The White Shadow and Puddn'head Wilson

Composed and posted on March 24, 2016

I note with sadness the passing of Ken Howard, Class of 1966, whose role as the White Shadow was a seminal portrayal of a coach who was able to meld a disparate interracial group of high school basketball players into a unified championship caliber basketball team. In their journey to the championship game, both the players and coach learn certain important lessons about life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/24/arts/television/ken-howard-71-actor-and-sag-aftra-union-president-dies.html?mabReward=A3&module=WelcomeBackModal&contentCollection=Americas&region=FixedCenter&action=click&src=recg&pgtype=article

I was greatly impressed with the White Shadow but my favorite Ken Howard role was his lead role in the 1984 American Playhouse production ofPuddn'head Wilson.  You can read about Mark Twain's story at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pudd%27nhead_Wilson

and you can read reviews about the American Playhouse production at 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087954/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt

Ken Howard had many other roles and he was esteemed by his fellow actors enough to have been the president of SAG-AFTRA for many years, but in my mind his legacy will always be linked to The White Shadow and Puddn'head Wilson.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Class of 1975