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♪ [Theme Music] ♪
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: The African American Legends
series highlights the accomplishments of blacks in
areas varied as politics, sports, aviation, business,
literature, education and religion. We'll explore how
African Americans have succeeded in areas where they've
been previously excluded because of segregation, racism
and lack of opportunity. I'm your host, Dr. Roscoe C. Brown,
Jr., and with us today is Joetta Clark Diggs, Olympian,
President of Joetta Sports & Beyond. Tell me about how
it feels to be an Olympian and now a role model, now
a leader. How does that feel, Joetta?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Thank you for asking all those questions.
To be an Olympian is a great feeling. To be a four time
Olympian, which I am, is something special, and I
think every four years I feel good about it because
the Olympic Games are coming around. And as far as a role
model, I think that when you do good by your community
it makes me feel better, and the better I feel the more I want
to do to make this a better place for everybody.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: That's exactly right. And like every
time Veteran's Day comes forth, I feel better because I'm
a Tuskegee Airman. Every time the Olympics comes forth
you feel better because you are a four time. How do you
get to be a four time Olympian?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Wow. Patience, hard work and being
relevant for every four years. Some people make one team,
then they disappear. I was fortunate enough and blessed
enough to have the willpower and a nice coaching staff to
make four teams. So stayed at the top of my
game for over 20 years.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: You did really stay at the
top. Now how much training did you do to do that?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: When I was younger I did a lot more
training as far as hours. Probably three and four hours a
day. And when I got out of college and went to become an
open athlete I trained smarter. So I didn't lag around a lot
and probably two hours a day as far as on the field
training. But as you know, you just can't turn something off
and turn it back on if you're trying to be great. So I lived
well off the track. I ate healthy. I went to bed, got my
rest. I took my vitamins. So I did a lot of things off of the
track that maintained my skill sets.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: It's interesting that some athletes
are not able to do that. They are successful a couple of
times and somehow another with the chicken dinner circuit
and their awards they end up eating too much, the wrong
thing. They gain weight. They don't practice enough and
all of a sudden it's gone. You deserve a lot of credit.
Now to what do you attribute that? Is that the discipline
your father taught you? To what did that come to you?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: I was given a God given talent and so I
think that's part of it. But the other piece of it I was focused
and I was determined and I had two parents that told us that
we could do whatever it is we wanted to do. And just
because someone else didn't do it doesn't' mean that you
can't do it. So I ran middle distance and I started doing
that back in the early '70s. And at that time only Africans,
Kenyans were running the distances. So there were no
black Americans running distance. And my father said you
will do that. And at that time we didn't talk back.
So when your father says something-
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Your father is Joe Clark,
Lean on Me.
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Yes.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: A real education leader.
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Yes, thank you.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: And you couldn't do anything
else but, right?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: No, we were to do well in school and
if we did sports or piano and dance, whatever it is that we
wanted to excel outside of academics we had to make
sure we stayed focused.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Excellence really is a key to
success. It's the key to overcoming obstacles. For
example, the Tuskegee airmen, we had to be the best in order
to prove that African Americans could do anything. And that's
what you and your sisters and yoru dad have done.
Now tell me about your organizations; Sports & Beyond.
What is the focus of it and how do you operate?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Well the Joetta Clark Dicks Sports
Foundation is a non-profit organization that focuses
on obesity, life skills and nutrition and financial fitness
in kids K-12. We've been in existence for over 10 years
now, and we've been blessed to get great corporate sponsorships
and grants in order to do these various programs
throughout the tri-state and country.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Now what is the focus? You talked
about ending obesity. You talked about life skills. You
talk about financial skills. How do you go about doing that?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Well we have various programs. My number
one program is called the Head to Toe Fitness Program
where we go into schools and we talk about head to toe
points. So head meaning academics and all the way
down to your feet. So we talk about life skills, eating
healthy, reading labels, preparing for proper foods and
I have individuals who are skilled in those areas to
come in to organize and to lead those curriculums in schools.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: But what is the main diet problem
that you're dealing with young people? Super sized drinks
or too much candy or?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: I think it's a combination.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Or too many hamburgers?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: I think it's a combination of not having
a proper meal and everyone is always on the run and
no one wants to sit down and cook the vegetables that
we used to have when we were younger and not saying that
fast food is no good but it's not good all the time.
As an Olympian I did have some fast foods but I didn't do
that every single day. And then we also don't exercise.
And I try and tell them that a fit body and a fit mind makes
a fit person. So it all works together. At the end of the
program they understand that if you eat well, you get
your rest and if you exercise you are able to do well in
school. And so often they come to school without
having breakfast or a proper breakfast that they
just bog out at around 10:00 or so.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Now you talk about exercise. Society
has changed so much that you could get on the bus, you can
get on the subway, you can sit back and watch television.
What kind of exercise do you recommend that young people,
let's say in their early teens, should be doing?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: You know it's funny that you ask that
question because so often I see my older people jogging and
my younger people are walking. And I think that if nothing
is wrong with you you have to get out and burn calories.
And so we can walk. We can job. We can ride bikes. We can
park away from the grocery store and walk further in.
We can walk faster. We can walk up and down steps in
the workplace. So there are various things that you
can do, even at home in between football games now.
You can sit down and do pushups, some crunches with the
family and work on those pieces. So often we sit down
and we do what we call wrist curls and things like that
but the reality is if you sit down for an hour and eat all
the junk foods you're eating at a game, you have
to burn that off somehow.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: And what do you suggest? You run in
place or you go out and walk two hours?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Basically just in the home. You can do
your squats in the home, your arm curls and things like that
just in your house. And then of course if you can go outside
to exercise and walk, you should do that as well.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Yeah, I have a 10 minute routine
I do every morning with some weights and running in place
and I don't believe that does me much good as
when I used to run five miles in the morning.
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Well things change. I used to run four miles
in about 22 minutes and now I'm probably lucky to get 36
minutes in. But the idea that you're doing something.
So and that's a good thing.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: That is a good thing. Now of course
one of the things about your foundation, you are a role
model. You've done it. So how do kids respond when
you tell them about how hard you worked? Do they say well
that's for you and not for me? How do you get them to focus on
the work that they have to do?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Well the very first thing, I'm an
Olympian. So they understand the Olympics. They got it.
It doesn't matter if they're a kindergartner or if they're a
college student. They understand that. And then I don't look as
old as I am. So even though someone may be in the
fifth grade and I'm ancient maybe years wise but they
don't look at me as being ancient. I won the Olympic
jacket and I reel them in. So once I have their attention
I can begin the dialogue which is sports is what I use in
order to galvanize myself through life. But the objective
for you is to grow and do well in school. So we have a
program called SISCO, Students Interested in
Sport Career Opportunities. As the athlete, there is money
there but everyone can't be the athlete. But sports is a
billion dollar industry. We need sports accountants. We need
attorneys. We need CPA's. We need-
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Journalists.
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Journalists. Absolutely.
We need physical therapists.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Managers.
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Managers and attorneys and so what we do
is we have individuals that come in who are in those areas
and talk to them about that. So the Foundation, even though
we talk about fitness, we also want you to be fit academically
so you can compete when the cheering stops.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR.: One of the things about minority
kids in particular, they tend to focus on sports and
entertainment and overlook the fact that even there that you
have to have an academic background. Actually to pass the
SAT and get a good score you have to be literate. You have
to be able to write. You have to be good with your math.
And you have to work at it. And somehow or another, some
young people don't seem to get that. What do you do to help
them to get that?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Well that's something that has to start
at home. By the time the child gets to school, hopefully you
have teachers who are energized-
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Not every kid has Joe Clark-
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: But they may not. However that has to
be the place where it starts. And so even if you don't have
parents- in my case- who were educated, the idea, the
dialogue- my grandparents weren't educated. However,
they knew the importance of education. So even though you
may not have both parents or parents who are educated,
they have to talk- read a book. Sit down with them even if
you can't read the book. Sit down there with them. Now a lot
is to be said to this because we're going to act like a lot
of minority parents are not educated and they cannot read
and that's not the case. It may be a time thing or the
importance of it but they don't understand it for some
reason but once it starts at home, then when you get
into school you understand it better. And when you get to
school hopefully you have teachers who are energized
and a curriculum that is good and solid. And if you don't
have that, that's when we run into our problems with gangs
and things like that. Our program, we try and tell them
that no matter what's going on that if you believe in
yourself and if you find role models, someone that
can help you, you can achieve that goal because it
wasn't always easy for me either being a student.
I had my obstacles and things I had to go through.
But we were told failure is not an option. It's a nagging
reality that kept us focused. So we knew that if we didn't
know the answers we knew who knew the answers, our parents,
our counselors, our teachers and we worked at that.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Now you have written a book entitled
"P" Principles for Success. What is "P" Principles
for Success stand for?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: I have five P's and the book was
basically a book that was talking about how in track and
field gave me the skill sets to be successful in life.
So what is your purpose? How do you prepare?
You have to be patient. You get perturbed
and then you persevere.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Run that back again. Number one.
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: What is your purpose? Why are you
here? And it can be sports or in life. How do you prepare?
As an athlete you work out. Education, you read. So how did
you prepare? And then you have to be patient. I made four
Olympic teams but I tried out six times and then the
next thing is you get perturbed. You're black. You're white.
You're Hispanic. You're tall. You're not as smart at
someone else or you can't fly a plane. So you get perturbed
and you prove everyone wrong and you prove yourself right
and then you persevere. You never give up. We often
say determination is like a flashlight. Keep it shining
and you will find your way. And so often our young people
turn a flashlight off too soon.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Now writing this book you use your
own personal experiences as an example for each
one of those P's.
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Absolutely. I use my track and field
background and stories and at the end of each chapter
there are questions. And then at the end of the book you
have a template for your goals. So you write your goals down
as you go along and you form a template for whatever
you're trying to do.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Now tell me what was the most
challenging experience you had running.
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: I was around so long.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: You did run a long time.
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Yeah I ran for a long time. So I guess
every error, if you will, there was a curve but I think toward
the end of my career the most challenging piece was to
stay healthy, keep excited about it in order to run at that top
level. When you're younger you're still eager and after
making three teams what is getting you back out there for
that fourth team? So I think it was trying to find that
thing that's different to keep it exciting for me to go
train with my team.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: What about those last 200 meters
of the 800? How did you manage that? What was your tactic?
What was your strategy?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: I was a front runner. So a lot of times
I would go out in the front and lead the entire race.
However there were times when I didn't get in the front and
you're right. The last 200 you have to focus on. It's like
life. You have 200 more yards to go and you have to pace
yourself and then you have to be able to turn it on the
last 50 or so to come across the line at first. And as an
athlete I learned that whenever you turn it on you can't
look back. Sometimes at the 200 meter mark, sometimes at
the 300 meter mark but once you set your mind and you're
going down that path there's no looking back.
If you're committed to something you commit and
you keep it moving.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Who's your toughest competitor?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: I had some of the Americans were Robin
Campbell, Meredith Rainey. Some of the foreign athletes
were Mutola, the East Germans, the Romanians. So again,
I was around for such a long time that I saw different
athletes at different stages. But I think when I knew that
I had trained and done everything I could, I was like
bring it on. I'm ready. Like you, you were excited to go out
there and fly those planes. So I was excited for competition
because I was ready and my foundation we were excited
about our programs because we're ready. We have been
around for a very long time and we have data to
substantiate all the great work that we're doing
throughout the country.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Now how does someone who's
interested in working with your foundation get
in touch with you?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Well you can contact me via the email or
online. The Website is Joettasportsandbeyond.com or
you can just Google my name, Joetta Clark Diggs and
everything will come up. And that's probably the best way
for you to contact us to come to your school or to get some
books for your students and colleges. That's what we do.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: You work mainly with schools
and community groups?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: I work with schools, community groups.
Corporations, Horizon and J Health, State Farm sponsors my
Joetta Clark Diggs Financial Fitness Literacy Program.
So we work with colleges, Tennessee, Alabama, done
stuff at Penn State. So we go all over. Wherever there's
students and wherever there are people, there's a need for
what we're doing.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Now what about the Olympic
movement itself? Every four years you have a big hoopla,
London- some people say the Olympics have become
too commercial, too nationalistic?
What's your view on that?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: I think the Olympics is a great place
for you to see various countries compete in sportsmanship
and commercialized it just depends on what you're trying
to get out of it. I think it's important to have the sponsors,
so you need to have them and the sponsors that give you
the most money they are telling you pretty much
what to do. But I think the one thing that the Olympics still
has is that it's very true essence of competition.
So on that given day, what are you going to do?
Are you going to show up or not? We always say champions
show up and they show out. So that's what the Olympics
allows you to do. It doesn't matter what you did last week
or last year or four years ago. What matters at the Olympic
games is what you're going to do on that day. And so
when we go into schools and talk about our programs
that we have, we use the Olympics as something for
kids to say, you may not be the Olympian or get a gold
medal but you can get the gold medal of life and that's by
believing in yourself, having people who support you and
going after your dreams.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Now do you help young athletes
in their local track meets, for example for a kid to win
their first gold medal in junior high school is something that
carries on later on. Do you do much of that or is
much of that happening?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Through my foundation we have our
track and field camp called Determined to Reach
Your Destiny. And this year was the 12th year of our
camp and that was sponsored by Johnson & Johnson. So in
our camps that we do, we touch many lives. And we talk
in our camps about what you have to do to prepare.
We try and find those kids an event for them to do. A lot of
the kids have never run track before, so they don't know what
event they are to compete in. Our camp is a grassroots
camp. And I love the grassroots level because it's where it all
begins. And so often we forget about the grassroots. But
that's where the foundation begins. So if I can get in
and talk to kids about athletics and use that as a way to
talk about education and to talk about a different
careers in the sports industry, I would do that. And so
our track and field camps address those issues.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Now you focus mainly on track and
field because that's your background. But in this recent
Olympics we found many African Americans winning
medals in areas where they've not done it before in
swimming, in gymnastics, in fencing and wrestling.
I think that's a good sign for a good message to African
American kids that they can specialize in something other
than track and field and basketball.
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Right.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: How do you feel about that?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: I think exposure is very important.
And if you're not exposed to these different sports,
then you don't know about them. So as a youngster I was
exposed to ballet and ice skating and tennis and things
like that. So I knew about those activities. But some
of the times these kids aren't exposed to those things.
But once you get exposed to it, you get a passion and you
get someone that's behind you, you can achieve greatness.
And I think that academically we have to raise the bar
as well. So you have to get the teachers and guidance
counselors and parents behind the students and expect
great things from them. So often the bar is so low.
We have to raise that bar up high and when we raise the
bar high, our kids will succeed.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Now when you say raise the bar high,
what do you mean?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: The standards. Don't do the bare
minimum. It's not good enough to go home and just do your work.
You do additional work. It's not good enough to watch television
all day long. That's not cutting it. If you are going to
watch something on TV, go on the computer, look at your
show, research people, write reports, learn PowerPoint.
You have to raise the bar because it's very competitive
out there. And you don't want to get left behind.
And so in our programs we talk about that. Not getting
left behind. And what do you do? Find your path.
What's your lane? Find your land and go after it.
And what we do, the kids, for example, that like to draw,
they can get involved in graphic arts. The video piece,
getting involved in developing these video games. So
there are a lot to do but if they're not exposed to
it, they don't know about it, then that's a problem.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Now that's exactly the point. You
are a role model. You really know how to go after things.
Unfortunately in many of our minority communities
we don't have those role models. You don't have that go
and get it. What can we do beyond your foundation to help
spread that message that excellence
is the key to success?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: I think one thing that we have to do is
get corporations really involved in going back into the schools
and talking about them hiring more of the students from
the communities and I think that's very important.
Having programs that track the students and then you
hire the students. And then you go back in these
schools time and time again. So I think that's important to
get corporations involved in having a face. My corporations
use me having a face to go in to promote the program but
they're doing the work as far as hiring, guiding, developing.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: You because your visibility has
been able to do that but in some communities they don't have
a Joetta Clark. They don't have a Muhammad Ali.
They don't- what can those kind of communities do to move
our people along?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Outside of that I think politicians have
to make a better stance. The school districts have to
become more focused and not just try and pass for
a test but also teach them. So often you test. They teach
for tests. And so you're missing a lot of information
out there and I think it's important for districts
to kind of refocus and revamp some of the process that
they're using to reach out with students.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Expectations is really the key
to success. You have to believe in yourself but the people
around you have to have expectations. Your parents
had expectations. Your coaches had expectations.
Eventually the media has expectations. How do you
translate that into our community? How do we raise
expectations in the African American Community?
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: One thing I mentioned was about
going back in as leaders and people who have accomplished
things and go and back and letting them see what we have
done. And another thing I think that's important is for
us to have these various programs in these various
districts so they can again be tracked and get exposure.
My program goes in and we also travel with students and
let them see how the sports arenas work, how you work
at the garden, needed to work and make that a viable sports
complex. So it's very important for that to happen.
But it can't happen with just one person. The community
needs to have the people work together and have high
expectations of our politicians to make sure that the dollars
are being put back into our systems.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Today on African American Legends
we've been speaking with Joetta Clark Diggs, Joetta
Clark Sports & Beyond, and we've been focusing on how sports
and expectations can improve conditions in the
African American community and I want to thank Joetta
for being with us and thanks for being a great role model.
JOETTA CLARK DIGGS: Oh thank you.
You're a role model as well.
DR. ROSCOE C. BROWN, JR: Thank you.
♪ [Theme Music] ♪