Lunch at the Library with Thom Gossom Jr.

Who knew of the social isolation and great cultural divide

 experienced by Auburn University's first black athletes?

Heroes on the field but loners on the campus?

Certainly not me! But I was there during some of those years 

and discovered Thursday that I even graduated Auburn on the same day

 as Thom Gossom Jr. At AU, he was a walk-on football player 

who achieved scholarship status and made first string.

 And he became the first black athlete to graduate that university,

 a feat he attributes to his parents' insistence for a solid undergraduate education.

 

As February's featured author at Selma's Lunch at the Library series, Gossom

 reminisced about his days as a reluctant pioneer of integration in the New South.

 He went on to a brief career in the NFL followed by public relations, acting

  and writing. The Birmingham native appeared in such television shows

 as "Boston Legal," "In the Heat of the Night" and "NYPD Blue." 

There were also a few films. 

But yesterday, his amiable personality connected with a full house
 as he mostly focused on football and how he finally made amends

 with the emotions that threatened to throw him off course during his his younger

 years. Gossom signed copies of  his autobiography,

 "Walk-On" along with his "Slice of Life" short story collections. 

    

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