baby, I remember going with my grand- mother every Sunday to church. I have pictures of how she used to dress me to go to church. And of course, where we lived you could almost throw a rock to the church. That was good for me because I was developing a sound moral foundation for how to conduct myself as a result of where I lived, and how I was raised, and my grandmother’s insistence that we attend services and maintain a good moral compass. Now my father told me a couple of things. He’d always say, “Don’t ever let anyone outwork you”. And it meant so much to because it taught me that even though you may not be able to always control the outcome, you can control your approach. He always said that if the supervisor, the coach, the boss or whoever is in charge, if you allow it to be close, they could make a mistake. Now the second thing he always told me was that I could never come to him and make an excuse as to why I was unable to accomplish whatever the mission was. So, I grew up feeling that I only had one
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