Feb. 4, 2008

NORMAN, Okla. - Though he didn't know it at the time, OU senior Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons' all-around victory at the 2007 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships was a historic one.

Not only did the Philadelphia, Pa., native become the second consecutive OU gymnast to win the all-around crown, he became the first African-American in the history of the sport to achieve the feat.

In honor of Black History Month, ESPN.com is featuring the athletes and events that have helped shape the world of sports. 

On Monday, writer Jay Weiner highlighted Abdullah-Simmons' pioneering victory and chronicled his path to stardom at the University of Oklahoma.

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All-Around Pioneer
By ESPN.com's Jay Weiner

Men's gymnastics, a dwindling offering on America's college campuses, is as white as the chalk that Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons cakes on his hands to secure his sweaty grip.

But on April 13, 2007, symbolically standing on the shoulders of the small group of African-American gymnasts who came before him, the University of Oklahoma's Abdullah-Simmons became the first black gymnast to win the NCAA all-around national title.

It was "a first" that even surprised the 21-year-old.

"I thought it happened in the '80s or early '90s," Abdullah-Simmons told ESPN.com. "I just assumed it had been done."

Wrong. Black gymnasts had won individual apparatus national titles as far back as 1977 when LSU's Ron Galimore captured the NCAA floor exercise title. But none had scored the highest total in all six men's events.

Taqiy -- pronounced "TAH-key" -- cracked a few stereotypes and, in so doing, honored one of his idols, Jair Lynch. Stanford's Lynch won a pair of NCAA event titles in 1992 and 1993 and became the first African-American male gymnast to win an Olympic medal -- silver on the parallel bars in 1996 ... click here for the entire article