[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 172 (Sunday, November 23, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2424]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        HONORING THE ST. LOUIS GATEWAY CLASSIC SPORTS FOUNDATION

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                           HON. WM. LACY CLAY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 21, 2003

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the St. Louis 
Gateway Classic Sports Foundation for its commitment to providing 
academically average youth in St. Louis with the opportunity to attain 
a valuable college education. Since 1998, the St. Louis Gateway Classic 
Sports Foundation has striven to even the educational playing field by 
giving generously to hard-working students.
  The Foundation is sending a clear, unmistakable message to urban 
youth that someone does care about them by believing in them and 
financially supporting their goals of attaining a valuable college 
degree.
  Mr. Speaker, it is with great privilege that I recognize the St. 
Louis Gateway Classic Sports Foundation today before Congress. The 
Foundation was recently honored in an article published in the 
Baltimore Sun. I would like to share this article with my colleagues 
which further details its dedication to providing a vital contribution 
to our youth by helping to produce an educated society.

                 [From the Baltimore Sun, Nov. 9, 2003]

     Black Scholarship Program Helps ``People in the Middle''; Mo. 
              Foundation Rewards the Academically Average

                            (By Mike Bowler)

       Don't even dare dream about college, a guidance counselor 
     warned Leonard Woodson. With your mediocre academic record, 
     you'll be lucky to survive high school.
       The counselor was wrong. It took Woodson an extra semester, 
     but next month he'll graduate from Lincoln University in 
     Jefferson City, Mo., with a B average--and no college debt. 
     All his costs were covered by a St. Louis foundation that 
     rewards academically average students in financial need.
       ``It took me two hours to do what my fellow students could 
     do in an hour, but I learned to survive in the world,'' says 
     Woodson, 22. Unable to keep up taking notes, he recorded 
     lectures and played them back in his dorm room.
       Woodson is one of about 50 graduates of St. Louis-area high 
     schools who have received full scholarships to historically 
     black colleges and universities since 1998. The foundation 
     raises the money, in part, by sponsoring an annual football 
     ``classic'' between black college teams, devoting the 
     proceeds to scholarships and other charities.
       ``Average kids don't get a chance because everybody gives 
     to the cream of the crop,'' says Earl Wilson Jr., a retired 
     IBM executive who established the foundation a decade ago. 
     ``It's our way of giving back to the community.''
       Wilson, 71, began his IBM career as one of the company's 
     first black salesmen. He says he understands students in the 
     middle. ``Myself and many of my colleagues were average 
     students or worse,'' he says. ``People at the extremes get 
     help. People in the middle don't.''
       Lawrence A. Davis Jr., chancellor of the University of 
     Arkansas at Pine Bluff, whose Golden Lions play in the annual 
     fall classic, agrees. ``The world is run by average people,'' 
     he says. ``We reward people who can run fast, jump high and 
     throw balls through holes. The least we can do is help those 
     who might not be academic stars but who are willing to work 
     hard.''
       ``It's the trickle-up theory,'' says Sylvester Brown Jr., a 
     columnist for the St. Louis PostDispatch. Brown defends 
     Wilson against charges from another St. Louis writer that 
     he's ``creating dumbness'' by so generously supporting less-
     than-stellar scholars.
       ``I'd much rather see Earl spend $10,000 on one scholarship 
     than give $1,000 scholarships to 10 students,'' says Brown. 
     ``What he's saying by doing it this way is that we have 
     enough faith in you to support you for four years. You have 
     no financial worries. All you have to do is focus on being 
     great.''
       The foundation distributes application forms to high school 
     guidance counselors, and uses radio and print advertising to 
     get the word out. Winners are chosen by a committee of 
     educators and others who review the applications and 
     interview applicants. ``I stay completely out of the 
     selection process,'' says Wilson. Sixteen recipients are 
     currently attending college through the program.
       Since the foundation began giving scholarships 5 years ago, 
     the champion recipient is Dedree Smart, 23, who went to 
     Howard University in Washington. ``I have been so blessed,'' 
     she says. ``There's no way I could have afforded Howard. I 
     didn't have to worry about anything financially, so I could 
     concentrate on my grades. I went from a low B average in high 
     school to graduating magna cum laude.''
       Smart earned her degree last year and is back in Missouri, 
     working as special events coordinator for the State's public 
     university system. ``I am so elated, so grateful and so proud 
     of my baby,'' says her mother, Delores Smart.
       Wilson says the foundation carefully monitors the 
     scholarship program. ``The ones who finish college almost 
     always get better grades'' than they did in high school, he 
     says.
       ``These are the late bloomers,'' says Irving Clay, 78, a 
     former city alderman who sits on the foundation's board. ``I 
     and Earl, we grew up in tenements about 10 blocks from here. 
     We all know what it's like to struggle. We know late 
     bloomers.''
       But the scholarship program has had its failures and 
     setbacks. About 40 percent of recipients have washed out, and 
     since Smart's graduation, the foundation has dropped Howard 
     and Virginia's Hampton University because of their high, 
     private-college tuition.
       Then, too, some scholarship recipients ``haven't so much as 
     said thank you,'' Wilson says. ``That's a real 
     disappointment.'' He expects them to send him an invitation 
     when they graduate, and he wants all recipients--and their 
     parents--to sell tickets to the annual classic.
       In addition to the football game, which Wilson estimates 
     has generated $3.5 million in 10 years, the foundation raises 
     money through charity golf and high school basketball events. 
     Last year, it opened a $2.8 million sports complex near 
     downtown St. Louis that includes a computer laboratory for 
     after-school tutoring and a ``Walk of Fame'' featuring 
     prominent local African-Americans.
       About 20 percent of foundation revenue comes from corporate 
     sponsors such as Anheuser-Busch Inc., whose brand name 
     Budweiser is attached to the football game.
       ``We raise 80 percent ourselves,'' Wilson says. ``That's 
     extremely high for a foundation like this. We are all about 
     self-help. We don't want anyone interfering with our 
     independence.''
       That attitude has rankled some in the St. Louis business 
     community, says Brown, the newspaper columnist.
       ``Earl doesn't go begging in the business community, and 
     that rubs some people the wrong way. He says [racial] 
     integration is a wonderful thing, but we have to take care of 
     our own. That's his integrity. Every year, he beats his head 
     against the wall trying to fill the [Edward Jones] dome, 
     every year he doesn't do it, and every year he smiles and 
     says we'll do it next year.''
       St. Louis' only historically black institution, Harris-
     Stowe State College, doesn't have a football program, so the 
     Gateway Classic turns to regional schools for the annual 
     competition. In recent years, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, about 
     seven hours away by car, has become a permanent contestant, 
     its opponents rotating among Kentucky State University and 
     others. The Classic weekend features band competitions, 
     street parties and lunches with African-American sports 
     figures.
       ``It's all generated by Earl,'' says Julius Dix, 74, a 
     retired St. Louis school administrator who sits on the 
     selection committee. ``He's a born salesman. He could sell 
     you anything.''
       Davis, the UAPB chancellor, says the annual event is 
     ``really great for our university. We bring in hundreds for 
     the game. It's great visibility for us and our students. It's 
     like a second homecoming.''
       Several Gateway scholarship students have enrolled at Pine 
     Bluff, including two with the title Miss Gateway Classic. 
     These are young women who prevail in a pageant after their 
     junior year in high school and preside as Miss Gateway 
     Classic as seniors, making appearances around St. Louis at 
     foundation-sponsored events.
       The pageant is partly a beauty contest [with evening gowns 
     but not bathing suits] and partly a contest of brains and 
     poise, says Janell Wallace, the 2002 winner, who is attending 
     Pine Bluff on a $40,000 Gateway Classic scholarship.
       ``I had to write an essay and answer questions on current 
     events. I had to learn etiquette and how to walk and speak 
     publicly and keep calm. That's helped a lot here,'' she says.
       For Wallace, 18, who had never been away from St. Louis for 
     more than two weeks, college has been ``awesome and at times 
     scary,'' she says. ``Everything seems a lot bigger. Even the 
     bugs are bigger. I never killed bugs; that's what you have a 
     daddy for.''
       But classes at UAPB are smaller, she says, than they were 
     at Hazelwood Central High. In the first couple of months of 
     school she has become active in student government. She plays 
     softball, and she has joined the modeling squad, a group that 
     puts on fashion shows.
       ``There were a couple of times I wanted to give up and go 
     home,'' she says. ``But I'm beginning to feel complete now. I 
     never felt that way in high school.''

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