Through the Banks of the Red Cedar: My Father and the Team That Changed the Game

Documentary filmmaker Washington debuts with an immensely moving tribute to her father, former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Gene Washington. She notes that, as a young girl growing up in Minneapolis’s suburbs, “football and the backdrop of sweeping civil rights legislation were the vehicles that made it possible for my sisters and I to live an integrated life of access and opportunity.” She pins her fortune particularly to her father’s sports career, which began in his teens in the Jim Crow South and took off after he earned a scholarship in 1963 to play for Michigan State, one of the nation’s first integrated college football teams, along with other Black recruits, including his close friend, defensive lineman Bubba Smith. By the time he made history as a first-round draft pick for the Vikings in 1967, Gene had “earned more medals... and championships,” Washington writes, “than I could ever conceive of acquiring.” Though his career on the field ended before she was born, Washington passionately reflects on how he changed the game—as a Black pioneer whose fight for players’ rights in the 1970s paved the way for future athletes to be compensated fairly—and his legacy informed her own mission “to bring stories of diversity forward” with her films, including the feature-length documentary that inspired this book. Readers will be enthralled and heartened by this unique look at the way sports can influence society. (Jan.)