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  • Remember When Vanessa Williams Became the 1st Black Miss America?

    Remember When Vanessa Williams Became the 1st Black Miss America?

    Remember When Vanessa Williams Became the 1st Black Miss America

    Vanessa Williams     Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

    When Vanessa Williams was crowned Miss America, her life instantly changed.

    Not only did the win bring her new responsibilities within the pageant world, but she also made history becoming the first Black woman to earn the special title.

    “I had the responsibility of something that I never thought would ever happen in my lifetime,” she told Yahoo Entertainment in 2021. “I didn’t think it would happen, and the fact that it did happen, made my path mean something and that’s tremendously heartfelt to me because I made a change in my own little way.”

    While the road ahead for Williams would lead to a successful career in Hollywood with countless acting, modeling, singing and producing gigs, her year-long stint as Miss America was no easy feat.

    More than 40 years after Williams changed the world of beauty pageants, take a look back on her historic win and the drama that soon followed:

    What Happened:

    Remember When Vanessa Williams Became the 1st Black Miss America

    Vanessa Williams     Getty Images

    In a live telecast from Atlantic City, New Jersey, host Gary Collins had the honor of announcing the winner of Miss America 1984.

    Beginning with the fourth runner-up, Collins began congratulating the finalists and presenting them with scholarships of various monetary value.

    The final two contestants came down to Miss New Jersey Suzette Charles and Williams. After winning the talent portion with a vocal performance of “Happy Days Are Here Again” as well as the lifestyle and fitness portion of the show, Williams was crowned the winner.

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    The crowd erupted in applause as she received a tiara and began walking down a runway for photos.

    “I didn’t know what was the next step,” Williams told Entertainment Tonight in 2021. “It was a tremendous history-making moment for me at 20 years old.”

    Why It Was a Big Deal:

    According to PBS, the Miss America rule book stated in the 1930s that “contestants must be of good health and of the white race.”

    Following the advances of the civil rights movement, Black Americans began setting up their own contests. The 1968 Miss Black America Contest, held in Atlantic City on the same day as the Miss America Pageant, was organized as a direct protest of the pageant. Miss America organizers were confronted with its shortcomings and began making changes.

    In 1970, a Black woman named Cheryl Brown won Miss Iowa and made it to Miss America as a contestant. But to many, Williams’ win in 1984 was a pinnacle accomplishment for the pageant community.

    What People Said:

    Remember When Vanessa Williams Became the 1st Black Miss America

    Vanessa Williams     Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images)

    While Williams’ win was initially met with applause from the crowd, she won’t forget the criticism she faced from some critics. “I was seen as a symbol, but also seen as a Black woman and also seen as someone who was supposed to represent the American beauty,” Williams recalled on a February 2021 episode of A&E’s “The Table Is Ours” podcast. “There are a lot of folks that did not believe that having brown skin and being a Black woman represented the Miss America ideal. … Not only was I getting attacked from white folks saying she doesn’t represent us, but some Black folks [said], ‘Oh they only picked her cause she’s [light-skinned with] light eyes.’ They kind of dismissed my talent, my intellect, and my achievement. So that was probably more hurtful.”

    Things became even more complicated for Williams when she found herself embroiled in a scandal months before her reign was supposed to come to an end.

    What Happened Next:

    In 1984, nude photos of Williams were published in a magazine called Penthouse. According to the actress, she had posed for the pictures before her pageant days when she worked for a photographer. Williams also assured fans that she never gave her consent for the publication to print them.

    Ultimately, Williams was forced to resign from her Miss America title with six weeks left of her reign. “I had no idea that this had been going on beyond my back since the very beginning to make money,” she previously told Yahoo. “I felt extremely betrayed, and of course, stunned and humiliated.”

    The Miss America Organization later apologized to Williams for how she was treated.

    “You have lived your life in grace and dignity, and never was it more evident than during the events of 1984 when you resigned,” Miss America CEO Sam Haskell said during the Miss America 2016 telecast. “Though none of us currently in the organization were involved then, on behalf of today’s organization, I want to apologize to you and to your mother, Ms. Helen Williams. I want to apologize for anything that was said or done that made you feel any less the Miss America you are and the Miss America you always will be.”

    Vanessa Williams Charcoal Sparkly Dress April 24, 2018

    Related: Vanessa Williams: 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me!

    Mike Marsland/WireImage.com Vanessa Williams exclusively opened up to Us Weekly about 25 things you might not know about her — including her current celebrity crush, hidden talent and biggest pet peeve. Read on to learn more about the singer, actress and former Miss America. 1. Any beach or ocean view helps clear my mind. A […]

    Where They Stand Now:

    Remember When Vanessa Williams Became the 1st Black Miss America

    Vanessa Williams     Cindy Ord/Getty Images

    To this day, Williams continues to be a champion of change by becoming a founding member of Black Theater United, a coalition empowering Black artists in the theater industry.

    She also remains grateful for the opportunities Miss America brought into her life.

    “The legacy of that moment in 1983 was that, yes, you can be smart enough, talented enough and be able to represent the American world,” Williams told Entertainment Tonight in 2021. “And as a result, I have been able to have wonderful opportunities to delve into my history and my family.”

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  • ‘Inclusion Revolution’: No Offseason Sports in West Deer scores Special Olympics North America Softball Championship

    ‘Inclusion Revolution’: No Offseason Sports in West Deer scores Special Olympics North America Softball Championship

    The lightning-fast turf fields at No Offseason Sports in West Deer don’t scare Special Olympian pitcher Rachel Miles.

    When the 25-year-old takes the mound this week during the Special Olympics North America Softball Championship, she’ll keep an unwavering eye on the prize.

    “I want to win it all,” said Miles, an O’Hara resident and graduate of Fox Chapel Area High School. “I love the sport, and I love the crowds.”

    Fresh off a championship run at the 2024 Summer Games at Penn State, Miles will compete with her unified team, the Olympic Flames, against players traveling from across the United States and Canada.

    More than 25 teams, including seven from Pennsylvania, and 300 athletes are scheduled to participate in the tournament.

    “Some of the teams are coming so far they won’t be able to bring a big fan base,” No Offseason owner Joe Voloch said. “For us to be able to support all the players with large cheering crowds, it will be such a cool experience for everyone.”

    Special Olympics was founded in 1968 as a movement to end discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities. Today, the group hosts more than 30 Olympic-style sports and 100,000 competitions a year with 6 million athletes in 190 countries.

    In Pennsylvania, 13,000 people participate in year-round training in bocce, track, basketball, bowling and more.

    “Oftentimes, Special Olympics athletes are stereotyped,” said Larkin Richards, manager of marketing and public relations.

    “Whether it’s ability, talent or strength, athletes are consistently fighting assumptions. National events are truly a chance to show how competitive and gritty Special Olympics competition can be. Now is the time to show society how inclusive sports can be.”

    The SONA Softball Championship was launched in 2009. It includes competitions among traditional teams and those that are unified — a mix of players with and without disabilities playing as teammates.

    It aligns with efforts in recent years by Special Olympics to pioneer Unified Sports programs in public schools. Sports such as bocce and track are available in more than 8,300 schools across the country, with a goal of hitting 10,000 this year, according to the group’s website.

    Locally, Best Buddies teams have thrived at schools such as Highlands, Fox Chapel Area, Burrell and North Allegheny. Benefits include social inclusion and youth leadership, which Special Olympics says increases acceptance while reducing stigma and bullying.

    “The unified players love each other and work well as a team, and this tournament puts it on a national level,” Flames coach Darryl Degelman said.

    The Edgewood resident got involved with Special Olympics when his son, now 49, was just a teen. He leads practices from spring to fall at Heinz Memorial Field in Sharpsburg, with his team attracting players from across the region in Murrysville, North Hills and Beaver.

    “It makes you feel proud, and something like this gives them an opportunity to see their importance relative to the community but also to the nation,” Degelman said.

    In its 18th year, this is the first time the SONA tournament has been hosted in the Pittsburgh region.

    Degelman has twice traveled with his team to the competition in Virginia. To have this year’s event in West Deer, he said, “is such a great emotional boost to our athletes, coaches and volunteers.”

    Special Olympics Pennsylvania, Richards said, is “absolutely thrilled to host our first-ever national event.”

    “We want to bring awareness to this event because it’s another iconic sporting moment in Pittsburgh culture,” she said.

    “We get to say that 2024 is the year that the SONA softball championship took place in the City of Champions, and Special Olympics Pennsylvania athletes are a part of that moment in history.”

    For those expecting hard-hitting action, No Offseason will be the place to see it, Richards said.

    “These games are going to be intense. Once you experience the iconic environment of Special Olympics competition, you’ll want to get involved. From spectating to volunteering to coaching, we want you to be a part of the Inclusion Revolution.”

    For Miles, taking the field is a family affair. Her twin brother, Alex, and her dad, Ron, join her on the diamond, at shortstop and second base. Her mom, Cathy, is an assistant coach.

    “As you get older, you’re looking for excuses to spend time with your family, and this is a free excuse,” said Alex, who played baseball for the Foxes in high school and participated in the district’s Best Buddies program.

    “My sister was always my biggest fan. So to be on the field with her, I couldn’t pass up that opportunity.”

    Ron Miles said it might appear to spectators that Special Olympians benefit from the partners’ volunteerism.

    “The reality is, you get more out of it than you put in,” he said.

    Opening ceremonies will kick off at 5 p.m. Thursday with a skydiver and drone show.

    Voloch said player introductions will be made from the raised stage to specially showcase each athlete.

    “We want to make it special for the families,” he said.

    Games begin Friday and run through the championship on Sunday at the complex on Little Deer Creek Valley Road.

    Andrew Fee, vice president of strategic partnerships for Special Olympics Pennsylvania, said he expects emotions to be palpable.

    “For the community to come together and support these athletes, it puts a spotlight on the work we do throughout the year,” he said, adding that softball was the group’s first unified sport ever to compete.

    “I think this will really bring people together.”

    Tawnya Panizzi is a TribLive reporter. She joined the Trib in 1997. She can be reached at tpanizzi@triblive.com.

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  • How major sports stadiums changed America

    How major sports stadiums changed America

    “The stadium,” writes Frank Andre Guridy in ‘The Stadium – An American History of Politics, Protest, and Play’ (Basic Books), “has never been a merely a sports facility.”

    From the first wooden ballparks, through the huge concrete edifices of the 1950s and 1960s and on to today’s vast, state-of-the-art arenas, Guridy reveals just what the stadia means to American life — extending beyond staging sports events to fulfilling a far wider civic role.

    “Americans have gathered at these facilities for more than a century,” he explains. “Like cathedrals, these places are where rituals take place on and off the field.”

    The Roebling Suspension Bridge and Three Rivers Stadium on the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Ohio. Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    But, says Guridy, who is a professor of history and African American studies at Columbia University, stadiums have also become public squares, used often as much by activists as athletes, by politicians as pop stars. 

    In the not-so-distant past, for example, stadiums were guilty of entrenching division and discrimination.

    Women were banned from locker rooms and press boxes and racial segregation was commonplace in the all-White leagues of the Jim Crow era.

    But as Guridy contends, they have also been at the forefront of American activism.

    In New York, for example, stadia became “one of America’s battlegrounds for democracy” with European immigrant communities in the 1930s making Yankee Stadium and Madison Square Garden (MSG) focal points for the fight against fascism.

    In the 1940s,, Madison Square Garden staged the ‘Negro Freedom Rallies’, making it what Guridy calls “a platform for claims-making.” Getty Images

    In the 1940s, meanwhile, MSG staged the ‘Negro Freedom Rallies’, making it what Guridy calls “a platform for claims-making.”

    While corporatization and the shift toward private rather than municipal ownership has seen the role of stadia change, athletes such as Colin Kaepernick and Megan Rapinhoe have demonstrated the enduring power of stadiums as protest points.

    Or, as the Presidential race hots up, the place where intense political battles are fought.

    In New York, for example, stadia became “one of America’s battlegrounds for democracy” with European immigrant communities in the 1930s making Yankee Stadium and Madison Square Garden focal points for the fight against fascism.
    USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con

    Moreover, stadia still fulfill their primary purpose – bringing people together. 

    “Investing in a stadium is best understood as a commitment to a public good, akin to budgeting for public parks and other public institutions that facilitate community cohesion,” writes Guridy.

    “Ultimately, the stadium needs to be recognized, and perhaps actively cultivated, as the multifaceted institution that it has always been in American life.” –David C. Kaufman

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