MIAMI – The 2015-16 season marks the 13th year the Miami HEAT will pay tribute to Black History Month with a comprehensive campaign spanning multiple media platforms and outlets. PepsiCo is the presenting sponsor of the Black History Month initiative. The HEAT will present a series of vignettes focusing on the notable achievements of various African-Americans who have helped change the course of history with their contributions in sports, the arts, the community, entertainment, music and politics.
In addition, the Seventh Annual Black History Month Challenge presented by PepsiCo, will be hosted at AmericanAirlines Arena on February 29th. Students from two local schools—Coral Reef Senior High School (MiamiDade) and Hollywood Hills High School (Broward)—will compete against each other by answering Black History trivia questions. HEAT Legends Alonzo Mourning and Glen Rice will join HEAT Television Host and Courtside Reporter Jason Jackson at the event. The winning school will be given a $4,000 educational grant courtesy of the Miami HEAT Charitable Fund with the runner up receiving a $500 educational grant.
The vignettes feature HEAT players, executives, and coaches telling the stories of heroes and heroic events, saluting the significant sacrifices required by so many in becoming a part of the collective history and fabric of our nation. FOX’s Sun Sports will air the vignettes in its pre-game and post-game segments throughout the month of February. The vignettes will also be highlighted as part of the HEAT experience—online, in-arena, and in print as featured in TIPOFF magazine and on the Miami HEAT Mobile App.
As they have in each of the last nine years, the HEAT will make the video vignettes available to all schools in MiamiDade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties through a partnership with BECON and WLRN, both of whom provide educational programming to schools in those districts.
The team will also make available on its website and to the schools a piece featuring key passages from the famed “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as part of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
A complete list of the subjects and those HEAT players and coaches who relay the stories, is included below.
Sports:
1. Wilma Rudolph by. Josh McRoberts
2. Moses Malone & Darryl Dawkins by. Amar’e Stoudemire
Artists/Authors
3. Shonda Rhimes by. Dwyane Wade
4. Lena Horne by. David Fizdale
5. Harry Belafonte by. Chris Bosh
6. Miles Davis/John Coltrane by. Keith Askins
7. BB King by. Josh Richardson
8. Quincy Jones by. Keith Smart
9. James Earl Jones by. Justise Winslow
10. Soul Train by. Juwan Howard
11. Deep City Records by. Udonis Haslem
Activists
12. Desmond Tutu by. Luol Deng
Politics and Military
13. Abraham Lincoln by. Alonzo Mourning
Community
14. Overtown by. Alonzo Mourning
15. “I Have A Dream” Speech Tribute by. Alonzo Mourning