MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — As he marched through downtown Morgantown on Tuesday among at least 500 people of all ages and colors, Gabe Osabuohien was no longer just a 6-foot-7 forward from Toronto.
Taz Sherman wasn’t just a sharp-shooting guard from Texas and Oscar Tshiebwe wasn’t just a future NBA prospect from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“I’m just one person joining thousands of others in sharing a voice,” Osabuohien said.
That voice rang loud through the streets, all of it coming during a peaceful protest against police brutality against African Americans in the United States.
Go back a few years and it’s likely none of them knew a whole lot about Morgantown, or if anything at all.
On this day, as Sherman proudly held a sign above his head that read, “Racism isn’t getting worse … it’s getting recorded!!!” he was quick to say just how much Morgantown has become a part of who he is.
“I love Morgantown,” Sherman said, as his eyes began to wander across the sea of people who had gathered in front of the Monongalia County Courthouse. “Seeing this right here is great. Everybody is coming together as one for the right cause and trying to reach the ultimate goal of equality.”
Make no mistake, though, they are college athletes in a college town where they are viewed as role models, if not heroes, by the young and also the not-so-young.
They possess a platform unlike many of the hundreds they marched with on this day.
God bless them for using it the right way.
“I put out a tweet (Monday) night asking for the people of Morgantown to come out and support us,” Osabuohien said. “I can’t believe how many showed up.
“We had to use our platform. People look up to us, especially the kids. I wanted to use our platform to say, ‘O.K., we can come out and speak up and we can march and you guys come with us.”
The support came from WVU football players, as well as WVU head football coach Neal Brown.
Former WVU basketball stars John Flowers, Truck Bryant and Kevin Jones were in attendance, each armed with their own stories of the movement that began just over a week ago with the killing of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.
“I felt it was important to be here today,” said Jones, who is from New York, which has seen its share of rioting and protests since Floyd’s death. “I called my family back home and told them I was going to be here today. They stressed to me to be careful.”
Flowers, who is from Washington, D.C., has called Morgantown home for more than 10 years.
He met his wife here and recently celebrated the birth of his daughter here, yet has seen the unrest back in his hometown.
“It’s crazy. I pray for my hometown,” he said, before adding his father and much of his family still resides in Washington, D.C. “It’s dark there, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think good things are going to happen.”
Yet, in Flowers’ mind, he admits Morgantown seems to be much further than the 210 miles separating the two cities in terms of political unrest and inequality.
“We see everything going on and it’s crazy,” he said. “I’m out here for my community. Morgantown is home and we don’t have a lot of police brutality here. I’ve never dealt with a lot of racism, personally, but it still exists.
“I think the rally today was to get people’s voices heard that racism can happen anywhere. It was great to see people of all different shapes and colors out here supporting black people and getting their voices heard.”
They, too, have that platform and it was used peacefully and respectfully, yet they made their voices heard clearly and with no doubt.
That platform was not taken advantage of. People’s trust in them was not misused.
That’s how athletes can serve well in making change in this country.
They did it right. Many others have, too.
“People see us do it and then they’ll want to do it,” Osabuohien said. “We came together today, that’s the most important thing.”
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