Feb. 16, 2026, 2:25 p.m. CT
- ESPN’s “SportsCenter on Campus” visited Jackson State University to celebrate Black History Month.
- The show featured interviews with men’s basketball coach Mo Williams and Civil Rights activist Dave Dennis.
- A segment at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum detailed Dave Dennis’ experiences during the Freedom Rides.
ESPN’s “SportsCenter on Campus” hosted by Jackson State was a celebration of the university and the history of the city of Jackson.
ESPN’s flagship program visited Jackson State on Feb. 16 to celebrate Black History Month. Inside the Lee E. Williams Athletics and Assembly Center, the show, hosted by Kimberley A. Martin and David Dennis Jr., was a display of the city and university’s legacy of “Black excellence.”
It included interviews with men’s basketball coach Mo Williams and Dennis’ father, Dave Dennis, who was an activist in Mississippi during the Civil Rights movement. There also was moment of recognition for Jackson State’s Sonic Boom of the South marching band.
Williams previewed the Tigers’ matchup against Bethune Cookman on Feb. 16 (6 p.m. CT, ESPNU). He also spoke about how much coaching at Jackson State means to him as a Jackson native.
“Jackson State has always been a part of my family, and I never saw myself actually coaching here,” Williams said. “The opportunity was in front of me, and I felt like it was a great opportunity for me to put an imprint, not only where I’m from, but a community that I was raised in.”
Williams poked fun at Dennis, who was his classmate at Murrah High School, before later beating him in a free-throw competition.
Iman Shumpert, Williams’ former NBA teammate, joined the show virtually to surprise Williams. He reminisced about their time as teammates, including when they won the 2016 NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“There’s actually a specific play where we broke a record for the threes, and Mo was trying to make, I believe, a skip pass to somebody else,” Shumpert said about the Cavaliers setting an NBA record at the time with 25 made 3-pointers in a game in 2016.
“He threw it off their head. It bounced over to me, perfect, and I hit a three, and we broke the record for it. … He ain’t mean to throw it to me, but it came right to me, baby, so shoutout to my guy.”
Later, the program featured a segment centered around Dennis and his father. It showed Dennis and Martin at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum looking at pictures of Dennis’ father during the Freedom Rides.
Dennis described his father’s experiences during the Civil Rights movement, even mentioning that his father was supposed to travel with civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner to investigate a church bombing. The trio was taken and killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Philadelphia, Mississippi. A bout of bronchitis prevented Dennis’ father from being with them, likely saving his life. He delivered the eulogy at Chaney’s funeral.
“We’re here at Jackson State, this beautiful HBCU surrounded by Black excellence … and we have so much to celebrate,” Dennis said. “It’s a reminder of what people sacrificed and (what) was taken from them to get us to this moment.”
“I lost a lot of friends,” Dennis’ father added. “When I look around me though, and look at the kids behind me and visiting HBCUs … it was worth it. I wouldn’t trade one moment, one beating, one time in jail for what I see right now.”
Tia Reid covers Jackson State sports for the Clarion Ledger. Email her at treid@usatodayco.com and follow her on X @tiareid65.