On The Passing of Rodney Rogers

Rodney Rogers recently passed. He was a Durham native hailing from inner city Durham North Carolina-specifically MacDougal Terrace. He eventually went on to play for Wake Forest University where he was ACC rookie of the year in 1991 then ACC player of the year in 1993 and had a reputable 12-year career in the NBA culminating in the sixth man of the year award in 2000.

Most cannot appreciate growing up in inner city Durham North Carolina and observing a verifiable hero who was assured to transcend the environments many of us were born into. Affectionately known as “T Tot” for those of us who grew up with him, he was arguably, the only person we knew who would make a life most would describe as recognizable. Though humble–T Tot was bigger, stronger and any other word you wish to describe him–yet knowing this he went out of his way to be one of us.

I was on the middle school football team with Tot at Holton Middle School which is now an alternative school. He was in 8th grade and I was in 7th. T-Tot played quarterback as well as starring on the basketball team. His aura was such that at least for me it was overwhelming. (T TOT was late for a game we played on the jamboree held at North Carolina Central University. They sent someone to pick him up and the whole team waited until his arrival.) Yet, no one cared. We weren’t gonna win without him. (Although Roger’s Herr Middle School beat us soundly with many of the teammates–including the Hunter twins, Ronnie and Tony, cousins of my my best friend growing up Neal Hunter–he would eventually join at Hillside High School where he played football and eventually starred as a 9th grader when the legends began.) Those who grew up with him in MacDougal Terrace would definitely stand to differ as his feats began well before even this time.

For me, playing with T TOT was a life changing experience. One such event demonstrates this. We were playing Oxford and T TOT and the first teamers had pushed the score so far that the 7th graders like me could get in. (I was second or even third team end receiver.) When the second team was called, I was able to play. I had only played twice 7th grade year.

We ran an out and the back up quarterback Wayne Harrington, “Wild Man,” called a play designated for me. It was an 10 yard and out to the right. We ran the play. Wild Man hit me. I caught it. (I froze in fear) and did not run though there was an entire field in front of me. I was eventually tackled. (I can’t tell you how often I allowed fear to stop me.)

The next day at school, I ran into TOT and he said: “BJ why didn’t you keep running?’ I looked at him and could not answer a word and actually left him hanging because I could not even begin to hold a conversation with someone I had such a profound respect for. I could later remember when he was was in 12th grade playing basketball and I was in the 11th grade playing for Durham High School, another defunct school in Durham, North Carolina and later rebranded as the Durham School of the Arts. (Hillside with Andre McCollum, Larry Johnson and Rodney were beating everyone in our PAC 6 conference.) None of us could match their talents except our own Antonio O’Neal at Durham High who didn’t have sufficient help.

T TOT caught the ball and they were winning by like 20 or more points and I alone was defending the basket during garbage time. (He lost it out of bounds.) Similarly, I flashed backed to 7th graders and I know I had no idea how I could ever confront him on a breakaway. I later recalled speaking with him joking that “he was lucky he lost the ball.” He only smiled and grinned.

I share this because his impact on forging the identities of those in inner city Durham and all who had any proximity to him was such that it was a life changing experience. (This man was a living hero and everyone perhaps besides his closest friends and family can remember what he said to them or their brief interaction with him.)

I took from T TOT the need to be strong, courageous and fearless which eventually led me to my faith. I did not keep running in 7th grade or when I was glad–and clearly fearful—that he lost the ball out of bounds in 11th grade when he was a senior in-route to Wake Forest University; All the same, Rodney Rogers inspired in me and all who grew up with him in Durham, North Carolina to live life unafraid and to learn to “keep running.”