Michael Gary
Founder, Inner City Lacrosse
Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut
Michael Gary learned through sports what discipline, hard work and healthful
competition could do for him. He grew up playing football, baseball and
basketball in the inner city of New Haven, Connecticut. Those lessons
learned gave him the skills to excel academically.
influential people and decision makers, but they wouldn’t be able to
relate to them over common shared interests,” he said.
Gary is the founder of Inner City Lacrosse. The vision for the organization is
to make the sport as popular as basketball in inner cities. The idea came to
him in 2010 after a conversation with several colleagues. As they bonded
over their shared lacrosse days, Gary realized that having grown up in the
inner city, he did not have the same experiences that his peers had.
Gary has made it his mission to change that. At the heart of Inner City
Lacrosse is the belief that lacrosse can play a vital role in the character
development of children – especially in the inner cities. “Kids are learning
beautiful life lessons through the sport, such as how to be gracious during
victory and supportive during defeat. They learn to live with rules and work
as a team. It gives them confidence and a huge sense of accomplishment,”
he said.
“It dawned on me that inner-city kids had no access to a sport such as
lacrosse. And that as they moved forward in life, they would meet
Inner City Lacrosse pairs volunteer Yale University and Trinity College
players with middle school students from New Haven and Hartford.
“Kids are LEARNING beautiful life
lessons through the sport, such as
how to be GRACIOUS during victory
and SUPPORTIVE during defeat.”
The college players teach the kids lacrosse, free of charge, for seven
Sundays through the fall with a final game at Yale or Trinity. In only its third
year, the program has had 172 kids participate.
While the college players gain a better understanding of the world outside
their campuses, it’s the kids they’re coaching who benefit the most. They
can see firsthand that hard work and dedication do in fact pay off. “We are
allowing these kids to experience something that they otherwise would not
have. Higher learning meets the neighborhood kids – two worlds coming
together for something really amazing,” said Gary.
To learn more, visit innercitylacrosse.org.
SEPTEMBER 2015
– Michael Gary
Sunday
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1993: Condoleeza Rice named provost at
Stanford University, becoming the youngest
person and first African American to hold
this position.
1958: Frederick M. Jones patents control
device for internal combustion engine.
1979: Robert Maynard becomes first African
American to head a major daily newspaper,
Oakland Tribune, in California.
1957: Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus calls
out the National Guard to bar black students
from entering a Little Rock high school.
1960: Leopold Sedar Senghor, poet and
politician, elected president of Senegal.
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1848: Frederick Douglass elected president
of National Black Political Convention in
Cleveland, Ohio.
1954: Washington, D.C., and Baltimore,
Maryland, public schools integrated.
1981: Roy Wilkins, executive director of the
NAACP, dies.
1968: Arthur Ashe, Jr. wins men‘s singles
tennis championship at U.S. Open.
1855: John Mercer Langston elected township
clerk of Brownhelm, Ohio, becomes first
African American to hold elective office
in the U.S.
1959: Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington wins
Spingarn Medal for his achievements in music.
1992: Dr. Mae C. Jemison becomes first
African American woman to travel in space.
Labor Day
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1886: Literary critic Alain Lovke, first black
Rhodes Scholar, born.
1921: Constance Baker Motley, first black
woman appointed federal judge, born.
1963: Four black girls killed in Birmingham,
Alabama, church bombing.
2014: Wendell Scott, who broke racial barriers
in NASCAR, becomes first African American
elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame®.
1983: Vanessa Williams becomes first
African American crowned Miss America.
1895: Booker T. Washington delivers famous
Atlanta Exposition speech.
1893: Albert R. Robinson patents electric
railway trolley.
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1984: The Cosby Show, television’s biggest
hit in the 1980s, premiered.
1998: Florence Griffith Joyner, Olympic track
star, dies.
1862: Emancipation Proclamation announced.
1863: Civil and women’s rights advocate
Mary Church Terrell born.
1957: Federal troops enforce court-ordered
integrations as nine children integrate
Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
1974: Barbara W. Hancock becomes first African
American woman named a White House fellow.
1962: Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson
to win heavyweight boxing championship.
Rosh Hashanah Begins (sundown)
Yom Kippur Begins (sundown)
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1912: W.C. Handy publishes Memphis Blues.
1991: National Civil Rights Museum opens
in Memphis, Tennessee.
1910: National Urban League established
in New York City.
1962: James Meredith enrolls as first black
student at University of Mississippi.
Champion for change: Inner City Lacrosse
In only its third year, the program has had 172 kids participate.
Scan code to watch
Michael Gary video.
2015 Aetna African American History Calendar • aetnaafricanamericanhistorycalendar.com