McDaniel welcomes students' families to the Hill Sept. 28-30 for Families Weekend 2007.

Events include the Founders Convocation, during which basketball Hall-of-Famer and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will receive an honorary degree, Green Terror football versus Juniata, the Families Weekend Golf Tournament and more.

Look here for the complete rundown of the weekend.

Basketball Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will be the guest speaker and honorary degree recipient at an11 a.m. Founders Convocation Sept. 29 in Baker Memorial Chapel. After his speech, he will sign books that have been purchased in advance. He will not sign sports memorabilia.

Tickets are free but current students must reserve tickets through the Student Affairs office. Families of students may reserve tickets by calling 410-857-2244 or e-mail cgunther@mcdaniel.edu. Be sure to include the student's name and the number of tickets needed by family members. Tickets for families may be picked up during Families Weekend registration on Sept. 28 in the evening or Sept. 29 in the morning. Books are on sale in the College bookstore. For more information, call 410-857-2294.

"Brothers In Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes," co-written with Anthony Walton, tells the story of the 761st Battalion, an all-black armored unit that served in Europe during World War II.

“Brothers in Arms” is dedicated to Colonel Paul Levern Bates, a 1931 alumnus of the liberal arts college. His leadership of the unit kept hundreds of African American fighters alive during some of the war’s heaviest fighting.  Bates will posthumously receive a Trustee Alumni Award during the convocation, to be accepted by his son, Baron Bates.

During college, Paul Bates was captain of the undefeated 1930s football team and was named an All-American in 1929 and 1930. He was on the Maryland All-Star Team and played in the Shrine East-West All-Star Game in his final year.  He earned his bachelor’s in economics and continued toward a master’s in education but was drafted in 1940 before he could complete his thesis.

In January 1943, about two years after Bates joined the Army, he took command of the 761st Tank Battalion, all of whose enlisted men were black. The 761st entered combat in November 1944 as part of Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army and fought for 183 consecutive days without relief. Ultimately, the unit captured, destroyed or liberated more than 30 major towns, four air fields, three ammunition-supply dumps, 461 wheeled vehicles, 34 tanks, 113 large guns and a radio station. Among its 687 enlisted men and 41 officers, 276 received the Purple Heart for wounds in action and 36 died in combat.

During WWII, Bates was awarded the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars in addition to the Purple Heart.  Following his retirement, he remained in close touch with veterans of the 761st and their families, and in 1999, established a scholarship at the College for descendants of members of the battalion. Bates died in 1995 at age 86 and is buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Abdul-Jabbar, who retired from basketball in 1989 as one of the greatest players of all time, took up the project after watching a documentary about the unit in 1992 and discovering his father’s friend was a member.