In the week of the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception and his former NFL team’s plans to retire his jersey, Pittsburgh Steelers legend, Franco Harris, passed away at the age of 72.

The president of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Art Rooney II, confirmed his death and released a statement:

Statement from Steelers President Art Rooney II on the passing of Franco Harris: pic.twitter.com/5Ojd5Uatvr

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 21, 2022

The Associated Press reported that Harris’ son Dok informed the media outlet that Franco passed away overnight. The cause of death was not stated.

An announcement was just made on Tuesday about a upcoming documentary featuring the 72-year-old legend, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Immaculate Reception, which was voted the greatest play in NFL history.  Franco Harris: A Football Life will premiere on Dec. 23, at 9 p.m. on the NFL Network. The film is scheduled for the exact date when the play happened during Harris’ rookie season in 1972. The documentary will also feature his infamous Steelers teammates from the 70s, including Joe Greene, Mel Blount, Jack Ham, and Terry Bradshaw.

Harris sent a message via Twitter last week to promote the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception. Bradshaw, his former teammate, quarterback, and current sportscaster, was featured in the video.

https://twitter.com/francoharrishof/status/1603026353045086212?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The NFL team was already scheduled to retire Harris’ No. 32 jersey during the halftime of the Steelers’ upcoming game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas Eve.

Harris took home the NFL’s Rookie to the Year award in 1972. He set a rushing record for a rookie at that time when he ran for 1,055 yards and scored 10 touchdowns. His play helped the Steelers reach the playoffs for the second time in the franchise’s history.

Harris totaled 12,120 yards and won four Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s. He initiated the Steelers dynasty when he caught a last-second pass from Bradshaw in a playoff game against the Oakland Raiders in 1972.

Harris ended his career as the NFL’s third all-time leading rusher behind Walter Payton and Jim Brown.

The legend graced the cover of the September 1996 issue of BLACK ENTERPRISE, as one of the relatively few professional athletes at the time to successfully transition into business. As previously reported by BLACK ENTERPRISE, Harris and his partners purchased and later sold Parks Sausage Co., a company that had ranked among the BE 100s, in the late 90s.

Harris leaves behind his wife Dana Dokmanovich and son, Dok.

• Education

by Atiya Jordan

December 21, 2022

NYU Director Pleads ‘Not Guilty’: Indicted on Embezzling Millions from Women, Minority Businesses

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Cindy Tappe, 57, a former finance director at New York University (NYU), has been indicted this week on charges of money laundering, grand larceny, offering a false instrument for filing, and falsifying business records.

According to Gothamist, Tappe is accused of diverting millions in funds for minority- and women-owned businesses for personal gain and has pleaded not guilty.

During her six-year appointment between 2012 and 2018, Tappe has allegedly used false invoices to embezzle more than $3 million in state education grants into her own shell companies, using some of the money for her Connecticut home renovations and an $80,000 swimming pool, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Monday.

In her role, Tappe managed a $23 million grant from the state’s Education Department to the university’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, where she worked. The funds were intended to hire subcontractors to help English language learners and address the under-representation of students in special education.

In doing so, the conditions of the grants required that a certain portion of the award be allocated for women- and minority-owned businesses, NY Times reported.

In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the scheme “negatively impacted our city’s minority- and women-owned business enterprises by denying them the chance to fairly compete for and secure the funding,” per the news outlet.

Using companies Rice Fowler & Associates Ltd, Wei Wei & Co L.L.P., and PC Liu, prosecutors said that Tappe spent more than $660,000 on personal expenses and other portions of the money to reimburse employees of the private university.

When NYU discovered Tappe’s actions in 2018, the school reported the case of theft to the state comptroller, which launched its own investigation before flagging it to the district attorney’s office.

“We are deeply disappointed that an employee abused the trust we placed in her in this way, and we are pleased to have been able to assist in stopping this misdirection of taxpayer money,” NYU spokesperson John Beckman said in a statement.

• News

by Atiya Jordan

December 21, 2022

WATCH: Woman Flings Computer at Airline Agent After Kids Went ‘Missing’ in Miami Airport

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A 25-year-old woman flew into a rage when she flung a computer monitor at an American Airlines ticket agent at Miami International Airport. She is now facing criminal charges.

According to CBS News, the incident took place on Tuesday afternoon and Camila McMillie has been arrested on charges of “aggravated battery, criminal mischief, and disorderly conduct.”

Traveling from Alabama, McMillie and her two young children were connecting in Miami to get to their final destination, New York City, investigators said. She had been rebooked after missing her previous flight, so the family was checked in at gate D-39 for departure.

According to law enforcement, McMillie was speaking to the gate agent when she noticed that her children were not where she left them. They had walked off to the restroom.

“While the subject was with the gate agent, her two minor children walked away without notice to use nearby restrooms. Once the subject noticed the children were not with her, she became irate and began to scream, demanding the gate agent to find her children,” police said.

https://twitter.com/ONLYinDADE/status/1605336085143474176?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

While the incident unfolded, McMillie continued to scream, while causing damage to the boarding pass reader and countertop area behind a desk. She proceeded to grab a computer monitor to strike an agent, who sustained shoulder bruising, authorities confirmed.

The upset mother was detained by nearby Custom and Border Protection officers until Miami-Dade police officers arrived at the scene.

7News reported that witnesses were shocked by the mother’s actions.

“She went into a panic mode,” said a witness. “That’s what happened.”

In a statement, American Airlines said “acts of violence against our team members are not tolerated by American Airlines and we are committed to working closely with law enforcement in their investigation. Our thoughts are with our team member, and we are ensuring they have the support they need at this time.”

These shelves are full of books, poems, and essays written by Black authors.

Ymani Wince, owner of The Noir Bookshop in St. Louis, has curated a space for book lovers to chill and learn about Black history, with book selections that are timeless, interesting, and informative, filling her community with Black culture.

According to NBC affiliate KSDK, with only 125 Black-owned bookstores out of the 2,000 independently owned bookstores across the nation, Wince wants to amplify support for local bookstores.

“My purpose is to put books in the community by any means necessary,” Wince said.

Wince wants her bookshop to expand knowledge to the community and reflect that of a Black library.

 

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“We’ve had critical Black thinkers since the beginning of time. Those books are published and out on the streets, and need to stay in circulation,” she said.

“This industry doesn’t value Black authors,” Wince added.

“My place in the industry is to shed light on Black authors and forthcoming titles, but also to keep pushing what’s already there,” she said.

The Noir Bookshop celebrated its grand opening in May, and Wince is striving to introduce all avenues of American history into the world’s conversations, studies, and perspectives of Black people.

“This is for St. Louis USA, I work for the community, I care about what’s going on in this city,” Wince said. But with the good comes the bad or even ugly. The bookstore owner has received the ugly of being a Black-owned business. Folks have called her shop a racist bookstore, but her response to that is, “I don’t have to ask anyone if I could pursue my dreams.”

The Noir Bookshop is one of the featured bookstores on Bookshop.org, an online platform to promote and financially support indie book sellers. According to reports, Bookshop founder Andy Hunter, asserted that Amazon will account for 80 percent of the U.S. book market by 2025, releasing a letter providing an alternative to the threat to small bookstores.

 

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“I hope in my old age the universities take over my bookshop but still keep it for the people,” Wince said. “I want to carry out the work our people have done.

Two Black women, Jessica Jackson and Jasmin Moses, have helped build the University of South Carolina Gamecocks’ highest-ranked recruiting football class since 2012.

According to Greenville News, Jackson is the director of on-campus recruiting; Moses works as the assistant director. Together, the women organize every aspect of the program, which includes the on-campus experience, scheduling current players to host prospects in their dorms, and even décor for the suites at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Creating the on-campus experience has been a great part of the success of the team’s 2023 recruiting class, which ranks No. 17 in the nation.

“I love being a part of a team…and we are a true family up here. The atmosphere, whether its a normal work day or game day or official visit, I love being in the middle of it,” Jackson said. “We provide those experiences that kids have never had before.”

Jackson, who began working in football before graduating high school, started her role as director of on-campus recruiting in 2016 after being hired by the team’s former coach Will Muschamp.

“Everyone has football, and every coach is going to talk ball, but the difference is truly where we come in,” Jackson said.

During a recruiting weekend, the women manage around 80 prospects and hundreds of their family members.

“At the end of the day, that’s what makes our job special,” Jackson added. “We can make them feel at home. I always say to families, ‘I don’t care what his [stats] are or what position he plays. I care about him as a person.'”

Moses, a South Carolina alumna who was originally uninterested in sports as a career, caught the attention of an assistant coach while she was giving tours as a junior, presenting recruits with a positive perspective of the university.

“He was like, ‘Hey do you want to work in football?’ and I was like sure, [I’d] love a job,” Moses laughed. “They invited me to practice, I met Jessica and Coach, and it was like, this is fun so let’s do it.”

“Being able to see someone who looks like your mom or aunt or sisters means knowing you have a safe space to come to,” Moses said.

The duo travels with the team to every game and started a trend this year: They wear matching outfits on the sidelines at each matchup.

https://twitter.com/JessRecruitsSC/status/1583992450691272704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1583992450691272704%7Ctwgr%5Eb3b48c54f6578514be259b1fe439e02f4a05e375%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.greenvilleonline.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fcollege%2Fusc%2F2022%2F12%2F20%2Fhow-two-black-women-built-south-carolina-2023-football-recruiting-class%2F69627526007%2F

“Game days are pretty easy because we put so much into it ahead of time. We over-prepare so much that it pretty much runs itself,” Jackson said. “We do the hard stuff during the week so that we can just fangirl during the game.”

Salt Lake City, Utah, is not known for being racially diverse.

As a Black athlete playing in the city, former Utah Jazz basketball player Donovan Mitchell talked about his “draining” experience with racism in Salt Lake City in an exclusive interview with Andscape.

After spending his first five seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Jazz, Mitchell was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the offseason. He went from playing in a predominantly white city to a mostly Black one, but the change was a welcomed one for the All-Star guard.

“It’s a little comforting for me, 100%. I’m not going to lie about that. It’s no secret there’s a lot of stuff that I dealt with being in Utah off the floor. If I’m being honest with you, I never really said this, but it was draining. It was just draining on my energy just because you can’t sit in your room and cheer for me and then do all these different things. I’m not saying specifically every fan, but I just feel like it was a lot of things,” Mitchell said.

“A [Utah] state senator [Stuart Adams] saying I need to get educated on my own Black history. Seeing Black kids getting bullied because of their skin color. Seeing a little girl [Isabella Tichenor] hang herself because she’s being bullied.”

Mitchell went into detail about his experience being pulled over by a police officer as a Black man, although he knew that his status as the Jazz’s star afforded him the opportunity to get out of situations that the average Black person in Utah could not.

“But as far as Utah, it became a lot to have to deal with on a nightly basis,” he said. “I got pulled over once. I got an attitude from a cop until I gave him my ID. And that forever made me wonder what happens to the young Black kid in Utah that doesn’t have that power to just be like, ‘This is who I am.’ And that was one of the things for me that I took to heart.”

Mitchell played against Utah on Monday. The Cavaliers won 120 to 99.

• Sports

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

December 21, 2022

Ex-NFL Running Back in Hospice With Cancer Affecting African Americans With Sickle Cell Trait

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A Super Bowl champion is fighting for his life in hospice care with a rare form of cancer.

According to TMZ, the family of former Denver Broncos running back Ronnie Hillman has released a statement, confirming he was diagnosed with renal medullary carcinoma.

It is described as a “rare but highly aggressive neoplasm form of cancer that primarily affects young African Americans with sickle cell trait.” This was discovered back in August.

Although Hillman has received treatment, the family said it has not been successful. In his current condition, he is being kept comfortable and out of pain while he is in hospice care. “As a family, we hope beyond hope, and we have faith that can move mountains,” the Hillman family said, according to TMZ. “We also understand that God’s will is not always ours; therefore, we as a family subject ourselves to the will of our Almighty God.

“We need your prayers, but we also need your understanding and respect for Ronnie and our family’s privacy at this time.”

A Jackson State University (JSU) player, while speaking to the media, called for Black players to “come on home” and attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

A video clip making the rounds on Twitter shows JSU linebacker, Aubrey Miller Jr., the SWAC Defensive Player of the Year, calling out to fellow Black sports players to take their talents to HBCUs.

Last week, Miller said Black athletes need to “represent our people.” He encouraged aspiring college athletes to “come home” and represent Black colleges, saying they need to uplift the HBCUs and continue to shine a light on the colleges that our people attend for their education. He also said that if he, his teammates, and other HBCU athletes can do it, so can they.

“Your talent needs to come back home,” he said. “You need to play for your people. We need to represent our people. Like I said, if we do it you can do it.”

JSU star linebacker @Loose_Qannon and the SWAC Defensive Player of the Year puts the call out more players to play at HBCUs.

“Your talent needs to come back home. You need to play for your people. If we do it you can do it.” pic.twitter.com/PJ686tw1In

— Joe Cook WAPT (@JoeCookSports) December 17, 2022

According to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger, Miller recently announced that he will declare for next year’s  National Football League (NFL) Draft.

The First-Team All-SWAC selection, a graduating senior, is trying to become the second JSU football player coached by Deion Sanders to get drafted by an NFL team; James Houston was the first.

Sonya Eddy, best known for her longtime role as nurse Epiphany Johnson on General Hospital, has died at age 55, TMZ reported.

According to Eddy’s producing partner, Tyler Ford of Eddy Ford Entertainment, the actress had a scheduled non-emergency surgery on December 9 and was released two days later. She started to feel ill, so she returned to the hospital where doctors discovered that she had developed an unmanageable infection.

Eddy was placed on life support and died Monday night.

“It is with the heaviest heart that I have to announce the sudden passing of my business partner, creative soulmate, and best friend Sonya Eddy,” Ford said in a statement, per E! News.

“She left an indelible imprint in every person that she touched, through the screen and off. In honor of her memory contributions can be made to The Foundation of the National Student Nurses’ Association Inc.”

Since 2006, the real-life licensed vocational nurse appeared in 543 episodes on the long-running soap opera. She recently graced the show in October as the no-nonsense head nurse whose late son, Stan Johnson, got caught up in a mob hit.

Additionally, Eddy was promoted to a main cast member on the short-lived spin-off series, General Hospital: Night Shift.

“I am heartbroken about the loss of the incredible Sonya Eddy. I truly loved her not only as an actress, but as a friend,” Frank Valentini, General Hospital executive producer, said in a statement, per Variety.

“The lights in the hub of the nurse’s station will now be a little dimmer, but her spirit and light will live on in both the show and our set. On behalf of the entire GH [General Hospital] cast and crew, we send our deepest sympathy to her family, friends, and fans. She will be very missed.”

https://twitter.com/valentinifrank/status/1605331796450676736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Eddy, a California native, began her acting career with Ruby Dee’s play Zora Is My Name in 1990 before earning additional stage credits. Apart from General Hospital, she made her mark in television with roles on Married…With Children, The Drew Carey Show, Murphy Brown, Seinfeld, Home Improvement, and a recurring role in Joan of Arcadia.

Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer was one of many who posted a heartwarming tribute to her late dear friend.

“My friend @sonyaeddy passed away last night. The world lost another creative angel. Her legions of @generalhospitalabc fans will miss her 💔🕊️ My thoughts and prayers are with her loved ones, friends, and fans!”

 

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https://twitter.com/YNB/status/1605288993750323200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Her smile could power a reactor. I loved the few times we worked together, but I REALLY loved the times we would talk about life, meditation, acting. She was a gift & she is missed already. Condolences to her loved ones. #RIP #SonyaEddy @GeneralHospital pic.twitter.com/2iVpscKUlD

— Jon Lindstrom (@thejonlindstrom) December 20, 2022

A woman with a lengthy history of theft was caught trying to burglarize the home of iconic actor Robert De Niro early Monday morning.

According to The New York Post, the career thief, 30-year-old Shanice Aviles, was caught in the act of robbing De Niro’s rented townhouse, going through his possessions while he and his daughter were in the house.

Aviles was booked on burglary charges. As she was led out of the New York Police Department‘s 19th Precinct stationhouse in handcuffs en route to court she told reporters, “I didn’t murder anybody!” and yelled out, “I didn’t go to Robert De Niro’s house!”

Aviles, who lives in Manhattan, has been arrested at least 26 times for robbery. This year alone, she has been arrested 16 times for burglary and petit larceny.

When Aviles was caught, she was trying out De Niro’s iPad while taking some gifts from under the Christmas tree inside the townhouse around 2:30 a.m., according to police. She was under surveillance by police officers from the 19th Precinct public safety team. Aviles was reportedly trying to open doors to businesses in the neighborhood before she arrived at the Oscar-winning actor’s townhouse.

Police officers followed her into De Niro’s home. The Goodfellas star was upstairs sleeping while his daughter was in a bedroom when Avila entered the home. Police said there were signs of forced entry.

Aviles was charged with burglary. She was brought to the Lenox Hill precinct for processing and then taken to her arrangement at Manhattan Criminal Court.

There were two open bench warrants for Aviles: for her skipping out on court-ordered drug rehab last week and various pending cases in Manhattan and Queens.

De Niro, a two time Academy Award winner and New York legend, had no comment for the media pertaining to the robbery attempt.