John Carroll University hosts forum on “Diversity in Athletics” featuring Legendary Sports Writer Ron Thomas

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[April 6, 2017] The role of race and culture in relation to college and professional athletics will be discussed in a forum hosted by John Carroll University on Monday, April 10, 2017, at 6 p.m. in the Donahue Auditorium of the Dolan Center for Science and Technology. The featured guest speaker is Ron Thomas, an award-winning sports writer with more than 40 years of journalism experience. Thomas currently serves as the director of the Journalism and Sports Program at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Thomas was the first NBA reporter and editor for USA Today in the early 1980s. He worked in the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly three decades, covering the Golden State Warriors and San Francisco 49ers for the San Francisco Chronicle. His career path also included the San Francisco Examiner, where he covered the San Francisco Giants, as well as college sports and professional tennis. Additionally, Thomas was a freelance sports writer and copy editor, contributing articles to BlackAmericaWeb.com and the NAACP’s Crisis Magazine. Thomas is the author of “They Cleared the Lane: the NBA’s Black Pioneers” (University of Nebraska Press, 2002). In 2011, he was honored with the Excellence in Sports Journalism Lifetime Achievement Award from Northeastern University’s School of Journalism and Center for the Study of Sport in Society. The recognition centered on his articles and publications about the racial dimensions of sports. Thomas graduated from the University of Rochester in 1971 with a degree in political science; he earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1973. Contact: Tonya Strong-Charles | Executive Director of Media Relations | 216.397.1958 or tstrong@jcu.edu John Carroll University, founded in 1886 as Saint Ignatius College, is located in University Heights, Ohio, in suburban Cleveland. Its Jesuit Catholic mission inspires individuals to excel in learning, leadership, and service in the region and the world. John Carroll University is recognized nationally for an exceptional four-year graduation rate, teaching excellence, and a commitment to living a faith that does justice as central to its mission. John Carroll is one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States.