Video (Click titles to view): Getting Started - Al starts writing for his high school paper and continues at City College. Running Time 2:58 Adam Clayton Powell - Al recalls learning many civil rights lessons sitting in the pews of the Absynian Church in Harlem. Running Time 2:35 New York Post - Al works his way up from copy boy to reporter at the New York Post. Running Time 2:17 Turmoil in Sports - Al works as a reporter when the sports world was in racial turmoil. Running Time 4:01 QuickTime required to view videos » Click here to download QuickTime

Al Harvin

Tried to show the multi-dimensional character of black athletes in his stories

People have asked Al Harvin why he decided to become a sports writer in the 60s during some of the most turbulent political times.

His response is simple: "There was as much turmoil in the world of sports during the 60s as in the general society. I covered as much politics, as much civil rights as any political reporter."

Surely Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in baseball in 1947, two decades before Harvin started writing sports for the New York Post. But blacks were breaking into other sports, filling positions usually held by whites, breaking records that whites had set and challenging convention. Harvin wrote stories about Kareem Abdul Jabar who had then recently become a Sunni Muslim.

Track stars John Carlos and Tommy Smith raised gloved fists as they stood to receive medals for their victory in the 200-meter race at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. Black players who were just entering the NBA were innovating techniques that would force the commission to change the rules. Black marathon runners broke records and myths that blacks couldn't run long distances. All of these stories, says Harvin, were political in context. Sports reflected the militancy of the time and the determination of the era when blacks set out to prove they could not be boxed into stereotypes.

"Black athletes were not one dimensional," he says. Though he couldn't always address the political context of sports, Harvin always tried to show the multi-dimensional character and ability of black players in his stories.

Born and raised in Harlem, the only child, Harvin knew he'd become a writer, though he wasn't sure of the genre or forum. He started with his high school paper in the Bronx covering swim meets. When he got to New York City College in 1955 as a part-time student, he wrote for the campus paper covering political issues and events. Because he wasn't a full-time student, it took him 12 years to graduate. While attending school, he also worked at the New York Post as a copy boy and clerk in the sports department. He wrote the agate, tallying all the sports scores for the day. Boxing writer, Lester Bromberg, later asked Harvin when he was scheduled to graduate and encouraged the young man to apply at the Post when he finished. With help from Bromberg, Harvin got the job in 1967 covering high school sports. While on that beat, Harvin interviewed and wrote a feature on Kareem Abdul Jabar, before the basketball player went to UCLA.

Harvin stayed at the Post for two years and moved to the New York Times. He stayed there 25 years. Working at the Times, he says, was much more of an anonymous position, primarily because the New York Times didn't publish his picture as the Post had.

Once a fan had stopped him on the street and asked, "Aren't you Al Harvin?" Harvin replied yes. And the man asked, "Well what ever happened to you?" Harvin told the fan he was at the Times now. The paper was bigger, more nationally recognized, but at the moment, Harvin felt invisible, his name buried in the gray matter in the back pages. As the years progressed he covered major sports events following college ball, the NFL, NBA and major league baseball.

Harvin sees his work as a sports writer in somewhat Biblical terms. In the beginning there was the Word and the Word was with God. And the Word was the source of life. From Harvin's perspective the words of sports writer like himself breathed life into the careers and persona's of athletes.

"It's the writers who actually create these images of politicians and sport guys," Harvin says. "Guys who are written about have this aura and when you read it, it's a different thing than just going out and playing these games. To become legendary, guys have to be written about."