Ray Tomlin, Xavier University Class of 2006.

Xavier' first black basketball player receives his degree at age 72. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports:

At Xavier University, men's basketball players have developed a reputation for graduating at the end of their playing days.

Add one more: Ray Tomlin, age 72.

More than five decades after he arrived at the Evanston campus as Xavier's first African-American basketball player, Tomlin will walk in today's graduation ceremony at Cintas Center and receive a bachelor's degree in liberal arts.

Tomlin doesn't need the degree for financial reasons. A former senior lab technician at Equistar Chemicals, Tomlin's been retired since 2000.

Tomlin needs the degree to live up to the academic standards that he preaches. He needs it to feel worthy of the illustrious image by which others view him.

That need pushed Tomlin back to Xavier's campus where, for the past year-and-a-half, he worked to complete the 18 credits he needed to graduate.

"It's made me feel so much better inside," said Tomlin, who lives in Springdale. "I just can't express to you how much this means to me."

Tomlin is proud of his life. He's quick to note that his 1952 Lockland Wayne High School team was the first Ohio state champion from Cincinnati.

But he's also not shy about addressing his failures.

Tomlin flunked out of Ohio State after one year, when he was one of the best players on the freshman basketball team.

He resurfaced at Xavier in January 1954, were he majored in physical education and minored in chemistry. A year later, he was eligible to play varsity basketball. Tomlin was never a starter, but saw plenty of playing time.

By 1957, Tomlin was out of eligibility, but still 18 credits short of graduating.

Then the military came calling.

"I was out of military exemptions," he said. "Back then, if you were out of exemptions, you got drafted."

Into the Army and overseas Tomlin went. He returned to Cincinnati in 1960. He got a job as a lab technician at Procter & Gamble. Got married. Became a father.

Tomlin was busy living life. Finishing his degree was an afterthought.

In 2004, four years after he retired, Tomlin got a call from Xavier. The school wanted to know if Tomlin would be interested in speaking to the All-for-One Club, Xavier's athletic booster group.

He was a hit. He told the audience at Cintas Center before a Xavier game how Xavier had protected him from racism in the South in the 1950s, how Xavier had put him up in the finest all-black hotel in Miami, Fla., and arranged for him to stay with a black dentist when the team traveled to Birmingham, Ala.

It was a volatile time to be a black man on an all-white basketball court, and Tomlin heard racial insults anytime Xavier players traveled south of the Ohio River.

"But Xavier did everything they could to keep me out of the line of fire," Tomlin said. "Xavier made sure I was mentally and physically protected, out of harm's way. A lot of the places I got to stay at were nicer than my home back in Cincinnati."

Tomlin's words were powerful, charged with emotion and brutal truth. He got a standing ovation.

"I was in tears, because I never realized what black people had to go through," said Evendale's Deirdre Mueller, who witnessed Tomlin's speech. "How they had to stay in separate hotels and how they were abused by white people. I didn't know what his story was, and nobody in the room was expecting what he was going to say. But people were in tears. It was very moving."

Read a freakin' book, will ya, honey?

So All-for-One director Dan Cloran brought Tomlin back that season to speak at a luncheon. Same result. People loved him.

Thad Matta, then the men's basketball coach, was scheduled to speak that day, too, and carried prepared notes. Then he heard Tomlin. Matta discarded his own speech and spent 10 minutes discussing how Tomlin embodied the Xavier spirit. Later, Matta asked Tomlin to address the team.
Tomlin didn't mind speaking, but did anyone realize, he wondered, that he hadn't actually graduated from Xavier?

It was March 2, 2004, the day before Xavier played George Washington, a team that had routed XU by 21 points a month earlier.

That year marked the 50th anniversary of Tomlin's association with Xavier. Tomlin had a request for the team.

"I want you to tear George Washington apart and give it to me as a present," he said

Xavier won by 16. "Lit George Washington up," Tomlin said.

The Musketeers kept winning, all the way to the NCAA Regional Finals, and just missed making the Final Four.

Tomlin attended the postseason banquet. Former Xavier president, James E. Hoff, S.J., who would soon lose his battle with cancer, was inducted into the Xavier athletic hall of fame.

An Enquirer photographer snapped a photo of Hoff and Tomlin standing together. It ran on the front page the next day, with the words "Providing inspiration" above the photo.

"I've got that photo hanging on my wall," Tomlin said. "There I am with Father Hoff and the word 'inspiration,' and I don't even have a degree. And I'm sure Father Hoff was under the impression that I'd had a degree."

Hoff, whom Cloran said had great respect for Tomlin and how he represented Xavier, passed away three months later. By that time, Tomlin had discussed going back to get his degree with James Boothe, Xavier's department of education chairman. Boothe was a former teammate of Tomlin.

Another speaking engagement sealed Tomlin's decision.

"I was the keynote speaker at the athletics banquet, and that's a pretty prestigious thing," Tomlin said. "I'm talking about the importance of getting a degree from Xavier and what that means - I don't even have one. All these professors are up on stage with me. I look down the row; they've got all these honors and degrees. And what do I have? Nothing.

"I said, 'If you guys call me to give another speech, I'll die right there.' That's when I knew I was going back to school."

So for the past three semesters, Tomlin completed those final 18 hours on his weekends. He admits he felt a like a dinosaur at first, and his old friend, Boothe, had to teach Tomlin to type on a modern computer.

But Tomlin tried his cap and gown on the other day. He said it felt like being back in 1957.

Tomlin's son lives in California and can't make it to today's ceremony. Tomlin's wife passed away a few years ago.

But a woman Tomlin's been dating, Margaret Enoch, will be watching.

"He's got a lot of gumption," Boothe said of his longtime friend. "It wasn't easy for him to be the first black player back then, and it wasn't easy to come back and get his degree.

"I'm really proud for him. He's a great asset to Xavier."