Gateway Classic founder Earl Wilson Jr. passes torch to son

In a bustling kitchen, Earl Wilson Jr. searched for a little elbow room to cut the cakes for his community Thanksgiving dinner last Thursday. One of the women in the kitchen looked at him and said, “Don’t mess with the cake, Earl.” She shooed him out back to the barbeque pit. According to his apron, which read “Earl, BBQ King,” that’s where he belonged. The St. Louis Gateway Classic Sports Foundation, which Wilson founded, hosts a dinner for the needy every November. That’s in addition to investing $2.6 million in scholarship funds to send more than a hundred students to college during the organization’s 16 years.

The foundation has invested even more in assisting youth-related programs. Throughout the year, it sponsors its namesake HBCU football game, an amateur boxing tournament, high school basketball match-ups, a scholarship golf tournament, the Miss Gateway Classic Scholarship pageant and a local Walk of Fame inauguration. “If you asked me what Gateway Classic is about, I’d say it’s about giving back,” Wilson said. The foundation doesn’t receive grants, he said. About 80 percent of the funding is raised through ticket sales at the sporting events. He runs the foundation by a mantra of self-sufficiency and integrity. “Don’t sell out, don’t cop out, stay the course,” he said. “The course needs people with commitment.”

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