College basketball coach. Ricky Byrdsong was an African-American former college basketball coach who was murdered as part of a shooting rampage by a white-supremacist over the Fourth of July weekend in 1999. Ricky coached the Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball team from 1993 to 1997, including a National Invitation Tournament berth in 1994. He had also been the head basketball coach at the University of Detroit, and an assistant coach at the University of Arizona, Eastern Illinois University, Western Michigan University, and Iowa State University, his alma mater. After leaving the head coaching job at Northwestern, Byrdsong was hired as the vice president of community affairs for Aon Corp. He worked there until his death. Ricky was jogging near his Skokie home with his 8-year-old son and his 10-year-old daughter, when a member of the white supremacist movement shot him. Over a span of a few days, his murderer also killed a Korean-American college student, and wounded six Orthodox Jewish men in nearby West Rogers Park, three other black men including a minister, and a Taiwanese immigrant, and then took his own life before he could be captured by the police.
College basketball coach. Ricky Byrdsong was an African-American former college basketball coach who was murdered as part of a shooting rampage by a white-supremacist over the Fourth of July weekend in 1999. Ricky coached the Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball team from 1993 to 1997, including a National Invitation Tournament berth in 1994. He had also been the head basketball coach at the University of Detroit, and an assistant coach at the University of Arizona, Eastern Illinois University, Western Michigan University, and Iowa State University, his alma mater. After leaving the head coaching job at Northwestern, Byrdsong was hired as the vice president of community affairs for Aon Corp. He worked there until his death. Ricky was jogging near his Skokie home with his 8-year-old son and his 10-year-old daughter, when a member of the white supremacist movement shot him. Over a span of a few days, his murderer also killed a Korean-American college student, and wounded six Orthodox Jewish men in nearby West Rogers Park, three other black men including a minister, and a Taiwanese immigrant, and then took his own life before he could be captured by the police.
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