AUSTIN, Texas — Three people are shaping the next generation by breaking barriers and giving back to their communities.
Retha Swindell is slow to call herself an icon in women’s basketball, but has a lasting impact as the first Black woman to play basketball at the University of Texas. Swindell is still the Longhorns' all-time leading rebounder and top-10 in career points.
Swindell says she did not set out to be a pioneer.
“I have a shirt that says 'Living Legend,' so I guess they’re trying to tell me this, but I just see it as day-to-day taking advantage of what I had,” Swindell said. “My thought process has always been pretty simple. It’s not trying to be a trailblazer. Your best becomes the foundation for somebody else.”
Swindell carried that mindset into coaching and nonprofit work. The Chicago Hustle selected the standout forward in the 1980 Women’s Professional Basketball League draft. She finished her career with the Dallas Diamonds before the league folded in 1983.
Swindell then began her career as a teacher and coach. She notably coached Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and New Orleans Pelicans assistant coach Teresa Weatherspoon. Weatherspoon was a star point guard for Louisiana Tech and played in the WNBA for nearly a decade.
Swindell now works with the nonprofit Legends of the Ball to ensure the WBL gets the recognition it deserves.
“We did have a [television] contract. WGN covered us, so that was the first league to have a viable contract,” Swindell explained. “Everyone talks about the WNBA, but we were actually the first league.”
Eddy Barlow is also using basketball to teach young people.
The Jack Yates High School assistant basketball coach grew up in Houston’s Third Ward, like most of his players. Barlow is the product of the Cuney Homes, same as George Floyd and his family. Floyd was a two-sport athlete for the Lions in the early '90s.
Floyd gave Barlow the blueprint for using sports to make it out of the projects.
“Big G was the first person I seen. You can hear the loudspeaker,” Barlow recalled. “He was always an influence for us younger guys. He was one of those ones that came out those projects doing something they love.”
Floyd’s murder came as a shock to those who knew him, including Barlow. He continues to honor his memory by spreading positivity and using his murder as an example to level with his kids.
“I was shocked. (I was) in disbelief, ‘cause I like I said at the time it was becoming normal, but when it hits home, I’m looking at the video like, ’Nah,’” Barlow explained. “I try to use those examples to relate to the kids that they’re certain situations you can’t get into. You not going to save all of them, but if I can save one or two out of 10, at least I can say I saved one or two of them.”
Another man is working to honor a part of Black history by making sure people know how far we've come down the fairway.
Volma Overton Jr. remembers when Black golfers could not play anywhere in Texas. That was until Alvin Props, who was a 9-year-old caddie, and a friend were the ones to defy the “whites only” rules of Lions Municipal Golf Course in the '50s. Austin officials intervened when the two boys were detained and the course was integrated shortly after. The first integrated course in the entire South.
Overton first visited the course with his father as a child.
“I said, ‘Daddy, where’d all these people come from?’ and he said, ‘Son, looks like the words gotten out,” Overton Jr. recalled. “They come from Houston, they come Dallas, San Antonio and Fort Worth.”
“I’m just glad to be a part of this history that I know I can talk about times when we couldn’t do things to where now it’s wide open.”