*Sixteen-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams has won her second ESPY Award, beating out her sister Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters to receive the award as Best Female Tennis Player at the 18th annual ESPN ESPY’s awards doled out on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. This marks her second ESPY award having won for Best Female Athlete in 2003. Serena was also nominated for — but did not win — the 2010 Best Female Athlete award.
Williams recently won the Wimbledon Championship for the second consecutive year and for the fourth time overall. The world number one tennis player took just 67 minutes to overcome first time finalist Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2. The win marked her 37th career title putting her in fourth place with Billie Jean King on the all-time list of Wimbledon winners. She’s got to win one more to catch up with Venus who is 5th on the list.
ESPN’s ESPY Awards are handed out each year to celebrate excellence in professional, Olympic and collegial sports that are determined by online voting from fans. The live broadcast was attended by scores of athletes from the sports community and hosted by comedian Seth Meyers. The program also raises funds for the cancer research charity The V Foundation founded in honor of the late college basketball coach, Jim Valvano, who won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 1993.
Each year the Arthur Ashe Courage Award is given to a member of the sports community who best exhibits courage in the face of adversity – whose characters transcends sports. Brett Favre presented this year’s distinguished award to the family of the late Ed Thomas’ wife, Jan, and sons, Aaron and Todd. Thomas was the recipient of this year’s award for his outstanding work as the beloved Aplington-Parkersburg football coach as noted in a moving tribute narrated by actor Keifer Sutherland highlighting the family’s “capacity to forgive.”

Brandon Knight, Gatorade's Male High School Athlete of the Year who is headed to University of Kentucky
In the summer of 2008, the coach’s town was hit by an EF-5 tornado. In spite of the adversity, he used football to keep a community together. The team — in a town of only 2000 citizens — went to an 11-1 season. In June, 2009, the beloved coach was murdered by a former player, Mark Becker, who was eventually convicted of murder. Despite this fatal act, family members openly showed their compassion and forgiveness toward the Becker family.
“Without our faith I don’t think there’s any way we could get through this tragedy,” Todd Thomas said. “He was led by his faith, his family and finally his football,” added Aaron.
“The Thomas family showed us how people can come together under extraordinary circumstances that would normally drive them apart,” said ESPN executive John Skipper in a statement.
Ray Cole, president and CEO, Citadel Communications that owns WOI-TV and three other TV stations, nominated the Thomas family for the award. Cole said he thought the family’s character and the way they helped Parkersburg in the wake of the tornado made them a deserving candidate. “We put that all together and it was well-received by the committee,” Cole said. Past winners include Muhammad Ali, Pat Tillman and Nelson Mandela.
The champion NFL’s New Orleans Saints won the Best Team Award and the team’s Drew Brees won the Best NFL Player Award. The NBA champs and LA Lakers’ MVP player Kobe Bryant won the Best NBA Player Award and the team’s Phil Jackson won the Best Coach/Manager Award.
Other standout ESPY Awards winners were: Best Male Golfer/Phil Mickelson; Best Male Tennis Player/Roger Federer; Best Sports Movie/The Blind Side; Best Track And Field Athlete/Usain Bolt; and Best Fighter/Floyd Mayweather.
Presenters at this year’s sport-studded event included ESPN’s Chris Berman and Stuart Scott, NFL stars Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Aaron Rodgers, Terrell Owens, Jeremy Shockey; MLB star Jorge Posada; Olympian Gold medalists Shaun White and Evan Lysacek; race-car driver Danica Patrick, soccer stars Landon Donovan and Dara Torres; country music star, Kenny Chesney; model Brooklyn Decker; and actors Samuel L. Jackson, Tracy Morgan, Will Ferrell, Ashley Greene, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Zac Efron.
* * * * *
2010 ESPY Awards Winners: Best Male Athlete/Drew Brees, NFL; Best Female Athlete/Lindsey Vonn, Skiing; Best Play/Brett Favre, Vikings; ESPY Perseverance Award/George Karl, Nuggets; Best Championship Performance/Drew Brees; Best Breakthrough Athlete/Chris Johnson, Tennessee; Best Comeback/Kim Clijsters, Tennis; Best Record-Breaking Performance/Isner vs. Mahut at Wimbledon; Best Upset/Northern Iowa shocks No. 1 Kansas, Men’s Basketball; Best Game/Canada edges USA in Olympic hockey championship game in overtime.
Also Best Moment/Landon Donovan World Cup vs. Algeria; Best Team/New Orleans Saints; Under Pressure Award/Landon Donovan World Cup vs. Algeria; Best College Athletic Program/Duke Men’s Athletics and Stanford Women’s Athletics; Best MLB Player/Albert Pujols, St. Louis; Best NHL Player/Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh; Best Driver/Jimmie Johnson; Best WNBA Player/Diana Taurasi, Phoenix; Best Female Golfer/Lorena Ochoa; Best Male College Athlete/John Wall, Kentucky Basketball; and Best Female College Athlete/Maya Moore, Connecticut Women’s Basketball.
And Best Male Action Sports Athlete/Shaun White, Snowboard; Best Female Action Sport Athlete/Torah Bright, Snowboarding; Best Jockey/Calvin Borel; Best Male Athlete With A Disability/Steve Cash; Best Female Athlete With A Disability/Amy Palmiero-Winters; Best Bowler/Walter Ray Williams Jr.; Best Male US Olympic Athlete/Shaun White, Snowboarding; Best Female US Olympic Athlete/Lindsey Vonn, Skiing; and Best MLS Player/Landon Donovan, Los Angeles. (Photos by Dave Goodson)
Audrey J. Bernard is an established chronicler of Black society and Urban happenings based in the New York City area.
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* “…And I said, ‘I don’t have one, but from the looks of things here, you sure the hell do!’” With that gleeful windup, the portly, graying, blonde 40-something chiropractor raised his hands in front of his grinning, round, expectant face, his palms opened toward me in the position people assume when they’re being [...]
*So, now Glenn Beck wants us to believe that he’s sorry for calling President Obama a racist. Sounds like another attempted con job as Beck tries to dupe the nation by cloaking his divisive message behind a toned down image. Beck has repeatedly rationalized his ridiculous assertion that that Mr. Obama “has a deep-seated [...]
*She lives down the street from a clinic that offers free HIV tests. So she stopped in last week to get her blood drawn and thirty minutes later she had her results. Judging from the pre-test questionaire it was likely the results would be negative: No intravenous drug use, no intimate involvement with multiple partners [...]
*The magic of The Creeks can be compared to Disneyland sans rides and cartoon characters. The 57 acres, replete with 12 guest houses and 2,000 feet of Georgica Pond front and a congenial but “no nonsense” security staff easily identifiable in polo shirts that say “The Creeks,” reminds me of a wonderful place filled with [...]
*One day I asked my dad why he only watched sports on television. His paraphrased response: “I don’t know what is going to happen. In every other program I can tell what will happen in the end.” And for the most part he was right. When I was growing up we knew the guy would [...]
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*Dear Readers,As you know all too well, there is a mighty furor over a proposed Islamic community center five blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center. Right-wing “patriots” have taken to condemn the building of the community center so near “Ground Zero” as a slap against the thousands that died in the [...]
*For years, I have been filled with anxiety, as I watched explosion of the “cottage industry” of herbalists; naturopaths; “holistic” doctors; and the like. Now, some of will quickly point out that I, too, was once mostly known for my contribution to this growing population. But, like any good sinner, I have repented, and vowed [...]
*Sharon Leal (Dreamgirls, Why Did I Get Married?) has landed a leading role on the CW Network’s new series “Hellcats” as head coach Vanessa Lodge. The series premiered September 8, 2010 and will be a much needed “minority lead role” for the network. “As a kid I was caught in the middle…I identified with African-Americans,” [...]
*In 1990, Dwight C. Johnson, PhD (B.I.D. ’72) founded the Black Alumni of Pratt (BAP) with a small group of proud and determined students to identify and advance scholastic and professional opportunities for Pratt Institute students and alumni of African and Latino descent. Since its inception BAP initiatives have included high school career days; high [...]
*When President Obama was in Los Angeles for a fundraiser recently, I went looking for him. I cruised affluent Hancock Park searching for signs that a multi-million-dollar home might be hosting a star-studded dinner party for a President of the United States: blocked streets, heavy law enforcement presence, media trucks, protesters, etc. Having no luck, [...]
*Hip hop artist and CEO of Cash Money Records, Birdman has been criticized in recent days for what some see as promulgating the negative stereotypes commonly associated with the Hip Hop genre generally and rap music specifically. His recent purchase and promotion of a 2.1 million dollar car has been met with a hefty bit [...]
*In my opinion, feminism is beginning to look like labor unions. At the opening of the 20th century, unions were necessary to mitigate child labor, abuse in the workplace and to bring in uniform work hours and safe working conditions. While some of those issues remain in minor cases, unions are still top-heavy, but really [...]
*They called her on the telephone last week to tell her she was being terminated. She had worked at the same company for nearly four years, two in the same position. Although she enjoyed most of her co-workers, the perks that came with her position and the health benefits that all of America seemed to [...]
*When my church in Pasadena, California celebrated its 120th anniversary two years ago, I was amazed to learn that the church’s founders had been forced to literally fight for their right to worship. When the original sanctuary was being built, men of the congregation had to stand guard with shotguns to prevent white racists from [...]
*Religion has always played a pivotal role in America. School children each year are told how the Pilgrims came to North America because they were being persecuted for their religious beliefs. Pilgrims left Europe because they believed they were practicing the true form of Christianity. Over time various denominations from several countries, believing the same [...]
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*Shad “Bow Wow” Moss stars in the Alcon Entertainment/Burg-Koules/Cube Vision /Warner Bros Picture, The Lottery Ticket. The Rated PG film is released Friday, September 20, 2010 in theaters everywhere. Moss plays Kevin Carson, a resident of the projects that wins the lottery but has to “survive” the holiday weekend – with the ticket – in [...]