ESP’s Everett Glenn joined Ramogi Huma, President, National Athletes & Players Association, and Andy Schwarz, Partner, OSKR LLC, on the “College Sports-Industrial Complex” panel at the 2nd Annual UCLA Martin Luther King Remembrance Day. The event is a daylong commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the milestone moment in civil rights history when Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to nearly 5,000 people at UCLA.

King’s speech not only foreshadowed the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, but it also marked the beginning of an awareness among many UCLA students that one person could make a difference. King was presented with a check for $700 after UCLA’s history professors collected money from the crowd to help fund his SCOPE Project. That summer, SCOPE sent more than 20 UCLA students and faculty to the South to register voters. The goal of the coordinating committee of students, faculty, staff, alumni and community partners is to to highlight “True Bruin” values and increase awareness of the role that UCLA Bruins have played in advancing a more equitable, inclusive and just society.

This year’s event will look at the issue of repeated blunt force trauma to the brain, promote concussion awareness, and the work that Black Bruin athlete alumni are engaged in to mitigate this challenge as well as their efforts to facilitate better career, health and quality of life outcomes among youth engaged in sports. There were panels on “Athletes as Activists”, “CTE & Implicit Bias”, “and Brain Injury in Youth Sports”, a noon rally at Meyerhoff Park, a VIP Reception at Royce Hall, and evening screening of the critically acclaimed movie ‘Concussion.”

Keynote speakers included Dr. Mayumi Prins, Assistant Director, UCLA Steve Tisch BrainSport Program and Director of Outreach & Educational Programs, Department of Neurosurgery; Dr. Vernon Williams, Founding Director of The Sports Neurology & Pain Medicine at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic, and consulting Team Physician, Lakers, Dodgers, Kings, Sparks & Ducks; Jeanne Marie Laskas, Professor, Pittsburgh University and author of “Concussion”; and Christine Simmons, President & COO, LA Sparks and President-Elect, UCLA Alumni Association.