LUT WILLIAMS BCSP Editor
It is with great pleasure this week that the BCSP gives unconditional support to establishing an endowed scholarship at Tuskegee University in the name of friend and colleague, Roscoe Nance, who passed in January 2020.
As such, the BCSP is beginning a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe.com to help raise the $25,000 needed to endow the scholarship at his alma mater.
The BCSP is particularly calling on all journalists and others who interacted with and knew Roscoe – presidents, athletics directors and other school executives, commissioners, coaches, sports information professionals and the like on the college and professional levels, as well as others – to contribute a minimum of $100 or whatever you can afford towards this campaign.
For those who knew Roscoe, this effort needs little explanation or confirmation. But to those who didn’t, just know that he was a sports journalist with a deep love for all the things that matter – God, his family, his people, children, education, his alma mater, friends and truth telling.
He was known as the ‘dean’ of black college sports journalists for his long-standing, near 50-year commitment and love for these institutions and the products that they have produced historically, both on and off the fields of play.
He touched countless lives through his writing, his friendship and his activism. His easy-going manner belied a fierce commitment to justice, equality and fairness which would readily come forth anytime those ethics were violated.
A Union Springs, Alabama native, Roscoe embarked on his pioneering writing career after graduating from Tuskegee in 1971. He worked for the Columbus (Ga.) Inquirer before becoming a beat writer for the Jackson (Ms.) Clarion-Ledger from 1978-85. At the Clarion-Ledger, he was the first African-American sportswriter for a Mississippi daily newspaper.
It was there, covering legendary SWAC football coaches such as Eddie Robinson of Grambling, Marino Casem of Alcorn State and Southern and Archie Cooley of Mississippi Valley State and players the likes of Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Doug Williams and others across the sports spectrum, that he made his mark. In fact, he was the one who coined the nicknames “The Godfather” for Casem and “The Gunslinger” for Cooley as well as becoming a fixture as a chronicler of the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) experience.
He went on to write for USA Today from 1986 to 2007 covering soccer and the NBA and after his retirement in 2007, for a number of publications and online entities including the BCSP. Off his day job, he was a passionate and consistent volunteer in his church, his community and through his fraternity.
His beloved wife, Willye M. Nance, started the effort to produce this endowed scholarship at Tuskegee in Roscoe’s name (see letter). The BCSP fully supports that effort. Other efforts are also underway or being started.
The BCSP hopes and prays to find at least 100 people that give the minimum amount to quickly reach our goal of $10,000. Knowing the impact Roscoe had on hundreds of people both inside and outside the sports world, please join us in honoring the memory of this great pioneer and advocate.