Black Alumni Chapter will honor sportscaster Van Tate
Athlete activist also recognized
The University of New Mexico Black Alumni Chapter will hold its 7th Annual Living Legend & Trailblazer Awards Ceremony on Friday from 5-7:30 p.m. in the Centennial Engineering Auditorium located at 210 University Blvd. NE. The reception for this special event will be held prior to the ceremony from 5-5:45 p.m. in Stamm Commons. The event is free.
Van Tate, KRQE Sports Director (1988 BA) will be one of two Living Legend award recipients. He is being honored as the first AfricanAmerican to serve in this position and his run of over two decades as a local sportscaster.
The second Living Legend award honors C. Danny Spriggs (’74 Business), who was one of the U.S. Secret Service agents who helped save President Reagan from an assassination attempt. He later served as Deputy Director for the U.S. Secret Service. Danny is currently the VP of Global Security for the Associated Press (AP). In this position, he has responsibility for AP security in 81 countries.
Trailblazer awards recognition will also be given to the following individuals:
Hakim Bellamy (’14 MA), as the inaugural Poet Laureate for Albuquerque. He is a national and regional Poetry Slam champion and holds three consecutive collegiate poetry slam titles at UNM.
Donald “Bo” Walton (’73 BS), who was the first black University of New Mexico athlete to organize Lobo athletes’ protest against Brigham Young University and the Mormon Church for its racial policies. He was outspoken about unfair treatment of black UNM athleties.
Additional questions concerning this event can be addressed to Barbara Brown-Simmons, President, UNM Black Alumni Chapter at 760-265-1170.