Coach remembers sacrifices family made to gain equality

By Scott Wright

Published: July 4, 2008

"I walked up to him, introduced myself, and thanked him,” Capel said. "I had never met the guy in my life, but I needed to thank him for helping me to get where I am. I just wanted to show appreciation for the things he did that allow me to be where I am.”

Capel is living out his version of the American dream now as a college coach and he knows it would be nothing more than a dream without those who fought racial battles before he came along. Capel knows the debt he owes trailblazers like Jobe, not just in basketball, but all walks of life.

Capel knows, because his grandfather was one of them.

Felton Capel was a businessman and town politician in Southern Pines, N.C, where he still lives and works as CEO of Century Associates, a business he took over nearly 50 years ago during the 1950s, when he was chosen by civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr. to help in the integration of the southern states from the Carolinas to Alabama.

"He organized sit-ins in movie theaters and different places, trying to integrate places and schools,” Capel said of his grandfather, who he calls Pop. "I remember hearing stories from my dad about Pop getting spit on and all the things he went through and how painful that was for my dad.

"Knowing the impact that Pop made and the struggles he had, it makes it pretty special to see all the opportunities we have today.”

Felton isn't the only one to help foster Capel's racial pride. His maternal grandfather, Page Saunders, received a master's degree and became a college professor at a time when black men rarely did either. And Capel's father-in-law, Dan Blue, was the first black speaker of the House in the North Carolina Legislature.

At 33, Capel is entering his third year as the head basketball coach at a major university. Eleven years ago, he received a college degree at the end of a four-year playing career at Duke University, one of the country's most prestigious schools, both in academics and basketball.

The fact that any of those things were possible tells Felton Capel that his efforts were worth it.

"We knew that the things we were fighting for might not benefit us, but they would benefit those who came after us,” said Felton, who played Negro League baseball for the Rockingham Giants in 1949.

"When I was 18, even if I had good enough grades, I wasn't going to get into a school like Duke. Then I got to watch my grandson not only get in, but be recruited to come there when he was just a junior in high school.”

"I watch Jeff now and I see all those things I was trying to teach him come out and that's what makes me proud,” Felton said.

"At the start of the civil rights movement, there were a lot of black people who were more interested in getting even. If you just want to get even, you'll never get ahead. That's what helped us more than violence or anything else back then and I tried to teach that to my children and my grandchildren.”

The works of his grandfather always influenced Jeff's life He even majored in history and minored in African-American studies at Duke. But now that he has a greater understanding of the impact people like Felton had, his appreciation has grown.

"That's just part of my history and I'm very thankful for all the things that guys like Jackie Robinson or Bill Russell or my grandfather or a lot of other people went through so black people can have these opportunities — so we can have black head coaches at major universities now,” Jeff said.

"It's just about paying respect to the people who laid the foundation for me to be here. I didn't get here by myself. I got here because of my parents, my grandparents and lots of other people who made sacrifices for people like me to be in the position we're in.”

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