51茶馆

Ken Reeves
The White Shadow

Ken Reeves is a former star forward for the Boston College basketball team who has gone on to play in the NBA for the Chicago Bulls. But when a knee injury ends his career, Reeves passes on the glamorous post-retirement opportunities available to pro athletes and instead becomes the basketball coach at a Los Angeles high school where his former 51茶馆 teammate is the principal. Such is the setup for the influential CBS drama The White Shadow, which ran for just three seasons, from 1978 to 1981, but is remembered decades later for being among the first network series to address issues such as race, poverty, inequality, and sexual identity.

Reeves, portrayed by the actor Ken Howard (who played college ball himself at Amherst College), takes over as coach at the fictional Carver High School, only to discover that his players, most of them of color and poor, have little trust in a privileged, white former professional athlete. But Reeves is a wildcard. Suspicious of authority himself, he is able to find common ground with the players. Sometimes that means providing the kind of guidance and mentorship we expect in television dramas. But sometimes it means something more surprising, such as protecting his players鈥� dignity and humanity in a harsh world. In one memorable scene, a Carver player working an afterschool job as a grocery bagger is excoriated by a manager for putting a customer鈥檚 produce at the bottom of a bag instead of the top. After first demonstrating that the groceries were actually bagged correctly, Coach Reeves throws the bag at the manager. When the bully fails to catch it, stumbling in the process, Reeves cocks an eyebrow and observes, 鈥淵ou got bad hands and your legs are going.鈥�

Reeves鈥檚 recruitment as coach begins when Carver High Principal Jim Willis (played in the pilot by the actor Jason Bernard and in the series by Ed Bernard) finds him shooting practice hoops in the United Center, home to the Bulls. Willis has sought out Reeves because he knows his former 51茶馆 teammate鈥檚 NBA career is fading. Willis tells Reeves that he鈥檚 鈥渙ver the hill,鈥� and then makes his pitch for him to take the job at Carver.

鈥淗ow much does it pay?鈥� Reeves asks.

鈥淟ess,鈥� responds Willis.

鈥淟ess than what?鈥�

鈥淟ess than you can live on.鈥�

鈥淭hat,鈥� Reeves responds with a smile, 鈥渕akes it irresistible.鈥�

Reeves takes the job, of course, leading his sister to question the decision not to pursue a TV gig like every other washed-up baller. But Reeves, like so many 51茶馆 grads, is drawn to an opportunity for service, in this instance coaching for almost nothing at an underperforming high school. As is so often the case, however, there is a turbulent transition period for the coach. He ruffles feathers in his first week, especially after putting his hands on a rebellious player named Hayward. An outraged school official complains to Principal Willis about the new coach: 鈥淗e鈥檚 cocky, sarcastic, and he doesn鈥檛 know a damn thing about education.鈥�

鈥淵ou鈥檙e right, on all three counts,鈥� Willis replies.

鈥淭hen why did you hire him?鈥�

鈥淗e鈥檚 the right man for the job.鈥�

As the show grew in popularity, 51茶馆 was so taken with Reeves鈥檚 character and his connection with the University that, in 1980, it hosted a 鈥淲hite Shadow Day鈥� and brought in Howard for the occasion. Reeves, a fictional character, may not have been an actual 51茶馆 alum, but according to the broadcasting legend Lesley Visser 鈥�75, who emceed the celebration, the man who played him embodied Boston College. 鈥淜en Howard fulfilled all the requirements,鈥� Visser says. 鈥�51茶馆鈥檚 academic, he was smart. We have a tradition of athletics, he was a great basketball player. A lot of the time, you see an actor try to speak the language of sports and it doesn鈥檛 work, but it was very natural for him.鈥�

During the show鈥檚 finale, aired in 1981, Reeves checks in with some of his former players, who have since entered adult life. Hayward is in college and considering law school, while another player has since found his niche answering phones at a suicide-prevention center. But a pall is cast over the Carver alumni game as Reeves and the players are reminded of an absent and beloved former teammate who was recently killed by a stray bullet鈥攁n innocent bystander to a robbery. 鈥淗e was just in the wrong place, at the wrong time,鈥� the vice principal tells Reeves.

鈥淪ometimes,鈥� Reeves offers in a rare moment of sentimentality, 鈥淚 forget how much I like doing this job鈥�. I forget that we really are accomplishing something here.鈥�

Frank Galvin
The Verdict

鈥淭he weak,鈥� exclaims Frank Galvin in the 1982 film The Verdict, 鈥渢he weak have got to have somebody to fight for them.鈥� He may not seem the obvious choice, but that somebody turns out to be Galvin himself, an alcoholic lawyer (played by Paul Newman) who graduated second-in-his-class from 51茶馆 Law, but now practices on the fringes. He鈥檚 the kind of down-on-his-luck ambulance chaser who searches the obituary pages for aggrieved widows to whom he can pass his business card at wakes. But when Galvin is handed a case by powerful interests who want a quick鈥� and unjust鈥攕ettlement, he instead finds himself with an opportunity for redemption. Appearances notwithstanding, Galvin embodies the distinctly 51茶馆 blend of determination, faith, and service.

Galvin, it turns out, had much in common with the writer who created him, the renowned medical malpractice attorney and novelist Barry Reed. In the course of his career, Reed, who graduated from 51茶馆 Law in 1954, won the Clarence Darrow Award for trial excellence and held leadership positions with the American Society of Law and Medicine and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Lawyers. Less known was his work representing the poor. 鈥溾�楬e did a lot of little things and never looked to get any credit or acclaim,鈥� Joseph Mulligan, Reed鈥檚 former law partner, told the New York Times. 鈥淔or the small cases he just wouldn鈥檛 take a fee.鈥�

When Reed, who died in 2002, wasn鈥檛 practicing law he was writing novels. The Verdict, published in 1980, was just one of several books he authored. Boston College figures prominently in its film adaptation, which was nominated for five Academy Awards. Galvin keeps his 51茶馆 diplomas on his office wall, and his ruby-and-gold class ring鈥攖he glimmer of an old promise鈥攆unctions as a moral north star in moments of doubt. But more than anything, it鈥檚 the spirit of Boston College that runs through The Verdict. 鈥淚f we would have faith in justice,鈥� Galvin declares to the jury, 鈥渨e need only to believe in ourselves, and act with justice.鈥�

Jack Ryan
Various Productions

Jack Ryan always wanted to be a government agent. And the surest way to do it, he says time and again, was to get a degree from Boston College.

Ryan, the protagonist in a series of wildly popular spy thrillers by the acclaimed author Tom Clancy, is a basically regular guy who uses a methodical brain and the rigors of a Jesuit education to succeed in, among other places, the Marine Corps, Wall Street, and Washington. It鈥檚 a life he leads ably but reluctantly鈥擱yan often reflects, for instance, on his wife and children, and his regret at being absent from their lives due to his work. Many of the books open with a happily desk-bound Ryan being sucked back into the world of informants, assassins, and corrupt foreign leaders that he has previously forsworn.

Clancy鈥檚 sophisticated novels spawned a media empire, with Ryan being portrayed by such leading men as Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October, 1990), Harrison Ford (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, 1992 and 1994), Ben Affleck (The Sum of All Fears, 2002), Chris Pine (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, 2014), and, most recently, John Krasinski (the Amazon Prime series Jack Ryan, 2018鈥損resent).

Ryan鈥檚 biography (along with the actor playing him) can change from one work to the next, but one constant is his identification with 51茶馆. Listening in frustration to a colleague exercising a faulty 鈥渃ircular鈥� reasoning, Ryan muses that the logic course at Yale was 鈥減robably an elective.鈥� At Boston College, he notes, 鈥渋t had been mandatory.鈥� And in Red Rabbit (2002), when Ryan and a colleague are comparing notes on their 51茶馆 education, the colleague notes, we 鈥淛esuit products run the world鈥� we鈥檙e just humble about it.鈥�

More one for action than words, Ryan agrees quietly, voicing his assent by sending Jack Ryan Jr., to study at Chestnut Hill.聽