Athletes As Educators

Earl Austin Jr. has been covering sports in the St. Louis area since 1986. He is the sports editor of the St. Louis American, which is one of the top African-American newspapers in the country. Earl is also a local sports historian who has penned two books and produced one DVD on basketball history in the St. Louis metropolitan area. His latest book, "You Might Need a Jacket: Hilarious Stories of Wacky Sports Parents," is the culmination of more than 20 years of Earl witnessing "Straitjacket Parent" behavior at youth sports events. Earl has seen it all from mothers making bobblehead dolls of their children to dads being arrested and taken away in handcuffs from their children's games and everything in between. Earl is a former athlete himself who played high school and college basketball. He was inducted into the Lindenwood University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987. www.earlaustinjr.com www.stlamerican.com