Reds Call for Former Cincinnati Mayor to Remove Video Honoring Uncle’s Olympic Win

Blackwell speaking at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference
Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia
Elizabeth Weibel

Former Cincinnati mayor Ken Blackwell has faced calls from the Cincinnati Reds to remove a video honoring his uncle, who was the first black American to win a gold at the Olympics.

The team first showed a video honoring William DeHart Hubbard, who won a gold medal in the long jump at the 1924 Paris Olympics, during a game at their stadium on July 29. Hubbard became the first black American athlete to win the gold at the Olympics.

Blackwell, a part owner for the Reds baseball team, explained to Breitbart News that when the video was shown in the stadium, there was no backlash or criticism from the audience, adding the team cited copyright issues.

File/American athlete William DeHart Hubbard won the gold medal for the running long jump at the 1924 Paris Summer Olympic Games. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty)

Copyright is explained as being “the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something,” according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute.

Blackwell added part of the reason he was asked to remove the video was because of his conservative views, adding he’s been “identified as a strong supporter” of former President Donald Trump.

The Reds were also pressured by some on the Left to take the action against him.

“My Uncle DeHart Hubbard was the first Black American to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event at the 1924 Paris Olympics,” Blackwell, who served in public life for decades, as the mayor of Cincinnati, 14 years in statewide elected office in Ohio, and multiple presidential appointments, including U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., wrote in a post on X.

“Hubbard was raised in Cincinnati and later founded the Cincinnati Tigers Negro League baseball team,” Blackwell added. “The @Reds honored him with this incredible video.”

The former Cincinnati mayor explained to Breitbart News he has a part-stake in the Reds, and he and others with a stake in the team were “not on the same team politically.”

Blackwell further outlined prior to the Reds showing the video in their stadium, NBC News’s Lester Holt had shown a video celebrating the Olympics and DeHart Hubbard’s win at the Olympics 100 years ago.

DeHart Hubbard, who studied at the University of Michigan beginning in 1921, went on to win the “first of six straight AAU long jump titles,” the next year, according to the Olympics website.

DeHart Hubbard was the first black athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event. Hubbard studied at the University of Michigan starting in 1921, and the following year he won the first of six straight AAU long jump titles. He also won the AAU triple jump in 1922 and 1923 and at the NCAA he won the 100 y in 1925 and the long jump in 1923. In 1925 he set a world record of 25-10 7/8 (7.89) when he took the NCAA title for a second time, and then in 926 he cnofirmed his ability as a sprinter when he equalled the world record of 9.6 for 100 y. Although injured, DeHart Hubbard won the 1924 Olympic long jump comfortably; he was again injured at the 1928 when he finished 11th. Between these two appearances he had the best mark of his career in 1927 when he jumped 26-2 1/4 (7.98), but the mark was not recognized as a world record, because the take-off board was one inch higher than the landing pit. In all, Hubbard bettered 25 feet on eleven occaisons and was undoubtedly the greatest jumper of the pre-Owens era.

Blackwell remembered his uncle would tell them to “always play for an audience of one.”

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