Former Wildcat, Minneapolis native Reid Travis talks racial injustice on “Coffee with Cal”

LEXINGTON, Ky (WTVQ) – The tragedy of George Floyd and the protesting and unrest that has followed in Minneapolis, has affected many around the world, for solid blue fans one former basketball cat is greatly affected.

Reid Travis is a Minneapolis native, which means this entire event truly hit close to home.

“Where George Floyd lost his life is just blocks away from where my dad grew up,” said Travis on Coach Cal’s weekly show Coffee with Cal. “My grandmother had a business in that neighborhood. It’s streets that I’m very familiar with. The brokenness of such a tragic thing happening like that I’m streets that I’m familiar with with the community I’m familiar with it’s really just tough to wrap my mind around.”

Heartbroken, that’s another word Travis used when looking at what’s going on in his hometown, but he was inspired to go home and see his friends his age spearheading the movement for change.

“Not just waiting around for someone in the older generation to step on and make change, but we have a voice and we have a platform,” said Travis. “I took a lot of pride in going back home and seeing that there were a lot of friends that I went school with, that I hooped with at the park, that I know personally who are on the front lines of this protest.”

For Coach Cal, he says he wishes he could make immediate changes to police brutality and the criminal justice system. While that’s out of his reach, he wants to help because of what black athletes have done for him.

“You sit there and look at my wife and I say, everything that has happened for me and her and our kids and our family, it all comes back to African American families trusting me with their son. Bottom line and the guys that I’ve talked to know I’ll tell them, without you none of this happens for me and I love you and I appreciate you.”

Cal says he can help through access.
He plans to do that with a minority internship program.

“And I proposed this to our school. An internship program. As executive development program for minorities in athletics.”

Cal says that could be in anything from media relations to shadowing the training staff.
Travis also chimed in on how coaches around he country can create a safe environment for tough conversations among players.

“Something I almost wish I did myself and had some push in college was to have these uncomfortable conversations in the locker room,” said Travis. “Moving forward even for me, whether that’s overseas in Germany it’s to educate more people on your experience and listen to other people’s experiences.”