Jeff Capel’s stellar resume in the game of basketball has not precluded him from going unscathed in the game of life.
Speaking Monday on the College Hoops Today Podcast, Pitt’s third-year head coach — who played in a Final Four as a player at Duke and won a national title with the Blue Devils as an assistant in 2015 — spoke openly about the racial injustice that’s currently going on in our country and how he’s been directly affected in his own life.
Capel referenced his first personal experience with racism when he was just 10 years old, as his mother called him in when he was playing outside with his friends because the Ku Klux Klan was getting ready to march in their neighborhood.
“I just remember this fear that I had and it’s probably because of the fear that I saw in my mom,” Capel said. “That was the first time that I remember racism.”
He also touched on the struggles that racism brought to both his father and grandfather, who helped integrate the state of North Carolina, where Capel grew up.
“It’s not going to change overnight,” Capel said when he was asked what needs to be done to combat racial injustice. “But if you have empathy, if you want to change — it all goes back to helping others.”
To listen to the entire interview, go HERE.
