It’s the same guy, in the same location. The other guys, the regulars – at least the ones living – still hang out there. And yes, they talk a lot of the same loud trash talk they did back in the day.

Welcome to Duke’s Barbershop located across the tracks in Auburn, Alabama.

Back in the day, we were forced to go there. No other options. Our coach made regular haircuts a mandatory team rule. No exceptions. Granted, this was before dreads and fashionable baldheads. Then, it was a time of huge afros and integration.

In 1969, James Owens had the courage to sign with Auburn University as its first black football player. In 1970, I joined him as Auburn’s second black football player. We began an odyssey that we still laugh, cry, and reminisce about today, forty odd years later.

What’s the big deal? Where have you been? College football has been king in Alabama since long before I was born and more than likely until long after I’m gone. Dragging it’s feet on civil rights and cultural integration, the deep south fought, scratched, and embarrassed itself in a fruitless fight against progress; preferring to fight to keep people from going to school, eating a hamburger or having anything to do with the Federal Government of the United States. It was serious business and those times should never be marginalized or forgotten.

But along with seriousness, lives lost, boundaries falling, and unbound courage there was also the absurd. This was one of those moments in time.

“Get a haircut,” we were told. We were reluctant but obedient. Contrary to my look today, I had a huge, sprouting, afro. James had what we described as, in those days, a TWA (teeny weenie afro).

James approached a barber in downtown Auburn who, upon seeing the strapping black athlete enter his shop with the intention of getting a haircut, nearly messed his pants. He begged James to leave his shop, “Please get out. I’ll lose everything. I can’t cut your hair.”

James asked, “Where do I go?”

We were directed to Duke’s Barbershop, across the tracks. It was literally across the railroad tracks that separated the black community from the university community. Rush, the barber, doubled as the local school bus driver; meaning, the shop was closed while Rush shuffled children back and forth to school. We had to time our haircut visits around football practice, classes, and Rush’s bus schedule.

After all these years, a film project took me back to Duke’s with James. It had been over forty years for me. Rush knew we were coming. He was waiting. We walked into the shop and time stood still. The small shop looked the same. Rush stood over the same barber chair. Regulars sat in the same waiting chairs, not to get haircuts but because Rush had told everyone he knew that James and I were coming by. “You gon’ film me?” Rush wanted to know.

The photos of Auburn athletes Cam Newton, Bo Jackson, Charles Barkley, and at least twenty more former Auburn football players hit me.

“All these guys come here to get their haircut?” I asked.

“All except Bo and Cam,” Rush answered. “The young boys, they cut their own hair now. Never cut Bo. He wanted me to open the shop up for him on my off day. Told him no sir.”

Unknowingly and unwillingly, James and I started something that lasted through the ages. The photos were a who’s who of black Auburn players down through the years, Byron Franklin, Doug Smith, James Brooks, Joe Cribbs, Harold Hallman, and many more.

“Where’s our picture?” we asked. Rush didn’t miss a beat. “Did they have cameras back then?” The laughter flowed until the phone rang. Rush answered, “Hey we filming over here, you better hurry up and get here.”

“I’ve been here since 1966,” Rush related. “Man we were proud when you guys started playing. Up until then we would go to the games and root for the other team if they had a black player.”

“We sat in Kinfolks corner,” he continued. Black spectators had to sit in makeshift bleachers in those days, separated from the white fans.

“We named it Kinfolks corner,” Rush explained. “Boy, when ya’ll started playing we had our own players then.”

James and I exchanged a look. We’d always said we felt the weight of the black fans on our shoulders. Now we knew.

More guys came in as the cameras continued to roll. They treated James and me as heroes.

Going back to Duke’s still brings a smile to my face. We brought joy to some old timers who, forty years earlier, had cheered us on in the social experiment of college football integration. Perhaps we should thank our coach for making us go in the first place.

If work is supposed to be fun, I’m having a ball. For the past year I’ve been working on a project that feeds my soul and in the words of the old Native American Chief in the film Little Big Man “causes my heart to soar like a hawk.” Quiet Courage, a film documentary on my good friend James Owens gets my juices flowing.

James Owens has been my friend since 1970. We were pioneers of college football integration at Auburn University. When we played black players in the Southeastern conference of college football were relegated to one or two per team.

In comparison to James I had it easy. He was the first African American football player in Auburn’s history.

The loneliness, the slurs, the suppression of hurts and emotions stayed with me a long time. It was three decades before I could express it in this manner or any manner. It was many years before I could bring myself to talk about it with my wife and son. Just couldn’t. It was too painful.

But this isn’t about me: Nor about the pain. It’s about my friend and his forty-year relationship with Auburn University.

“I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” James tells me. “I had no idea of the magnitude of being the first black.”

In 1969, James Owens realized a portion of Martin Luther King’s dream. He fulfilled the legacy of Jackie Robinson. He answered prayers of many blacks and some whites in the state of Alabama by answering Auburn’s call to play football at the University. What has followed over the last forty years is a love story.

Not knowing what to do to aid their only black football player and only the second black athlete in Auburn Athletic history, Auburn attempted to treat James as if he was no different than the other athletes. “We treat all our athletes the same” was the philosophy.

Imagine being the only white among a team of blacks. Imagine being the only white in a University of 15,000 blacks where everyone, students, alumni, whites and blacks examine your every move. Imagine there are so few people who look like you on the campus, that your social life consists of sitting in the TV room after games while all your teammates are out partying and enjoying the spoils of victory. Imagine being seventeen and having no family, nearby. Imagine possessing a second rate education, a by-product of segregation that leaves you inadequate in the classroom. Imagine.

Quiet Courage explores these issues and others as told by James, his teammates former coaches and friends. It’s introspective, funny, sad, and full of love. Mistakes were made. James did not graduate. He didn’t play professional football. The University brought him back as a graduate assistant to get his degree. The rules were changed and he was asked to leave. He wandered. Jobs came and went. His wife Gloria who he met when she became one of the few black women at Auburn his senior year, became his salvation.

Then he found the ministry. Saving souls was as tough as scoring against bigotry, but it was more rewarding. His church was only forty miles from where he’d made history, but he didn’t venture close to campus. Nor did the University reach out to him. Love relationships are like that.

Fate intervened. His nephew, Ladarious signed a scholarship to play football at Auburn. James was drawn back to his Alma Mater. This time it was different. Auburn loved him back. Auburn Athletics created the James Owens Award of Courage to honor him. He received his award and a standing ovation in front of 86,00 Auburn fans. Auburn named him an Auburn legend and he was honored at the SEC Legends dinner with other legends from the conference before the 2012 championship game.

Life was good. He was back in the fold. His teammates honored him as the soul of the 10-1, 1972 team known as the Amazins, one of the favored teams in Auburn history.

Then came the diagnosis. His heart was failing. Tears followed. His teammates and the University rallied to his side. Letters, phone calls, and loads of love poured in.

Yes. He realized, they loved him, not only as a football player but, as James Owens, the human being who notched his name in the Auburn history book.

He had one regret. He never received his degree.

The phone call from the Auburn administrators shocked him. The robe, the march, the arena full of the Auburn family, his name called, the honorary degree handed to him, his acceptance speech. He was an Auburn University graduate.

They were back together again, a happy ending. Just like in the movies.

Got a call from a student reporter who wanted an interview. I agreed. She stumped me when she asked what were my all time favorite roles as an actor. I’d never thought about it and had to give it some time. I came up with a list of my top ten. Thought I’d share them with you.

1. Three theatre roles share the top spot.

Speak of Me as I Am, One man play, written and performed by yours truly.

Characters: Rev. Bobby Lee White, Emmett, Smitty, Curtis, Coach Billy, Ralph, Tyronne, Malik, Zonnie

“Nine guys, three Saturdays, One barbershop in Birmingham Alabama. It’s 1999.”

Fences, By August Wilson. Character: Troy Maxson, garbage man, powerful, resentful, and conflicted. Would love to play him again.

Ali, a one man play. An honor.

2. In the Heat of the Night, Television. Multiple episodes. Character: Ted Marcus, Attorney, City Councilman – My first real TV gig. Learned a lot. Worked with pros, Carol O’Connor, Howard Rollins, Denise Nicholas, and many, many others. Made great friends.

3. NYPD Blue, Television. Episode: Lost Israel. Character: Israel. Homeless mute accused of sexual assault and murder of a child. Innocent. Tearjerker. Episode won an Emmy. Always an honor when someone mentions it. Five star.

4. Miss Ever’s Boy’s, HBO films. Character: Ben Washington. Story based on real life Tuskegee Syphilis study where the U.S. government allowed black men in Tuskegee, Alabama to die from the natural progression of untreated syphilis rather than treat them with newly discovered penicillin. The study was released while I was a student at Auburn University. Felt the obvious connection. Ben was a great character to inhabit. Worked with wonderful actors and friend, Lawrence Fishburne and Alfree Woodard. Release of film prompted a long overdue presidential pardon to the men of the Tuskegee Study.

5. Fight Club, Film.Character: Detective Stern. Cult piece. Got to work with David Fincher and Ed Norton. Got to meet Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Direction tid-bits from Director Fincher and Casting director Laray Mayfield. Favorite of many twenty- something’s. Young man in a bar told me he’d seen it 52 times. Scary!

6. Jeepers Creepers 2, Film. Character: Coach Charlie Hanna, a favorite. Brings a smile to my face. Enjoyed working with Director Victor Salva. He trusted me with his coach and I think I delivered for him. Worked several weeks from sundown to sun up at Tejon Ranch conservancy eighty miles north of Los Angeles. Cold at night. Another cult favorite. Popular with the younger set.

7. Game of Your Life, NBC film. Character: Billy Taylor Jr.; Great dad! Honest man of substance. Loved playing him. Inspirational film.

8. Miracle in the Woods, TV film. Character: Henry Cooper Jr. Another great character role; Played Della Reese’s long lost son. Had to work with a cat, a first for me. Worked with Meredith Baxter, Patricia Heaton, Sanaa Lathan. Met my good friend Joe Slowensky who wrote the script.

9. Cold Case, TV series. Episode: “Time to Crime”. Character: Mike Odum, Family man willing to take the rap for a killing he didn’t do to save his son. Funny thing, I’m from Birmingham, Alabama. Joyce Guy who I did not know beforehand, played my wife. She’s from Montgomery, Alabama and Reggie Currelley who played our son had gone to college at Alabama State University in Montgomery. Score one for Alabama.

10. Tie for 10^th Jack and Bobby, TV series. Character: Joseph Ride. Another great dad. The District, TV Series, Character: Archie Cryer. Ran a government undercover drug operation. Great bureaucrat.

What about you? Are there any favorites of yours that didn’t make my list?

Losing The Sopranos’ James Galdolfini to a sudden heart attack brought back many memories from my last “favorite series.” I watched every episode. It was the last time I’ve been a regular follower of any series. I loved it. The Sopranos broke a lot of casting, writing, and storytelling rules. But mostly I loved the words, the dialogue. Words have always been my thing. Powerful, soothing, funny, backbiting, nerve-racking, loving, or hateful, words are the essence of great story telling. In memory of The Sopranos and James Galdofini here are some of my favorite lines from some of my favorite television and film programs over the years.

The Sopranos

Uncle Junior and Tony Soprano are lurking in the basement for a private chat outside the hearing distance of the nosy eavesdropping devices planted by the FBI. Uncle Junior confides to Tony his fear of the FBI being on his tail.

“I’ve got the Feds so far up my ass, I can taste Brylcreem.”

Lonesome Dove (best TV miniseries ever)

Captain Coll (Tommy Lee Jones) tries to convince Capt. Gus McCray (Robert Duvall) to drive a herd of cattle to Montana and relocate.

“Let’s do it Gus. Let’s go to Montana before the lawyers and bankers get it.”

Later, Gus delivers the eulogy for a young trail hand who dies enroute to Montana.

“Life is short. Shorter for some than others. Now let’s go on to Montana.”

Gus comments on a cap that Deats, (Danny Glover) had been wearing for the last fifteen years.

“Deats ain’t the kind of fella give up on a garment cause it gets a little wear on it.”

Junebug

The wonderful Amy Adams is a hoot as the pregnant Ashley in the very funny film, Junebug. She tells her abusive and repressed husband, “God loves you just the way you are but he loves you too much to let you stay that way.”

Dog Day Afternoon

Al Pacino and John Cazale attempt to pull off the funniest bank robbery ever. With hostages inside the bank, TV cameras, cops, a crowd of supporters, and both Pacino’s male and female wives begging him to release the hostages and give up, Pacino orders a jet that will whisk him, his partner, and several of the hostages to a foreign country. Pacino consults with his partner, the slow-witted Cazale as to what foreign country he wants to go to. Cazale thinks on his choices and answers, “Wyoming.”

In the western Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, Will (Eastwood) and Ned (Freeman) are riding into town.

Knowing Will’s wife died a few years back, Ned asks, “Will, you ever go to town?”

Will answers, “Sometimes, to sell a pig or something.”

Ned gives him the look and says, “No, I mean go to town.”

Will returns the look and says, “No. Out of respect for my wife, I don’t do that anymore.”

They ride for a few seconds and Ned finishes his thought with,

“So what do you do, use your hand?”

(If you watch closely, you can see Clint Eastwood almost laugh.)

Other favorites

Auntie Mame

“Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving.”

The Godfather (Marlon Brando)

“I’m going to make him a deal he can’t refuse.”

The Godfather Part II

Hyman Roth to Michael Corleone, “This is the life we have chosen.”

On the Waterfront

Lee J. Cobb to one of his henchmen admonishing him to get rid of all guns because the cops are hot on his tail.

“They’re dusting off the hot seat for me.”

These are some of my favorites. What are yours?

Birthdays for me have always been celebratory. From my time as a curly-headed grinning youngster, to my memorable 21^st, 40^th and 50^th birthdays. They’ve always been special.

Today’s celebration is also reflective, A look back, over the journey of things seen, lessons learned, and paths crossed.

I’ve jokingly talked about the uniqueness of this birthday. I’ve said to friends, “Think about it, President Barack Obama’s Inauguration, Martin Luther King’s Holiday and my birthday all falling on the same day.” Wow!

Do I feel special? Yes I do.

A beneficiary of Dr. King’s legacy and a forerunner to President Obama’s “he’s the first African American,” to do this experience, my reflection leads me back down history’s path. True history and truth are the scorekeepers for legacies. They record who is right and who is wrong.

Dr. King more than “having a dream” ushered in changes in social and economic morality in the United States. His sermons and speeches resonate today as moral, guideposts for ethics and character.

Annually, I read from A Testament Of Hope, The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King. The book, an inspiring work is a collection of King’s speeches on nonviolence, civil disobedience, and social policy. My favorite is The Drum Major Instinct, delivered from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church on February 4, 1968. The lessons are “fitness over favoritism” and “servant leadership” (“he who is greatest among you shall be the servant to all”). I have been honored to perform these words from Dr. King’s works. I can think of no higher honor.

The praise for King did not come easy. The criticism and stinging arrows were scary and led to his assassination. He was mocked, “a communist,” “a socialist,” “…he hates America.” “An outside agitator.”

Obviously, they were on the wrong side of history.

I wonder about President Obama? The personal attacks on this President have been different. Hate filled. My friends who happen to be white, whether Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, tell me of the hate filled stories about this man that are shared with them that those same “ friends” don’t feel comfortable sharing with me. My friends tell me if they defend their points of view with intelligence and fact, the conversation becomes a treatise on” treason” and “the white race.”

George W. Bush was a bad President, most agree. His record on the economy, United States security, international relations, and other key indicators verify that. Yet there was never the personal hate this President is subjected to. Surely, if raising taxes and the deficit were the sole issue, Ronald Reagan would no longer be praised.

At a recent football reunion, two ex-teammates were somewhat embarrassed at their own words and actions as portrayed in my book Walk-On, My Reluctant Journey to Integration at Auburn University, a look at my personal sports integration of major college football. Today, they are fine gentlemen, but back then they reacted to me out of ignorance and lack of exposure. They listened to false information designed to divide people and protect economic interests. I’m sure today, it’s embarrassing.

In my presentations and speeches, I often get the audience to mentally travel along with me back to the days of southern sports integration. If they are old enough, I ask them to examine their own feelings of who they were at that time. I then ask if they would want their grandchildren to have known them back then. I ask whether they were on the right side or the wrong side of history.

Many choose to lower their eyes no longer willing to make eye contact, their action a telltale giveaway to their answer. I imagine it’s not a comforting feeling to know that you were wrong, because of your own ignorance and your own unwillingness or laziness in searching out the truth.

Finally and for my birthday, ask yourself this question; Thirty years from now, will you have been on the right side or the wrong side of history? Will you be able to look those who come behind you in the eye or will you lower your eyes in shame?

I wake up on full go! Ready for the day’s adventure. Six decades into my existence, I still hold on to that childlike anticipation of what adventures a given day might bring. I’ve been lucky like that. Choosing professions that are fun to do on a daily basis and careers I’d do for free and have.

My wife has always been astonished that I wake up ready to talk, walk, go bike riding, and literally express idea after idea that somehow crept into my head while I’m supposed to be sleeping. Life has always been amazing to me and still is.

But then, like in the movies, things come to a screeeeching….. halt…..when I feed my addiction for reading the morning newspaper. Lord!!! What a come down!

Penn State scandal holds lessons for adults.

Local graduate killed in Afghanistan!

Man charged in fatal shooting.

And that’s just page one!

Growing up in a home where we all, Dad, Mom, and us three children religiously read the newspaper, it is a habit I have not shaken but admittedly I have gotten less dedicated to it. It’s ugly and getting uglier, a daily assault on feeling good, common sense and a day-by-day dosage of business and political propaganda. Have I mistakenly subscribed to The Enquirer?

Man injured in Nov 3 wreck dies.

6 exposed to chemicals used for meth lab in car

Dear Abby: Bride to be is feeling blue because fiancé hates orange.

Why that corporate cash pile isn’t so impressive

And take citizen journalists. Please! Never having had a journalism class in their lives but through the miracle of the Internet and the mask of anonymity, these “writers” can spit venom and simplistic solutions at very complex situations. You disagree and you’re Un-American.

They want to take the country back. From whom? Anyway, whatever happened to those WWJD (What Would Jesus do) bracelets?

Sports? I grew up on the sports pages. Relished them. Before ESPN, newspapers were the major information source. Newspapers distinguished themselves with investigatory facts and features you couldn’t get anywhere else. Today professional ball is about contracts, lockouts and holdouts. Major college ball with its own scandals, continues to hide behind the cloak of amateurism.

Astros sold: Will move to American League in 2013

NBA owners hold conference call

Penn State Trustees hire law firm in abuse scandal.

Okay enough already! The sun is shining. It’s a new day! Forget the Oh woe is me, Divisiveness and Greed, Watch out for Iran, Drill Baby Drill, nature of today’s newspapers and media.

I’ve got positive things to do; the normal work chores of reading or writing a script, a story, prepping for an audition or television role, collaborating with a business client on a marketing project, or, assisting my alma maters with a fundraising idea.

There’s also time to enjoy my wife, call my Dad, ride my bike, call Manuel, Michael O, or Ford for a good gut-wrenching laugh. After all it’s a beautiful day and I don’t have to read the newspaper again until tomorrow morning.

I grew up dreary eyed, stumbling, in search of the morning newspaper, hungry for news of ball scores, won-loss records, knockouts administered by boxing heroes, and track records set by the “world’s fastest men.” Today I can take it or leave it. My flicker of a sports passion is dying a slow, agonizing but somewhat relieved death. The Thrill of Victory and The Agony of Defeat no longer get me amped up.

Why? That’s easy enough. It’s not the same.

Okay, admittedly, I’m into late-middle age and know more than I should. I know that sports have always included cheaters. I know that fat cat jock-sniffers were giving money to “amateur” players before there were even scholarships. I know that owners aren’t great sportsmen but businessmen negotiating with cities, for their last dimes. I know that heroes have always been flawed, not because they were bad people but because they are human.

Shall I continue?

I know that 24 hour around-the-clock sports news includes as much legal and crime news as it does ball scores. I know young boys today can get as excited about playing a sports video game or building a “fantasy sports league as my generation did actually organizing a game, and playing our own Super Bowl in somebody’s backyard. I recognize professional sports when I see it regardless of whether the “amateur” players are paid or not. It’s all business all the time.

Check out some headlines from the sports section of an April 2011 issue of USA TODAY.

BCS Critics want more Fiesta Type scrutiny

BCS Criticism mounts

Lockout raises draft stakes

Dodger can win under MLB control, GM told

Question: Is MLB takeover of Dodgers good or bad?

McCourt tarnishing Dodger tradition

Game-fixing probe spreads

Tree poisoning suspect back on radio

Had enough? It continues. College football spring intrasquad games are nationally televised. It’s a scrimmage for crying out loud! High schools travel for matchups with “football” schools from neighboring states, paid for by corporate sponsors.

And it’s all day, all the time, 24 and 7 brought to you by, talking heads and paid for by sponsors.

Who cares?

I do, really. I still love the game. It’s the game that gets my juices flowing. Between the lines, sixty minutes of action, the two-minute warning, fourth and goal, mano vs mano. Yes!

The talking heads I can take or leave. Former players posing as hard-core analysts, “When I played… ”

It’s nauseating.

I miss the innocence of a pickup game in the street between the up hill guys and the down hill guys. I miss the mystery of rushing to open the sports section and discovering the scores from the night before. I miss identifying with a team because the players stayed there long enough to remember them from year to year. I miss the Wide World Of Sports. I miss big college games in the middle of the season, pitting two of the nations best teams against one another and the loser not having to worry about the silly BCS.

My sports passion is dying. I miss it.

The War Eagle Nation got its due, 22-19. It could have been more. It should have been more but, after so many shoulda, woulda, coulda, almost, damn near but not quite years of great Auburn football, the 2010 version of The Auburn Tigers got er done in early 2011. In the bright lights of the Arizona desert, the boys brought home the crystal football that shines so brightly in the light of a national championship. Auburn Football is the best in the land. No doubt. No more do we have to sing that familiar litany, if only such and such would have so and soed, we would have won, but we’ll get them next year. Never again.

We won it once before. So we’ll behave like it. Coach Ralph Shug Jordan taught those of us lucky enough to be one of “Shug’s boys” to act like a champion, win or lose. He won The National Championship fifty-four years ago, before two generations of today’s Auburn Nation was born. College football’s bright lights didn’t shine as brightly then and the stakes were not quite as high.

Cam, Nick, Michael, Lee, Antoine, Zack, Josh and hero after hero after hero delivered us to the Promise Land of a 21st century National Championship. We’re still drinking from the cup. Cheers to those young men with hearts of champions beating inside them. They reign at the top of the greatest lists of AU football. The teams from 2004, 1993, 1983, 1972, 1957 all have to move over at the top of the pedestal called bragging rights and make a place at the peak for this group. They earned it. Along the way they’ve created new memories for former Auburn players who labored on teams that were on the wrong side of 35-0 scores and promises of wait until next year. Yep, they’re at the top. I’m getting out of the way. Moving over, fast.

This Auburn coaching staff coaches its ass off. They are one of the finest to walk a Jordan Hare sideline. First and ten with the opportunity of a lifetime, they scored and danced in the end zone, the scoreboard of opportunity flashing brilliant high definition color in television sets all over America.

The phone calls and texts began with the final kick, 00:00 on the clock and the Auburn nation inebriated on the elixer of a championship and other worldly juices. Old teammates, cried with joy and professed to me, “I love you.” Ralph who played basketball at Birmingham Southern College, texted “War Eagle Baby.” Terry, my Hollywood actor friend, a native of Oregon, left a voice message, “You guys are the best.” Joe, a writer from Los Angeles, a Texas grad, whose wife died of stomach cancer, last year e-mailed “So happy for you. What a great game.” An anonymous writer texted, “War Damn Eagle.”

Closer to home, my next-door neighborhood an Auburn grad, enthusiastically garbled something inaudible over the Arizona desert cell phone lines, but I got the message. My other next-door neighbor, the Alabama grad, turned off his lights while Auburn celebrated The National Championship in the desert and pretended he could sleep.

The Auburn Nation stands taller today. As football National Champions, (Can you ever say that enough) there will be more scoring opportunities for the University. Academic growth, gifts and donations, business development, and marketing of the University will be ratcheted up. Auburn’s administration with Dr. Jay Gogue calling the plays continues to grow fiscally, academically and internationally. Athletic Director Jay Jacobs guides athletics with class.

The Auburn Nation today is larger, and more relevant on the world stage. We’re here we’re there. We’re everywhere.

Oh yeah. Did I mention we’re the college football national champions?

Let’s do it again!