Zoom Event for Bobby Marshall Scholarship, Tuesday Sept. 27, 2022, 7pm Central, 8pm Eastern Time

This will be an evening about Bobby Marshall and the scholarship in his name at the University of Minnesota.

Bobby Marshall is one of the greatest athletes and greatest individuals of all time. To know Bobby Marshall is to know a role model, a hero, and a champion in all aspects of life. On Tuesday September 27 at 7pm Central and 8pm Eastern Time a Bobby Marshall Scholarship zoom event will take place. If you want to be involved send me your email address and I will send you a zoom invitation about an hour before the event. My email address is runnerwithasthma@gmail.com.

Special guest, John Johnson, a University of Massachusetts football star from Paterson, New Jersey, will co-host this event with me. Bobby Marshall's granddaughter, Kathy Washington, and Bobby Marhsall's grandson, Bill Marshall will share some of their memories of Bobby. Joe Quinn of the University of Minnesota Foundation will talk about the Bobby Marshall Scholarship for student-athletes at the University of Minnesota. Another special guest will be book publisher Norton Stillman of Nodin Press. Norton made my book, "Breaking Through the Line: Bobby Marshall: The NFL's First African American Player," possible.

During this event there will be a discussion led by John Johnson and me about the meaning of Bobby Marshall's life. I hope you can tell us what Bobby Marshall means to you.

Have you read my book on Bobby Marshall yet? This booik is available on amazon.com.

Did you know that Bobby Marshall holds the record as the oldest statrting player in the NFL? If Tom Brady plays in the 2023 foofball season, Brady will break Bobby's record.,

Bobby Marshall was the first professional African American ice hockey player.

Bobby played for the St. Paul Colored Gophers, a team as good as a Major League Baseball team. In his years with this team around 1907-1909 Bobby hit 266. with 34 stolen bases, 124 hits, 71 runs and 11 home runs in the dead ball era! He also was a great fielder who could play any position. His e.r.a. on the mound in 1908 was 3.29 and he had a great curve ball.

Bobby is the first African American coach in the Big Ten and the first All-American football player from the Big Ten.

Bobby graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1907 as an honor student with a law degree.

Bobby Marshall's friends were one third white Christian, one third black Christian, and one third Jewish.

Bobby spent a great deal of time mentoring Minneapolis youth.

Bobby fought for the rights of farmers at the Minnesota State Grain Commission. Bobby came into the graineries with a 100 pound weight. If the scale at the grainery said less than 100 pounds, Bobby wrote up a citation, making sure the grainery was not cheating the farmers.

The Bobby Marshall Scholarship is for University of Minnesota student-athletes who perform well in the classroom, show leadership ability and have financial need. Students who play the sports Bobby excelled in are given top priority for this award. These sports include men's and women's ice hockey, men's baseball, women's softball and football.

We need to raise $50,000 dollars to activate the Bobby Marshall Scholarship. So far we have around $3,000. I'll be asking the Minnesota Twins (baseball), Vikngs (football) and Wild (ice hockey) to donate. Baseball, football and ice hockey were Bobby's main sports. (Bobby loved ice hockey the most.)

I'll be running a 5k race in Northampton MA on Sunday Oct. 2. to raise money for the Bobby Marshall Scholarship. I am going for an old guy personal record of under 34 minutes. Please sponsor me for that race. Send your sponsorship pledge to me at runnerwithasthma@gmail.com. Then send a check to University of Minnesota Foundation, P.O. Box 860266, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55486-0266. Make the check out to "University of Minnesota Foundation." On the memo section of the check be sure to write "Bobby Marshall Scholarship." If you want to use a credit card go to give.umn.edu and then select "Give Now." At "Find a cause to support" type "Bobby Marshall" and then select "Bobby Marshall Scholarship." Then select "Make a gift" and then select "Make your donation." Type in the amount at the upper right of the screen, fill in your name, address and phone, select "Proceed to payment," give your credit card information, and select "Submit payment."

As an extra treat, I'll be playing and singing the Bobby Marshall Scholarship song accompanied by my guitar.

I hope you can join us for what should prove to be an interesting evening.

Terry McConnell

Posted: to General News on Mon, Sep 19, 2022
Updated: Tue, Sep 27, 2022