FAYETTEVILLE -- Recalling various new leaders disastrously deluded that history begins with them, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey made an impressive debut at SEC football media days.
Sankey opened the meetings Monday in Hoover, Ala., by looking ahead as all good commissioners should do, particularly in their debut.
Wisely, though, Sankey first respectfully recognized immediate past SEC leaders. He did so with genuine respect, not with the "all due respect" recognition many new bosses phonily proffer before aggressively erasing the heritage of those they pretend to bestow "all due respect."
Preceding SEC Commissioners Roy Kramer (1990-2002) and Mike Slive (2002-June 2015) were innovative giants who are still perceived as such. Sankey knows that firsthand and respects that.
Sankey, 51, has assisted Slive, 74, as the SEC's administrative right hand since 2002.
"I learned a lot from Mike," Sankey said.
Smith praised Kramer, 83, for fathering in the then unprecedented BCS predecessor to the college football playoff system that is now used to decide the national champion.
Sankey, then the young commissioner of the Southland Conference, was impressed.
Just recently, Sankey said he sought Kramer's advice regarding athletes exploring pro opportunities while still in school.
Sankey also recognized the SEC's lasting foundation. It all starts at home, he said, naming all 14 SEC campuses.
"Magnifying our global influence is not simply about playing games in London, or Asia or South America," Sankey said. "I think it's bigger than that, because the great strength in our conference is in our communities. It will be through those communities that we educate and develop young people who will be our future leaders."
It's from those communities that the SEC's great traditions must be nurtured and other traditions that never should have begun must end.
A native of upstate New York but a Southerner since 1989 after joining the staff at Northwestern State in Natchitoches, La., Sankey knows the South holds no monopoly on racism. However, it continually gets portrayed that way in part because of its Confederate past, a past that until last week was symbolized by the Confederate flag flying on South Carolina's state capitol grounds in Columbia, the city that is home of the University of South Carolina.
Sankey included the SEC's voice to the chorus calling for that flag in Columbia to come down following the murders of nine blacks at their church in Charleston. They were allegedly gunned down by a racist who had posted pictures of himself with a gun and the Confederate flag.
"Last week we saw change in Columbia, South Carolina, as the state government acted to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol grounds," Sankey said. "On that point I am particularly proud of the leadership demonstrated on our campuses in the states at the center of this debate. The times, they are changing, and the times will continue to change as we move forward."
Yet again it seems the SEC has a commissioner on top of changing times.
Sports on 07/15/2015