Coming Sunday

Long before this tumultuous moment in American history where sports figures are using their powerful platforms to demand change, well before Colin Kaepernick quietly refused to stand for the national anthem, there were changemakers in the world of sports.

And not surprisingly, given its role in the civil rights movement, the Bay Area has long been an epicenter for sports activism.

The raised, black-gloved fists of Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, nearly a half century before Kaepernick’s protest, landed just as loudly, stirring the soul of a divided nation.

Bill Walsh and Al Davis did as much for diversifying the NFL, and providing opportunities for upward mobility, as anyone in the sport’s history.

USF coach Phil Woolpert started three Black players at a time when the NCAA was barely tiptoeing into the waters of post-Jim Crow-era racial integration.

Giants owner Horace Stoneham opened baseball’s pipeline to Latin America, no small development in a league buoyed by star players from the Caribbean nations today.

Another Bay Area baseball figure fought for equity at far greater expense to his career and future well-being. Today’s ballplayers owe a great debt to Oakland’s Curt Flood, the oft-forgotten father of free agency.

Today’s changemakers are extending this legacy.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and Giants manager Gabe Kapler have wasted no public opportunities to put their might behind racial justice initiatives. The Sharks’ Evander Kane helped create the Hockey Diversity Alliance and only because of his pleas were three NHL playoff games canceled last week. Stephen Curry is making plans to kneel next season when the national anthem is played.

Still, this is a time when looking forward brings no clear answers about our country’s racial divide. So it’s worth a look back at those who manifested a clear mission right in our midst.

Gamechangers, a six-part series, kicks off Sunday. It begins with Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Harry Edwards and a protest that rocked the world.