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The presentation is sponsored by the Durham Museum.
Marantz, an Omaha Central graduate, is a researcher for ESPN Content development and E:60 and a coeditor of sportsmediaguide.com. He formerly covered sports, government and politics for the Kansas City Star, Boston Globe and Boston Herald.
In the spring of 1968, the Omaha Central High School basketball team made history with its first all-black starting lineup. Their nickname, the Rhythm City Boys, captured who they were and what they did on the court. Led by star center Dwaine Dillard, the Rhythm Boys were a shoo-in to win the state championship. But something happened on their way to glory.
In early March, segregationist George Wallace, in a third-party presidential bid, made a campaign stop in Omaha. By the time he left town, Dillard was in jail, his coach was caught between angry political factions, and the city teetered on the edge of racial violence.
“The Rhythm Boys of Omaha Central,” published by the University of Nebraska Press, tells a true story about high school basketball, black awakening and rebellion, and innocence lost in a watershed year. The drama of civil rights in 1968 plays out in this riveting social history of sports, politics, race and popular culture in the American heartland.
Marantz will speak in the Sorrell Center, Room 2014 at noon Feb. 18.
The Durham Museum and UNMC have teamed up to present the Time Travelers partnership program. The program provides free museum admission for medical center employees, students and their immediate family with a valid identification badge, while also offering lectures, workshops and other events on the medical center campus.
this is so exciting I wondered what all the fuss was about our basketball team that year…other than the fact they were phenomial…GO EAGLES !!