Heisman Club Connection: Billie Streets ‘86, Heisman Club Secretary

The NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Social Media Campaign is meant to be a week of awareness, education and engagement showing the importance of inclusive environments in college sports. “My Story Matters”, “Together We Rise” and “I’ve Got Your Back” are themes of the week. 

Strong phrases that instantly reminded us of one of our former student-athletes and current Heisman Club board members …

My Story Matters…

Billie Streets ‘86, an only child, was born in Arusha, Tanzania in East Africa near the Kenyan border in 1964.  Her mother was a nurse and left South Africa (for East Africa) illegally during an apartheid in 1962.

Her father, William, was working with a program at Columbia University where they trained teachers to do international service.  After marriage and the birth of Billie, they traveled around Europe before moving to the United States -- settling in her father’s hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina. 

Suffering from severe dehydration as an 11-month old baby, an emergency trip to the hospital was critical for Billie’s survival. “When we got to the hospital, the line for coloreds was really long and the line for white people really short,” explained Streets. “My mom, at the time, was still wearing African garb. My dad was trying to tell the people that I was very sick and we didn’t have time to stand in line.  My mom, being a nurse, knew that my vital signs were decreasing.”  

Her mom, being of African descent, was seen differently than Black Americans at that time. So, they allowed Billie and her parents to enter the hospital through the white line.

“I could have died that day, Streets explained.  “Even though they brought us back there, the doctors and nurses were not cordial according to my mom."

Quite frankly, Billie did not like Oberlin when she first got here.  She was a self-proclaimed ‘Jersey girl’ and accustomed  to a more conservative approach.  This tiny liberal town tucked away in a rural pocket of Ohio presented her with quite a culture shock.  

“They were protesting everything they could find to protest.  It was a lot for me at first but once I started making friends and found my niche in Philips Gym, that’s when it started feeling like home.”

It was the early 80’s, Oberlin provided alternative living and progressive thinking. 

“It was total love, peace and happiness (at Oberlin),”  You could be whoever you wanted to be and no one would judge and or care.”

Streets appreciated  that she met so many people from so many different places, backgrounds and races. She fell in love with the diversity and culture.  She embraced the relationships she built with Oberlin residents and valued  being part of the athletics community.  

I’ve Got Your Back…

Her time as an athlete, both in high school and college, laid the foundation for Street’s success in professional sports.  The confidence she developed in sports helped her compete in a male-dominated world.

“I don’t have kids, but if I did, I would hope they played sports,” Billie said.  “There are so many lessons in sport.  I learned how to be a team player, how to manage leading while dealing with many different personalities.  I didn’t know I was learning, but I was.”

Streets was a sociology major and originally wanted to be a psychologist.  She developed into a strong writer and learned how to be a creative thinker. Those are two of Oberlin College’s many staples.     

Upon graduation, Streets had yet to define a career path. Less than excited about her first job within bank management, her mother encouraged her to go back to school for a postgraduate degree.  

“When I entered the MBA program at Ohio State University I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had to pick two majors, so marketing was a no-brainer, but I struggled for the second.  My counselor let me select a major outside the business school and I chose sports management.”  

Streets earned a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) from Ohio State University in 1989 and received her Doctorate in Management and Marketing from Pace University in 2011.

Current President of the NBA’s Orlando Magic Jeff Weltman ‘87, was a classmate and friend of Streets.  This Oberlin connection helped Billie land an internship with the New Jersey Nets in 1989 as Jeff’s father, Harry, was the general manager of the team at that time. This was a genesis opportunity for her career in professional sports/entertainment.

Billie’s venture into professional basketball came at a time when women and women of color did not occupy leadership roles or carry a voice in these spaces.  This made for some challenging days but she always stayed true to herself and always used her voice to lead.  

Streets punched and ducked her way to the top, semi-retiring recently as the Senior Vice President of Events and Communications Administration at Madison Square Garden (MSG) Sports and Entertainment Company.  She previously worked for the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the New York Knicks over a span of 30 years. 

“I didn’t know it at the time, but when I left MSG I had co-workers, female and black, come up to me and say that the thing they really respected about me was that I was always who I was.  I never sacrificed anything about who I was as a person to succeed, excel or move up in the organization.”

Street’s proudest professional moment has nothing to do with personal accolades.

 “To me, my greatest accomplishment was the impact I had on people’s lives. People have said that I have made them better as a person and as a professional.  That is my greatest accomplishment during my career.”

Always A Work In Progress…

Streets is always thinking and always planning.  Nearly ten years ago, a newspaper story referred to her as “always a work in progress and always developing a five-year plan” and there is no doubt she has plans for what is next in her life, even if it may take five years or forever to implement.

She wants to change the world.  

An athlete lives to play in a moment of great challenge.  They are trained to want to bat with the winning run a hit away, to take the final shot with a chance to win the game, or to be handed the baton on the anchor leg with someone to catch.

Streets has made a career of never shying away from a moment and there is no better time than now to make a world-changing impact. 

Pandemic.  Social injustice. Severe political division. It is a toxic mix. The easy move would be to just live her own life.  Instead, this Obie thinks about helping build community centers in underprivileged areas and she thinks about how she can create tools and pathways for the youth in those same areas to have legit opportunities that can lead to a successful life.

“I have had a lot of emotions like I’m sure a lot of people have had over the last eight months. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that racial unrest has been birthed on the heels of a pandemic.  People are frustrated, people are tired of being in the house and people have lost loved ones.”

Streets believes this is a time we have to go through and how we come out of it is on us.  She has been angry and wanted to fight. She has been sad. She has been disappointed.  She has experienced every emotion one can imagine.  

Still, She will tell you she is  at peace.  

“When I say peace, I mean peace and understanding that my responsibility is to pick and choose to do something about it. We can no longer sit back and watch other people participate.  We all have to become involved in some way, whether it’s volunteering, donating or protesting.”

Her message to the Oberlin Community as a whole and especially to its current student-athletes is that the “what to do” is a personal decision. She believes you need to find it, in your heart, what you are passionate about and get in the game.