Big Sky
Four individual championships. All-star awards. 800 meters and 1000 meters.
Ezzard Wilson
Athlete. Educator. Author. A walk-on who became a champion, and a teacher who wrote the story down so others would not have to learn it the hard way alone.
The color of Black.
Ezzard Wilson was an aspiring athlete who walked on to the Idaho State University track team in 1976, without being recruited by the coach. Despite the odds, he won four individual Big Sky championships in the 800m and 1000m, while earning a Bachelor of Science in Biology (pre-med) with a minor in Physical Education.
He went on to become a successful educator, completing a Master’s degree in Environmental Science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and additional coursework at the Ph.D. level in Education.
He started writing to tell his story, so others can learn from it. His favorite authors, Harper Lee and William Golding, wrote about conscience, cruelty, and the societies we build. This memoir stands in that lineage, from a life actually lived.
A life in chapters.
Childhood
Sandy Point, St. Kitts
Raised with three brothers and four sisters. A sharecropper father. Farm labor before dawn. School by day. Harm that should never have been a child’s work to carry.
Through 1973
The local track, then the nation
School sport in Sandy Point led to representing St. Kitts in athletics. High school graduation. Sportsman of the Year.
1973-1976
The classroom before America
Grade 4 teacher at Vanduyn Public School, St. Kitts, until departure for the United States in August 1976.
1976
Idaho State, the walk-on
No recruiting pitch. Four individual Big Sky titles in the 800m and 1000m. All-star honors. A B.S. in Biology with a minor in Physical Education, and a mark on college track and field that still stands.
After the tape
Educator & author
M.S. in Environmental Science, NJIT. Doctoral coursework in Education. A career teaching. A memoir so the next generation can see the traps as well as the medals.
Marks that remain.
Medals and plaques matter. What he wants remembered is the student who was never supposed to be in the race.
High school
Sportsman of the Year. Several medals and plaques. The first public proof of a private will.
The academy
B.S. Biology / pre-med. M.S. Environmental Science. Ph.D. coursework in Education. A life that outran a single identity.
Hay rides, Halloween, and a finishing kick.
He took part in hay rides, skiing, bobbing for apples, Halloween parties, touch football, dances, soccer. The memoir is not only injury and institution. It is also the ordinary joy a young person fights to keep.
Why he writes
To tell his story, so others can learn from it.
On the shelf
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird. William Golding, Lord of the Flies.
Now
Hillside, New Jersey. Available for schools, colleges, and community events.
Contact