Solomon, a former Washington Post sports editor, serves as coordinator for the Shirley Povich Symposium, a panel of professional athletes, sports professionals and reporters discussing the day’s leading topics in athletics. Speakers at Wednesday night’s event (7 p.m. at the University of Maryland’s Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center) include Kevin Anderson, the university’s athletic director, and former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. The event, which is free and open to the public, will also celebrate the creation of the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism, where Solomon will serve as director. How long has this event been celebrated?
This is a sixth annual event, the Shirley Povich Sports Journalism Symposium, and we thought the intersection of sports and society and culture was worthy of an event for public discussion and public discourse.
Who’s moderating the panel?
Each of the symposiums have been moderated by TV talk show host Maury Povich, who is the son of the late Shirley Povich, who is the late Washington Post columnist for 75 years, from 1923 until his death in 1998.
What’s the topic this year?
We do have a topic we try to focus on each year, like last year was the changing landscape of sports in America. This year is the 50th Anniversary of the integration of both the Redskins and the University of Maryland football.
Tell me a little about the Washington Redskins’ efforts to integrate.
The Redskins were the last team to integrate the National Football League, and Bobby Mitchell and a colleague named Leroy Jackson were the first two African American players signed by George Preston Marshall for the 1962 season. And you should know Jackson played, but Mitchell became a Hall of Famer. We’re going to take a look at those events. And Darryl Hill was the first African American to play football for the University of Maryland and for the Atlantic Coast Conference, as well.
— Ben Giles
