Black History

Local legend referee excelled in more than sports

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER — It’s been said that any two people on Earth are at least six acquaintance links apart. James “Jim” Robinson is no exception. The late Bill McMoore first hired Robinson, then a St. Paul high-schooler, to referee games at Hallie Q. Brown. McMoore, as Minneapolis Public Schools athletic director in the early 1980s, gave me my first high school basketball coaching job in Minnesota.

Published

6 years ago

July 16, 2019

Charles Hallman

By Charles Hallman

It’s been said that any two people on Earth are at least six acquaintance links apart. James “Jim” Robinson is no exception.

The late Bill McMoore first hired Robinson, then a St. Paul high-schooler, to referee games at Hallie Q. Brown. McMoore, as Minneapolis Public Schools athletic director in the early 1980s, gave me my first high school basketball coaching job in Minnesota.

Ed Prohofsky, who succeeded McMoore as MPS AD, saw me attending local basketball coaching clinics and told McMoore about me. Both he and Robinson sit together at Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx games, and this columnist purposely pays his respects to these two elders.

After high school, Robinson was convinced by the late James Griffin, St. Paul’s first Black deputy fire chief, to pursue officiating as a second career and began to ref all over the state of Minnesota. I got to know Griffin, who along with Jimmy Lee was one of the first Black officials in Minnesota. He often advised me on my writing.

I first met Robinson when the late Kwame McDonald, a colleague, mentor and friend, introduced us at the summer league he ran and asked me to coach in the late 1980s. McDonald once coached Lisa Lissimore, the Minneapolis Public Schools(MSHSL) associate director, on the Summit-University women’s basketball team.

Lissimore recommended Robinson for one of the seven NCAA Living Legend awards handed out during the Men’s Final Four in April. She included a Black History Month piece I wrote in 2018 as part of her supporting documentation.

If you’re keeping count, that’s five degrees of separation of James Robinson, the first Black official to referee in the Minnesota State Boys’ Basketball Tournament in the 1970s; in total, he worked seven state tournaments. He refereed both football and basketball for many years in the Twin Cities and throughout Minnesota, then focused solely on hoops both at the high school and college levels.

The Big Ten selected Robinson in 1971 as a basketball official, and he became one of the first Black referees to work Division I sports. He worked Big Ten, Division I, II, and III games for 16 years before a knee injury forced him to retire. He then became a supervisor of officials both for the Big Ten and as MSHSL high school basketball officials coordinator and supervisor ever since.

A longtime advocate for Black officials, Robinson for many years has held officiating camps, helped found a minority officials association in Minnesota, and was a National Federation of Basketball Rules Writing Committee member.

During the late 1960s, local community folk approached Robinson to apply for the director of the Summit University Teen Center, which was developing a new social services concept, the “drop-in center.” He has now been at “The Loft” since 1967.

What I didn’t know about Robinson was that he is a master barber and served on the Minnesota Board of Barber Examiners. I later learned that as a youngster growing up in St. Paul he was the first Black elected as the citywide student chief of the school patrol boys, and as a teenager was selected to attend Minnesota’s Boys State where his peers selected him “Mayor of Boy’s State.”

Robinson’s impressive resume includes inductions into the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Honor and the MSHSL Hall of Fame.

“Who determines a legend?” Robinson, ever modest, responded when asked where the NCAA Living Legend honor ranks. “I would not rank [myself] so high.”

This article originally appeared in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

Charles Hallman

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Oakland Post: Week of December 24 – 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 24 – 30, 2025

Published

3 days ago

December 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Bling It On: Holiday Lights Brighten Dark Nights All Around the Bay

On the block where I grew up in the 1960s, it was an unwritten agreement among the owners of those row homes to put up holiday lights: around the front window and door, along the porch banister, etc. Some put the Christmas tree in the window, and you could see it through the open slats of the blinds.

Published

1 week ago

December 21, 2025

Oakland Post

Christmas lights on a house near the writer’s residence in Oakland. Photo by Joseph Shangosola.

By Wanda Ravernell

I have always liked Christmas lights.

From my desk at my front window, I feel a quiet joy when the lights on the house across the street come on just as night falls.

My father, the renegade of the block, made no effort with lights, so my mother hung a wreath with two bells in the window. Just enough to let you know someone was at home.

Two doors down was a different story. Mr. King, the overachiever of the block, went all out for Christmas: The tree in the window, the lights along the roof and a Santa on his sleigh on the porch roof.

There are a few ‘Mr. Kings’ in my neighborhood.

In particular is the gentleman down the street. For Halloween, they erected a 10-foot skeleton in the yard, placed ‘shrunken heads’ on fence poles, pumpkins on steps and swooping bat wings from the porch roof. They have not held back for Christmas.

The skeleton stayed up this year, this time swathed in lights, as is every other inch of the house front. It is a light show that rivals the one in the old Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia.

I would hate to see their light bill…

As the shortest day of the year approaches, make Mr. King’s spirit happy and get out and see the lights in your own neighborhood, shopping plazas and merchant areas.

Here are some places recommended by 510 Families and Johnny FunCheap.

Oakland

Oakland’s Temple Hill Holiday Lights and Gardens is the place to go for a drive-by or a leisurely stroll for a religious holiday experience. Wear a jacket, because it’s chilly outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at 4220 Lincoln Ave., particularly after dark. The gardens are open all day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with the lights on from dusk until closing.

Alameda

Just across the High Street Bridge from Oakland, you’ll find Christmas Tree Lane in Alameda.

On Thompson Avenue between High Street and Fernside drive, displays range from classic trees and blow-ups to a comedic response to the film “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Lights turn on at dusk and can be seen through the first week in January.

Berkeley

The Fourth Street business district from University Avenue to Virginia Street in Berkeley comes alive with lights beginning at 5 p.m. through Jan. 1, 2026.

There’s also a display at one house at 928 Arlington St., and, for children, the Tilden Park Carousel Winter Wonderland runs through Jan. 4, 2026. Closed Christmas Day. For more information and tickets, call (510) 559-1004.

Richmond

The Sundar Shadi Holiday Display, featuring a recreation of the town of Bethlehem with life-size figures, is open through Dec. 26 at 7501 Moeser Lane in El Cerrito.

Marin County

In Marin, the go-to spot for ‘oohs and ahhs’ is the Holiday Light Spectacular from 4-9 p.m. through Jan. 4, 2026, at Marin Center Fairgrounds at 10 Ave of the Flags in San Rafael through Jan. 4. Displays dazzle, with lighted walkways and activities almost daily. For more info, go to: www.marincounty.gov/departments/cultural-services/department-sponsored-events/holiday-light-spectacular

The arches at Marin County Civic Center at 3501 Civic Center Dr. will also be illuminated nightly.

San Francisco

Look for light installations in Golden Gate Park, chocolate and cheer at Ghirardelli Square, and downtown, the ice rink in Union Square and the holiday tree in Civic Center Plaza are enchanting spots day and night. For neighborhoods, you can’t beat the streets in Noe Valley, Pacific Heights, and Bernal Heights. For glee and over-the-top glitz there’s the Castro, particularly at 68 Castro Street.

Livermore

The winner of the 2024 Great Light Flight award, Deacon Dave has set up his display with a group of creative volunteers at 352 Hillcrest Avenue since 1982. See it through Jan. 1, 2026. For more info, go to https://www.casadelpomba.com

Fremont

Crippsmas Place is a community of over 90 decorated homes with candy canes passed out nightly through Dec. 31. A tradition since 1967, the event features visits by Mr. and Mrs. Claus on Dec. 18 and Dec. 23 and entertainment by the Tri-M Honor Society at 6 p.m. on Dec. 22. Chrippsmas Place is located on: Cripps Place, Asquith Place, Nicolet Court, Wellington Place, Perkins Street, and the stretch of Nicolet Avenue between Gibraltar Drive and Perkins Street.

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Activism

Lu Lu’s House is Not Just Toying Around with the Community

Wilson and Lambert will be partnering with Mayor Barbara Lee on a toy giveaway on Dec. 20. Young people, like Dremont Wilkes, age 15, will help give away toys and encourage young people to stay in school and out of trouble. Wilkes wants to go to college and become a specialist in financial aid. Sports agent Aaron Goodwin has committed to giving all eight young people from Lu Lu’s House a fully paid free ride to college, provided they keep a 3.0 grade point average and continue the program. Lu Lu’s House is not toying around.

Published

1 week ago

December 20, 2025

Oakland Post

Tania Fuller Bryant, Zirl Wilson, Dremont Wilkes, Tracy Lambert and Dr. Geoffrey Watson. Courtesy Oakland Private Industry

Special to the Post

Lu Lu’s House is a 501c3 organization based in Oakland, founded by Mr. Zirl Wilson and Mr. Tracy Lambert, both previously incarcerated. After their release from jail, they wanted to change things for the better in the community — and wow, have they done that!

The duo developed housing for previously incarcerated people, calling it “Lu Lu’s House,” after Wilson’s wonderful wife. At a time when many young people were robbing, looting, and involved in shootings, Wilson and Lambert took it upon themselves to risk their lives to engage young gang members and teach them about nonviolence, safety, cleanliness, business, education, and the importance of health and longevity.

Lambert sold hats and T-shirts at the Eastmont Mall and was visited by his friend Wilson. At the mall, they witnessed gangs of young people running into the stores, stealing whatever they could get their hands on and then rushing out. Wilson tried to stop them after numerous robberies and finally called the police, who Wilson said, “did not respond.” Having been incarcerated previously, they realized that if the young people were allowed to continue to rob the stores, they could receive multiple criminal counts, which would take their case from misdemeanors to felonies, resulting in incarceration.

Lu Lu’s House traveled to Los Angeles and obtained more than 500 toys
for a Dec. 20 giveaway in partnership with Oakland Mayor Barbara
Lee. Courtesy Oakland Private Industry,

Wilson took it upon himself to follow the young people home and when he arrived at their subsidized homes, he realized the importance of trying to save the young people from violence, drug addiction, lack of self-worth, and incarceration — as well as their families from losing subsidized housing. Lambert and Wilson explained to the young men and women, ages 13-17, that there were positive options which might allow them to make money legally and stay out of jail. Wilson and Lambert decided to teach them how to wash cars and they opened a car wash in East Oakland. Oakland’s Initiative, “Keep the town clean,” involved the young people from Lu Lu’s House participating in more than eight cleanup sessions throughout Oakland. To assist with their infrastructure, Lu Lu’s House has partnered with Oakland’s Private Industry Council.

For the Christmas season, Lu Lu’s House and reformed young people (who were previously robbed) will continue to give back.

Lu Lu’s House traveled to Los Angeles and obtained more than 500 toys.