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ULM Athletics Courts Solidarity with “Warhawks United for Social Justice”

ULM Athletics Courts Solidarity with “Warhawks United for Social Justice”

General Sep 10
By Paul Letlow, ULM Athletics Online Columnist

MONROE, La. – Former Bastrop (Louisiana) High School and ULM basketball teammates Kenny Natt and Jamie Mayo were back on the hardwood together at Fant-Coliseum on Wednesday night.

Long past their own playing days, they returned to ULM's campus to speak at "Warhawks United for Social Justice," a candid forum designed to unite and encourage the current student-athletes during difficult times.

"Some of the things going on today are affecting all of our lives," said Natt, a 6-foot-3 guard who scored 1,003 points from 1977-80 at ULM and averaged 20.1 points as a senior in 1979-80. "Thinking back on myself as a young student-athlete, having to deal with circumstances that these kids are having to deal with today, that's a tremendous task. I'm feeling for them. My heart goes out to them."

Mayo said he experienced racism growing up in northeastern Louisiana, but overall, his college experiences were positive at ULM. He said listening and building relationships is the best way to ease tensions between people with diverse backgrounds.

"You get along and you work together," Mayo said. "Because you can't win if you don't do that."

The event materialized after a meeting involving ULM football coach Matt Viator and a group of team leaders, including Josh Pederson, Josh Johnson, Corey Straughter and Jonathan Hodoh. Isolation caused by a worldwide pandemic, reactions to the ongoing discussions of systemic racism and even the devastating effects of a natural disaster in Louisiana have created anxiety and pushed many sensitive topics to the forefront.

"It was voiced through the locker room," Pederson said. "Different people reached out to the upperclassmen to see what we could do and I thought it was great."

Viator along with Athletics Director Scott McDonald targeted Natt and Mayo as ideal candidates to share their experiences with the current Warhawks. An idea originally planned for football grew into something bigger involving all student-athletes.

"We're looking for some things we can learn and do as a team united," Viator said. "These are steps we can take to address the issues. I think it was a good step."

McDonald announced that ULM is forming a task force to keep the discussions going.

"We'll be working with other groups on campus already established so that we can all unite and move forward as we confront these issues," McDonald said.

Dr. Valerie Fields, ULM's interim Vice President of Student Affairs, encouraged student-athletes to be agents of change. She shared an anecdote about an athlete struggling to find a spot on campus to cool off and charge his phone following power outages caused by Hurricane Laura.

"The (interim) president was called and there was some action that took place," Fields said. "He said, 'Dr. Fields, we have to do something for our students.'

"I said, 'What do you think we should do?' He said, 'They need somewhere to go to be able to charge their phones, to be in air and be comfortable.' We did that."

Mayo and Natt took different paths after spending their formative years together in Bastrop.

As a senior at ULM in 1978-79, Mayo was a starting guard for a 23-6 team that finished 11-0 against Louisiana foes, won a conference title and lost by one point at Virginia in the NIT.

"The last game I ever played, we were cutting down the net right over there and we'd just won the tournament to go to the NIT," Mayo said. "

Mayo said he grew up poor and ULM provided the foundation he needed to succeed.

"The best shelter I ever lived in was when I came to college," Mayo said. "You should have seen the houses I grew up in. Boy, they were shacks. Anybody heard of a shotgun house, where you could open the doors and throw a brick through the front and it comes out the back? That's how I grew up."

Mayo, the 2016 Golden Arrow Award winner at ULM, recently concluded a 19-year tour as Mayor of Monroe. Prior to that, Mayo was a Monroe City Councilman for District 5 for eight years following a career in banking and insurance.

"You deal with a lot of different issues," Mayo said. "Unfortunately, sometimes those issues are more difficult when you are a certain race. Having served as the Mayor of Monroe for 19 years, there were some good times and some not so good times. Even though I was serving as the CEO for the City of Monroe for that long, I had issues with discrimination with me and issues with racism with me. How do you handle that? It's very, very difficult."

Natt said he was "raised right" by his parents and learned how to overcome adversity at ULM, where he wasn't a regular starter until his breakout senior season. Natt met his future wife as a college student and his daughter is a current student at ULM.

"I'm proud to have attended ULM and of what it has done for me and my family," Natt said.

A second-round pick by the Indiana Pacers, Natt played a total of 388 NBA minutes in 49 games spread over five seasons. He averaged 3.1 points from 1980-85 with the Pacers, the Jazz and the Kings.

The 2002 ULM  L Club Hall of Fame inductee found his niche in coaching after his pro playing career concluded. He served on the Utah Jazz, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Sacramento Kings coaching staffs over a 14-year NBA career, and was interim head coach of the Kings in 2009. Natt also served as Director of Basketball at IMG Academy, coached the national team in India and is currently involved with CORE4, a training facility based in Atlanta.

"Yes, I've been very fortunate," said Natt who coached NBA stars Karl Malone and John Stockton with the Jazz, and worked with a young LeBron James with the Cavaliers. "But I've also had instances of injustice in my life. Big surprise, huh?

"I've been pulled over because I was driving a nice Mercedes Benz, heading from here back home to Atlanta."

Former West Monroe basketball player Langston Powell, entering his second year on Coach Keith Richard's varsity squad, was amazed to hear about Natt's journey from Bastrop to the NBA and appreciated the effort of the Athletics Department in hosting the forum.

"As a student-athlete, the discussion is amazing," Powell said. "They are bringing in speakers and talking about social injustice. It helps the students-athletes know that they have a voice to help others."

Pederson and Hodoh both remained after the session to visit with Natt, who repeatedly referred to the assembled competitors and coaches as his "brothers and sisters."

"To me, it definitely matters being heard," Hodoh said. "Since this incidence of COVID-19 and these police incidents have happened, our coaches have done a good job of checking up on us, listening to us and to see if there's anything we need. It feels really good. You see it all coming together and you see how much people care."

Added ULM women's basketball coach Brooks Williams, "We are so fortunate to have three distinguished alums, and accomplished Louisianans, so willing to share their time with our student-athletes tonight. They had very different perspectives and approaches, discussing social justice and inclusion. My hope is that our student-athletes heard and felt the passion in their voices. It was second to none. We are fortunate to have their wisdom and experiences to learn from."
 
Crowd: Warhawks United for Social Justice
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