The New York Tri-State area has historically been a beacon of college basketball and that tradition will continue on January 20, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with the inaugural Coretta Scott King Classic at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Some of the top women’s basketball teams will compete in the event.
UCLA will face Baylor and Texas will take on Maryland with the tip-off for the opening game at 3:00 p.m. The event will be broadcast nationally on FOX. As of AmNews press time, UCLA was the top-rated team in the country with Texas ranked No. 5, Maryland No. 8. Baylor was unranked but still formidable at 12-3.
The Coretta Scott King Classic (CSKC) is a venture created by FOX Sports, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, and Playfly Sports, partnering with the King Center, founded by Coretta Scott King and today run by Dr. Bernice A. King, the daughter of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King.
Following the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s. assassination on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, relentless efforts by ardent supporters culminated in then U.S. President Ronald Reagan signing bill H.R. 3706 on November 2, 1983, making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday. It was first observed January 20, 1986.
Coretta Scott King, a native of Heiberger, Alabama, attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. It was during her time as a student at the latter institution when she first met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1952 while he was pursuing a PhD in systematic theology at Boston University.
Coretta Scott King’s legacy is towering. She was an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement, survived the bombing of her home in Montgomery, Alabama, one month after the start of the seminal Montgomery Bus Boycott, was active in opposing the South African apartheid system and lent her voice to numerous political and social issues, domestically and abroad. Coretta Scott King passed away on January 30, 2006 in Mexico where she was receiving holistic treatment for various illnesses including ovarian cancer.