James Sanders (submitted photo)
The Male Mentoring Program at Vance-Granville Community College is bringing former Harlem Globetrotter James “Twiggy” Sanders to speak to students, faculty, staff and the community.
Sanders is scheduled to speak first in the multi-purpose room at VGCC’s Franklin County Campus near Louisburg on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 10:30 a.m. Then, he will speak in the Civic Center on the college’s Main Campus in Vance County at 1 p.m. that day. Both presentations are free and open to the public.
Coming right on the heels of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, Sanders will encourage students to fulfill Dr. King’s dream by continuing their education in order to create better lives for themselves and their communities.
A native of Raleigh, Sanders was a standout at Ligon High School, where he was all-conference, all-state and All-American in 1970, and was also named the Wake County Player of the Year. He continued his education and basketball career at Johnson C. Smith University, earning a spot on the CIAA All-Tournament team his junior and senior year. He received his B.S. in Physical Education in 1974. Nicknamed “Twiggy” for his lean build, Sanders played with the Globetrotters from 1974 until 1991. Living up to the Globetrotter name, Sanders traveled more than 75,000 miles to over 100 countries on six continents.
Following his Globetrotter career, Sanders continued to be involved in the game he loved, but this time as a coach. He has coached at Bonner Academy in Raleigh, Morris Brown College in Atlanta, the Raleigh Cougars of the United States Basketball League, and with the ABA’s Maryland Nighthawks, a team that he guided to the semi-finals in the 2004-05 season. Sanders was also an assistant men’s basketball coach at Shaw University, three blocks from where he grew up in Raleigh.
Sanders was the 27th person in the Globetrotters’ history to be honored by the team as a “Legend,” joining the ranks of other Showmen like Reece “Goose” Tatum, Hubert “Geese” Ausbie and “Sweet” Lou Dunbar.
Supported by a grant from the N.C. Community College System, the male mentoring initiative at VGCC supports the educational and professional aspirations of male students through an active, intensive, and engaging process of academic coaching and case management. The goals of the program are to keep participating students in school, to increase their graduation rate and to increase their rate of transferring to four-year colleges and universities. For more information, contact Anthony Pope at (252) 738-3395.