Since taking up the College of Houston’s males’s basketball program in 2014, Coach Kelvin Sampson has turned the Cougars into one of many greatest groups within the NCAA —racking up 9 convention championships, 5 30-win seasons, and naturally two journeys to the Closing 4. However earlier than discovering success as a coach within the NBA and NCAA – Sampson grew up in rural North Carolina, deeply rooted in Lumbee tradition.
In Southeastern North Carolina, the ancestors of the Lumbee folks discovered refuge—escaping warfare, the slave commerce, and illness—alongside the fertile lands of the Lumbee River. Their roots hint again to a mixture of Siouan, Algonquian, and Iroquoian-speaking peoples who migrated to what’s now Robeson county.
Grounded in agricultural traditions, they constructed a lifestyle deeply linked to the land and neighborhood.
Within the audio above, Producer Mincho Jacob sat down with Coach Sampson as he prepares for one more season and to speak concerning the classes he carries from his Native upbringing.
