Black Excellence in Sports II: The Champions Behind Tiger Woods, David Ortiz, Lisa Leslie, A'ja Wilson and Derek Jeter

David Ortiz

Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer and 3-Time World Series Champion · Founder, Big Papi's Kitchen and the David Ortiz Children's Fund · FOX Sports MLB Analyst

Official links: Website · Facebook · Instagram · X

David Ortiz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and signed by Seattle at 17 before being traded to Minnesota — where, after injuries and years of being buried, the Twins released him in December 2002 as a cost-cutting move rather than pay him in arbitration.

Boston signed him cheaply, for a non-guaranteed $1.25 million, and 'Big Papi' became the clutch heart of the team that ended an 86-year World Series drought in 2004, then won again in 2007 and 2013, when he was World Series MVP.

Over 20 seasons he hit 541 home runs, made 10 All-Star teams and entered the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2022.

Off the field he built Big Papi's Kitchen — a food line of chips, salsas and hummus rooted in Dominican flavors — plus Big Papi Productions, and he was an initial partner in Dugout Ventures, investing alongside other players in baseball businesses.

"Boston will always be my home away from home"

In 2005 Ortiz visited children recovering from heart surgery at CEDIMAT Hospital in the Dominican Republic, and in 2007 he founded the David Ortiz Children's Fund to help children in the Dominican Republic and New England get critical cardiac care their families cannot afford.

The fund, run with partners including Massachusetts General Hospital, says it has saved over 500 lives in the Dominican Republic and raised more than $2 million through events including his annual celebrity golf classic. Ortiz, now a FOX Sports studio analyst, has said saving lives matters more to him than home runs or championships.

David Ortiz Children's Fund — “David Ortiz”
SABR — “David Ortiz” biography
Boardroom — “Big Papi Goes to Cooperstown”

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  Warrick Dunn  ·  Derek Jeter

Derek Jeter

New York Yankees Captain and Hall of Famer · Co-founder, The Players' Tribune and Arena Club — Miami, FL

Official links: Website · Facebook · Instagram · X

Derek Jeter spent all 20 of his seasons with the New York Yankees, winning five World Series titles, making 14 All-Star teams and serving as the team's captain — 'The Captain' — before entering the Hall of Fame. What he built next changed how athletes speak.

On October 1, 2014, days after retiring, he launched The Players' Tribune, a platform where athletes publish their own stories in their own words, directly to fans; Minute Media acquired it in 2019 to take it global.

He then served as part-owner and CEO of the Miami Marlins from 2017 to 2022, co-founded Arena Club, the digital sports trading-card platform, in 2022, co-launched the Greatness Wins apparel line, and joined FOX Sports as an MLB broadcaster in 2023 — a second career built entirely on ownership, media and letting players control their own narrative.

"My goal was to find a way for athletes to tell their stories when they wanted to tell it and how they wanted to tell it"

Jeter started giving back almost as soon as he arrived. He founded the Turn 2 Foundation in 1996, with his father, a substance-abuse counselor, to motivate young people to turn away from drugs and alcohol and toward healthy lifestyles.

The foundation has distributed more than $45 million to its programs, and its Jeter's Leaders have graduated high school and gone on to college at a 100 percent rate in the cohorts he cites. The 2025 Derek Jeter Invitational golf tournament in the Bahamas raised more than $1.8 million more for Turn 2's youth programs.

Boardroom — “Derek Jeter / Arena Club baseball cards” (CSV proof link)
The Players' Tribune — “Derek Jeter” contributor profile
Minute Media — “Derek Jeter's The Players' Tribune to Join the Minute Media Portfolio”

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  David Ortiz  ·  Frank Thomas

Frank Thomas

Chicago White Sox Hall of Famer, 'The Big Hurt' · Controlling Owner, Go The Distance Baseball — the Field of Dreams, Dyersville, IA

Official links: Instagram · X

Frank Thomas grew up in Columbus, Georgia, in a family that didn't have much — and he wasn't even drafted out of high school in 1986, a snub he said scarred him.

He went to Auburn on a football scholarship, became a baseball star, and the White Sox took him seventh overall in 1989. 'The Big Hurt' then put together one of the greatest right-handed hitting careers ever: 19 seasons, 521 home runs, back-to-back AL MVP awards in 1993 and 1994, a .301 lifetime average — and he did it clean through the steroid era, advocating for drug testing as early as 1995 and volunteering as the only active player interviewed for the Mitchell Report.

After baseball he founded W2W Records and Big Hurt Beer, and in September 2021 he led the group that bought a controlling interest in Go The Distance Baseball, the company that owns the Field of Dreams movie site in Iowa.

"We are confident people will come, people will most definitely come."

Thomas didn't just buy a movie set — he bought a youth-baseball mission. After taking control of the Field of Dreams site, his group announced plans for nine youth baseball and softball fields, team dormitories and a boutique hotel, so boys and girls could play daily on the most famous diamond in film.

He has said there is no better place to grow the game and get kids involved. The site, steps from where MLB staged its celebrated Field of Dreams games in 2021 and 2022, remains open to the public, with families still walking out of the corn to play catch.

USA Today (cited via Wikipedia) — “Hall of Famer Frank Thomas' group buys controlling interest in 'Field of Dreams' movie site”
ND Insider / USA Today Network — “MLB won't return to Field of Dreams site in 2023, Frank Thomas says”
Fox News via The JJ Report — “Iowa 'Field of Dreams' site purchased by group helmed by Hall of Famer Frank Thomas”

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  Derek Jeter  ·  Ken Griffey Jr.

Ken Griffey Jr.

Seattle Mariners Hall of Famer, 'The Kid' · Part-Owner, Seattle Mariners and Seattle Sounders FC — Seattle, WA

Official links: Instagram

Ken Griffey Jr. was the No. 1 overall pick in 1987, the teenage son of a major leaguer carrying a franchise on his back — and the pressure nearly broke him: at 17, he attempted suicide, a story he later told so other young people would hear it.

He rebuilt himself into the most joyful player of his generation — the backward cap, the sweetest swing in baseball, 630 home runs, 13 All-Star selections, 10 Gold Gloves and the 1997 AL MVP — then, after injury-plagued years in Cincinnati, won the 2005 NL Comeback Player of the Year award.

In retirement he did something almost no Black former player had done: in 2020 he and his family joined the Seattle Sounders FC ownership group, and on October 25, 2021 he purchased a stake in the Mariners, becoming the first former player in team history to hold a partnership interest in the club.

"This is a dream come true because of the relationship I've always had with the team, its fans, and the city of Seattle. I view this as another way to continue to give back to an organization and community that has always supported me, and my family."

Griffey frames ownership itself as giving back — a way to keep contributing to the organization and Seattle community that supported him for three decades.

He had already reshaped the game's culture once: he is credited with starting the tradition of players wearing No. 42 on Jackie Robinson Day, after asking Commissioner Bud Selig for permission to honor Robinson in 2007.

He also serves as a senior adviser to the MLB Commissioner and on the Baseball Hall of Fame's Board of Directors, and has taken up sports photography, shooting NFL and MLS matches and the Masters from the other side of the lens.

KNKX Public Radio — “Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. joins Mariners ownership group”
Bleacher Report — “Ken Griffey Jr. Joins Mariners' Ownership Group; 1st Player to Do So in Team History”
Wikipedia — “Ken Griffey Jr.” (biography — covers Mariners career and Sounders FC ownership stake)

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  Frank Thomas  ·  Ryan Howard

Ryan Howard

Philadelphia Phillies World Series Champion and NL MVP · Partner, SeventySix Capital and Chairman of its Athlete Venture Group — Philadelphia, PA

Official links: Website · Instagram · X

Ryan Howard was a fifth-round draft pick in 2001 who spent years blocked in the minors behind Jim Thome while general managers around the league tried to trade for him.

When his chance finally came he exploded: 2005 NL Rookie of the Year, 2006 NL MVP with 58 home runs, a 2008 World Series title, and the fastest player in baseball history to reach both 100 and 200 career home runs.

Then, on the final play of the 2011 NLDS, he ruptured his Achilles tendon — the injury that effectively ended his prime.

Howard rebuilt himself a second time, off the field: while still playing, he became a Partner at SeventySix Capital, the Philadelphia-area sports-tech venture capital firm, and Chairman of its Athlete Venture Group, and he is a partner in Colbie's Southern Kissed Chicken, working with chef Fabio Viviani.

"Other than playing the game I love, my passion is investing in innovative companies and helping the entrepreneurs behind them succeed."

Howard's venture work is built around teaching, not just investing. Through the Athlete Venture Group, professional athletes invest, learn and work directly with top sports-tech startups and founders — and Howard stresses to players that they should not rush into speculative investing, but first reach their savings goals and secure their families' financial stability.

He says he was inspired by Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Jay-Z and LeBron James — athletes who stopped simply collecting the check and started writing it — and he now mentors founders and fellow athletes, including Hall of Famers Ralph Sampson and Brian Westbrook, through the same door he walked through.

EisnerAmper — “Keynote Speaker, Ryan Howard Hits Homerun at the Philadelphia Business Summit”
Sports Illustrated / SportTechie — “Ryan Howard draws venture capital inspiration from athlete moguls”
SGB Media — “Ralph Sampson Joins SeventySix Capital's Athlete Venture Group”

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  Ken Griffey Jr.  ·  Torii Hunter

Torii Hunter

Minnesota Twins, Angels and Tigers All-Star · Co-owner, Tender Smokehouse Restaurants — Prosper, TX

Official links: Website · Instagram · X

Torii Hunter grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in a fairly impoverished downtown neighborhood — the son of Shirley, an elementary school teacher, and Theotis, an electrician — in a city where drugs, guns and gangs were the easy road.

Sports were his way out, but the minors nearly broke him first: as a broke Double-A player he slept in a Geo Prizm he shared with a teammate, waking with car-seat imprints on his cheek and sneaking showers in the clubhouse, ready to quit. He didn't.

Over 19 seasons he became 'Spider-Man' — a five-time All-Star, nine-time consecutive Gold Glove center fielder and two-time Silver Slugger with 353 home runs. In retirement he has built in North Texas as a co-owner of Tender Smokehouse, the Texas barbecue chain he owns with his wife Katrina, Eddie Bell, Andrea Weimer and fellow former big leaguer Matt Kemp.

"I broke down and cried tears of joy right there in the hallway. Just a few months earlier, I was waking up with car seat imprints on my cheek every morning and sneaking showers in the clubhouse, ready to quit baseball. Now, I was heading to The Show."

Hunter's giving has a long paper trail: the Torii Hunter Project Education Initiative funds college scholarships for students in Arkansas, California, Nevada and Minnesota; he partnered with MLB to maintain inner-city diamonds, supported Big Brothers and the Prostate Cancer Foundation, and helped fund a youth softball field in Placentia, California — work that earned him the Branch Rickey Award in 2009 for excellence in charity.

Tender Smokehouse, founded in Celina in 2017 and ranked No. 2 on Yelp's national places-to-eat list within two years, has grown to five North Texas locations built, its owners say, on food, service and atmosphere — and word of mouth, never advertising.

Whitesboro News Record — “Tender Smokehouse opens doors in W'boro”
Encyclopedia of Arkansas — “Torii Kedar Hunter (1975–)”
CultureMap Dallas — “Tender Smokehouse BBQ restaurant north of Dallas brings brisket to Aubrey”

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  Ryan Howard  ·  A'ja Wilson

A'ja Wilson

Las Vegas Aces Superstar and 4-Time WNBA MVP · Founder, Burnt Wax Candle Company and the A'ja Wilson Foundation — Las Vegas, NV

Official links: Website · Facebook · Instagram · X

A'ja Wilson grew up in Hopkins, South Carolina, dreading the moment a teacher called on her to read aloud. She wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until her sophomore year of high school — after years of being told she was just being lazy while she was, in her words, really trying.

Basketball became the place that made sense, and she turned it into history: a national title at South Carolina, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft, and a Las Vegas Aces career that now includes three WNBA championships and, in 2025, a record fourth league MVP award — no player had ever won four.

Off the court she became a New York Times best-selling author with 'Dear Black Girls' in 2024, launched the Burnt Wax Candle Company with her mother Eva in 2021 — candles named for her career milestones — and landed her own Nike signature shoe, the A'One.

"Before school started I sat down with my parents and an academic advisor from South Carolina, and we decided that every professor should know about my dyslexia."

Wilson and her parents, Rosco and Eva, founded the A'ja Wilson Foundation to serve as a resource for children and families who struggle with dyslexia and to shift school culture to prevent bullying — funding teacher training to spot learning disabilities early, plus camps, workshops and grants.

Her mother now serves as the foundation's executive director and as chief operating officer of Burnt Wax, after Wilson helped her retire from a long career in education. Wilson has said she started the foundation because the resources she finally received in college are resources every child deserves — not just top athletes at big schools.

NBC Sports Bay Area & California — “Aces' A'ja Wilson talks dyslexia and her inspiring path in WNBA”
Parade — “A'ja Wilson net worth” (CSV proof link)
Moment of Lift Books — “Dear Black Girls” (publisher page)

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  Torii Hunter  ·  Lisa Leslie

Lisa Leslie

Los Angeles Sparks Legend and 4-Time Olympic Gold Medalist · Co-founder, Aston Rose Real Estate — Los Angeles, CA

Official links: Website · X

Lisa Leslie was the face of a league that did not exist yet.

Raised in Compton and Los Angeles and a star at Morningside High in Inglewood and USC, the 6-foot-5 center signed with the brand-new WNBA in 1997 and carried it: three league MVP awards, back-to-back Sparks championships in 2001 and 2002, the first dunk in WNBA history, and four consecutive Olympic gold medals with Team USA — all while earning, at her peak, a league maximum of about $91,000 a year.

She understood sweat equity. In 2011, two years after retiring, she became the first former WNBA player to buy an ownership stake in a WNBA team — her own Sparks. In 2022 she co-founded Aston Rose with Tomi Rose, Rob Hite and Rod Watson, a national luxury real estate firm built by former professional athletes, for athletes and entertainers.

"We understand that many African American and minority athletes are making money for the first time. Unfortunately, so many of those athletes fall into the trap of it being about things that don't appreciate in value for them; our firm is changing that"

Aston Rose exists, in Leslie's telling, because so many Black and minority athletes are earning real money for the first time in their families — and too often spend it on things that don't appreciate.

The firm, which launched in California and Florida, says its team had closed more than $500 million in combined real estate transactions at launch; its mission is to teach athletes and entertainers to build generational wealth instead.

Leslie was honored in 2026 with an 11-foot statue, 'The First Lady,' outside the Sparks' arena — the first of a Sparks player — and says she wants back into team ownership next.

Front Office Sports — “WNBA Legend Lisa Leslie Launches Athlete-Focused Real Estate Firm”
USA TODAY — “WNBA legend Lisa Leslie honored with statue outside Los Angeles arena”
Bryant University News — “WNBA star and Olympian Lisa Leslie to headline Women's Summit”

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  A'ja Wilson  ·  Napheesa Collier

Napheesa Collier

Minnesota Lynx Star and WNBA Defensive Player of the Year · Co-founder, Unrivaled — Minneapolis, MN

Official links: Website · Instagram · X

Napheesa Collier was the 2019 WNBA Rookie of the Year, but her defining season came after she had her first child.

She sat out most of 2022 on maternity leave — returning just 74 days after giving birth to her daughter Mila to play one last game alongside the retiring Sylvia Fowles — then came back in 2023 as the Lynx captain and had the best year of her career: a career-best 21.5 points a game, her first All-WNBA First Team selection and a share of the AP Comeback Player of the Year award.

She followed it with the 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year award and two Olympic gold medals with Team USA. Rather than wait for women's basketball to pay and protect its players properly, she helped build the alternative herself: in 2023 she co-founded Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 offseason league, with Breanna Stewart.

"We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world, but right now, we have the worst leadership in the world."

Unrivaled was designed to end the exhausting overseas offseason — players flying abroad ten days after the WNBA Finals, playing year-round, getting hurt and missing their families, as Collier, a young mother herself, put it.

The Miami-based league launched in January 2025 with equity stakes for its players, and it has grown fast: by its Series C round in 2026 it was valued at $650 million, with players as the largest shareholder group, holding collective equity approaching $200 million.

Collier also works with U.S. Bank to build financial-literacy resources for WNBA players — the resources, she says, that she did not have coming into the league.

NBC Sports — “Napheesa Collier blasts Cathy Engelbert, WNBA leadership for lack of accountability”
AfroTech — “Issa Rae Is An Investor In 3 Professional Sports Leagues With Unrivaled Being The Latest”
Dime / Uproxx via GoneTrending — “Napheesa Collier Wants To Give WNBA Players The Financial Resources She Didn't Have”

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  Lisa Leslie  ·  Jarome Iginla

Jarome Iginla

Calgary Flames Captain and Hockey Hall of Famer · Co-owner, Kamloops Blazers (WHL) — St. Albert, AB / Kelowna, BC

Jarome Iginla was raised in St. Albert, Alberta, by his mother Susan, a massage therapist, after his parents divorced when he was about one; his father Elvis had immigrated from Nigeria (the family name means 'big tree' in Yoruba) and his mother came from Oregon.

Growing up near Edmonton in the Oilers dynasty years, Iginla loved Gretzky and Messier like every kid — but as a Black kid in a nearly all-white sport, it was goaltender Grant Fuhr who made the dream believable, and Iginla started out as a goalie himself because of him.

He became a power forward instead, and one of the game's greats: 20 NHL seasons, 16 as the Calgary Flames' captain, 625 goals, 1,300 points, the Art Ross and Rocket Richard trophies in 2002, and two Olympic gold medals with Canada — including the assist on Sidney Crosby's 'Golden Goal' in 2010.

In 2020 he became just the fourth Black player inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

"It was very, very important for me following my dream."

Iginla has owned a piece of his own junior team since October 2007, as co-owner of the WHL's Kamloops Blazers — the club where he won two Memorial Cups as a teenager — alongside Tom Gaglardi, Shane Doan, Mark Recchi and Darryl Sydor.

His community work was honored during his career with the NHL Foundation Player Award (2004), the King Clancy Award and the Mark Messier Leadership Award: he ran a Calgary hockey school with proceeds to diabetes research and donated up to $2,000 per goal he scored through KidSport, raising more than $700,000.

Since retiring he has coached youth hockey at the RINK Hockey Academy in Kelowna, British Columbia.

NHL.com — “Jarome Iginla inspired by fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Grant Fuhr”
Kamloops Blazers / CHL — “Jarome Iginla Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame”
Kamloops Blazers / CHL — “Calgary Flames to retire Jarome Iginla's jersey on March 2, 2019” (co-ownership since Oct. 2007)

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  Napheesa Collier  ·  P.K. Subban

P.K. Subban

NHL Norris Trophy Winner and ESPN Analyst · Founder, Ugly Duck Productions · Executive Producer and Star, 'Screech Owls' — Toronto, ON

Official links: Facebook · Instagram · X

Pernell-Karl Subban is the son of Caribbean immigrants — his father Karl came from Jamaica, his mother Maria from Montserrat — and was raised in Toronto's Rexdale neighborhood, one of five kids in a hockey-mad house.

In a league with very few Black stars, his flash, joy and volume made him impossible to ignore: drafted by Montreal in 2007, he won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenseman in 2013, signed an eight-year, $72 million contract, helped Nashville reach the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, and won the King Clancy Trophy for leadership and humanitarian work in his final season with New Jersey.

Since retiring in 2022 he has become an ESPN NHL analyst and a producer: he founded PeeK Productions and Ugly Duck Productions — the company behind CBC's 'Black Life: Untold Stories' docuseries work — and in October 2026 the NHL and CBC announced he will executive-produce and star in 'Screech Owls,' a 26-episode animated series for young audiences.

"A major focus of my career has been finding new ways to grow the game and reach young, diverse audiences with positive role models and Screech Owls, a series I grew up reading, does both"

In 2015, still a Canadien, Subban pledged $10 million to the Montreal Children's Hospital — at the time the largest philanthropic commitment by a professional athlete in Canada. A year later Montreal traded him to Nashville.

He kept the promise anyway: in 2026 the hospital's foundation confirmed the $10 million was fully delivered, through a campaign that helped approximately 100,000 children, and the hospital's atrium bears his name.

His P.K. Subban Foundation and his 'Blueline Buddies' program, which brought police officers and young fans together at games, grew out of the same conviction — that a platform this loud should be spent on kids who rarely see themselves in the game.

NHL.com — “Subban completes $10M donation pledge to Montreal Children's Hospital”
NHL.com — “Subban to star, executive producer new animated series for NHL, CBC”
Playback — “CBC teams with Leslie Norville, P.K. Subban and Sandy Hudson for docuseries”

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  Jarome Iginla  ·  Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods

15-Time Major Champion and Forbes-Certified Billionaire · Founder, TGR Ventures, TGR Design and the TGR Foundation — Jupiter, FL

Official links: Website · Facebook · Instagram · X

Tiger Woods, of Black and Thai heritage, broke through in the most exclusive, overwhelmingly white sport in America — winning the 1997 Masters by 12 shots at 21 — and then rebuilt himself more times than any champion should have to.

Personal collapse in 2009, four back surgeries that left him barely able to walk, and a ranking that fell outside the top 1,000: he answered with the 2018 Tour Championship and then, at 43, the 2019 Masters, his 15th major and first in 11 years. A 2021 car crash that nearly took his leg only extended the comeback story.

His 82 PGA Tour wins tie Sam Snead's record, and his roughly $121 million in Tour prize money is a record — yet Forbes, which certified him a billionaire in 2022, estimates less than 10 percent of his career earnings came from playing golf.

The rest he built: TGR Ventures, TGR Design, PopStroke and TMRW Sports, the company he co-founded with Rory McIlroy behind the TGL golf league.

"Well, you never give up. That's a given. You always fight. Just giving up's never in the equation."

Woods founded the TGR Foundation with his parents, Earl and Kultida, in 1996 — before he had won a single major — to make a positive impact in a young person's life every day.

Its TGR Learning Labs give students in under-resourced communities free STEAM enrichment and college and career readiness: the flagship Anaheim lab, open since 2006, has served more than 200,000 students, a Philadelphia lab opened in 2025, and in January 2026 the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation pledged $20 million for a new Atlanta lab, part of $50 million raised as the foundation marked its 30th year.

Billionaires Africa — “Billionaire Tiger Woods is building a second championship golf course in Virginia” (CSV proof link)
Black Enterprise — “Golf Champion Tiger Woods Reaches Billionaire Status”
Golf Digest — “Tiger Woods receives $20 million pledge from Falcons owner to build Atlanta learning center”

More from Bourgeois Society: Black Excellence in Sports  ·  P.K. Subban  ·  LeBron James