By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE Ariz. -- Ray and Buffie Anderson stumbled into their first showing of "Black Angels Over Tuskegee" in New York while Ray was still the NFL's executive vice president of football operations in 2010.
Ray was so moved by the play that he took his NFL staff to see it; Buffie was so moved by it that she took her friend, Jets team psychologist Sarah Hickman, to see it -- which led to Jets coach Rex Ryan taking his entire team, the Jets front office and Jets owners on a bus into Manhattan to see it for two consecutive years at the end of training camp.
"When Buffie heard about Rex doing that she said 'why don’t we bring it to Arizona State?'" said Ray, ASU's Vice President for University Athletics.
With the cooperation of playwright Layon Gray and Gammage Executive Director Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, the Andersons did just that. On Thursday night, approximately 35 senior student-athletes attended an emotional and impactful showing of the play at the Galvin Playhouse, along with a packed house full of special guests.
It wasn't a one-time event to expose those lucky few to a seminal art work in the Andersons' lives, however.
"The point is to start a tradition of a senior experience for our student-athletes that will be educational, cultural, arts oriented -- something they have probably not been exposed to in their young lives," Ray Anderson said. "We're going to do this as a tradition going forward: one major event each year that will be part of their voyage at ASU."
The inaugural event had the desired impact. During the Q&A portion following the play, Gray noted how many sniffles and audible reactions he heard from the audience during the performance.
Sun Devils senior women's basketball player Elisha Davis told the cast she had never been to a play before, calling it an eye-opening experience from which she gleaned lessons about perseverance and teamwork.
"Anyone who is a part of Sun Devil Athletics should be here," graduating senior volleyball player Macey Gardner said. "It just puts everything in perspective; that you’re not just here for that diploma, you're not just here for that piece of paper. You're here to create relationships and you’re here to fight. You're here to do well. This play was a perfect representation of all of that."
Anderson doesn't have a clear vision for what form the event will take in future years.
"We'll put together a steering committee to determine that," he said. "The campus, the academic community, certainly Sun Devil Athletics support it. But even our President (Michael) Crow) said it's such a great idea that we should make sure we get some real thought on what it looks like going forward so that each experience will be unique and really impactful.
"We'll also get some of the athletes together to ask what things they would like to consider doing as part of this senior experience because, ultimately they are the ones who are going to benefit from it."
In keeping with ASU's mission to serve the greater community, Jennings-Roggensack also arranged for a group of 500 school children, teachers, superintendents and two surviving Tuskegee Airmen to view a portion of the play on the west campus on Thursday while celebrating the tenets of Martin Luther King Jr.'s teachings.
On Friday evening, military veterans were invited to an additional showing at Galvin Playhouse.
Jennings-Roggensack applauded the Andersons' initiative, insisting that exposing student-athletes to such cultural experiences will broaden their understanding of their relationship with, and their obligation to the community.
"There's a legacy that you leave behind when you go forward under arduous circumstances," Jennings-Roggensack said. "They, as ASU Sun Devils, will be leaving a legacy behind them, too."