🏀 Kevin Willmott Presents to Kansas Men’s Basketball on Juneteenth

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Academy Award winning film director and University of Kansas professor Kevin Willmott shared his insight on the federal holiday Juneteenth with the Kansas men’s basketball team Wednesday.

“One of the things I wanted to try to get across was that there is a cost to freedom,” Willmott said. “Freedom doesn’t come without a price and Juneteenth is the day we take account of all that. We look back at where we come from – at the pain, the struggle and all of that – and allow that to inform the future. How do we move forward with the problems and challenges we still have?”

With the rise of social injustice in the United States, in 2019, under the direction of Director of Basketball Operations Fred Quartlebaum, Kansas men’s basketball instituted initiatives to educate and act toward these issues and enhance the overall culture of the KU program. Juneteenth has played a role in educating the KU men’s basketball team.

In 2021 the Jayhawks took a trip to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. In summer of 2022, they went to the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Kansas. In 2023, the team toured the Underground Railroad Journey in Douglas County (Kansas). KU Leads has also played a role in the Juneteenth initiatives with the 2023 event organized by Quartlebaum and Chris Hughes, Kansas Athletics’ Inclusive Excellence Specialist.

More on Kevin Willmott here.

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