Kelvin Sampson: From Lumbee Tribe to NCAA Tournament Success

With Kelvin Sampson at the helm, the Houston Cougars have made it to five NCAA Tournaments in a row. It's quite a turnaround for a program that only made the tournament once in 20-plus years before he took over.

Growing up in the Lumbee Native American community of Deep Branch, North Carolina, the nearly 70-year-old coach comes from the biggest tribe east of the Mississippi — a group that's now more than 55,000 people strong.

Back in 1958, his dad John Willie Sampson showed real courage by helping drive the Ku Klux Klan out of Maxton, North Carolina. This brave stand against racism later influenced Kelvin's work fighting for equality through the Black Coaches Association.

Kelvin described his father in an Essentially Sports article as "a rock and a foundation piece for that community. My dad's reputation was somebody that you looked up to. He was The Coach. He was a pretty good person to have as a role model and a hero."

At coaching gatherings, Sampson saw with his own eyes how minority coaches were treated differently. These tough experiences drove him to keep fighting discrimination in sports.

Like their well-known coach, the Lumbee people keep moving forward. Though they got partial recognition in 1956, they've been fighting for full federal status since 1888.