On the gritty streets of
Philadelphia
, long before Rocky Balboa threw his first punch on the silver screen or 'Invincible’s' real-life Vince Papale set foot on an NFL field,
Jim Ellis was quietly forging a sports legend -- and shattering myths.
For more than 30 years, Ellis been the driving force of the swim team at
Philadelphia Department of Recreation
-- PDR -- a program that has turned black youths from novice tadpoles into top-notch competitive swimmers and cast aside the long-held racist stereotype that black people can’t swim.
What began with 35 black kids at a tough West Philadelphia neighborhood pool in 1971 grew into a juggernaut in the mostly white world of competitive swimming in the 1980s and 90s with more than 150 children taking lessons or competing in meets. Several of Ellis’ charges swam their way to college scholarships and U.S. Olympic team tryouts.
"It was my contribution to the black consciousness movement," Ellis says. "It was doing something they said we couldn’t do. It was a way of getting kids out of the neighborhood, exposing them to other things and greater possibilities."
Hollywood has discovered Ellis’ against-all-odds story and made it into a movie. "Pride," which stars
Terrence Howard,
Bernie Mac and
Tom Arnold, opens in theaters nationwide in March. Lionsgate, an entertainment company riding a string of successful black-oriented films like "Akeelah and the Bee," Tyler Perry’s "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," and "The Original Kings of Comedy" is producing "Pride"
Ellis, a 59-year-old Philadelphia public school teacher and department of recreation employee, says he still can’t believe the movie was made -- especially with Howard playing him -- even though he watched it being shot last year in Baton Rouge, La.
"I’m excited, I’m happy, I’m thrilled, but it’s kind of weird," Ellis says. "I saw the movie trailer and saw Terrence (Howard) say ‘I’m Jim Ellis.’ It’s kind of unreal, something I never expected to happen."
But if anyone’s story deserves telling, it’s Ellis’, according to officials at
USA Swimming
, the body that helps develop the sport and selects the Olympic team.
"Jim Ellis is an icon, particularly because of his dedication to his sport and community, generating national team talent in an area where swimming is just not on the radar," said John Cruzat, USA Swimming’s first-ever diversity specialist. "And he does it at a parks and recreation facility with little or no resources."
Ellis and USA Swimming officials hope "Pride" will prompt more black people to learn how to swim and eventually take up competitive swimming, a sport where black athletes are just beginning to make a splash.
Cullen Jones set a meet record in the 50-meter freestyle at the Pan Pacific Championships in Canada and became the first black swimmer to break a world record when he swam in the 4 x100-meter relay. The feats earned the former North Carolina State University swimmer at $2 million, seven-year endorsement contract from Nike, the company’s richest deal ever for a sprint swimmer.
Maritza Correia
-- recently featured in an Black Voices profile of black athletes in non-traditional sports -- became the first black woman to make the U.S. Olympic swim team in 2004.
Despite the accomplishments, the number of black competitive swimmers remains small. Less than one percent of the nation’s 232,000 competitive swimmers are black, according to USA Swimming.
More disturbing, Cruzat and Ellis say, is the high number of blacks who die in drowning accidents every year in bodies of water as big as oceans and as small as bathtubs. The Centers for Disease Control lists blacks as an at-risk group for drowning. A CDC study found that blacks drown at a rate 1.25 times higher than whites. Black children between the ages of five and 19 drown at a rate 2.3 times higher than white children in the same age bracket do.
Ellis says it’s not that blacks can’t swim. It’s that they don’t. A lack of exposure to swimming, lack of funds for lessons, and limited access to suitable swimming facilities -- particularly in urban areas -- are factors that hold many blacks back from the water.
Then there’s the centuries-old myth that blacks and water don’t mix. Studies from as late as the 1960s suggested that blacks had a unique buoyancy problem that prevented them from being competent swimmers. The studies were later discredited, but not before some people took the findings as gospel.
For Part II of this story, Click Here
