Barkley pledges $1 million to St. Mary’s Academy

By Peter Finney Jr. 
Clarion Herald

NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley was so impressed by a “60 Minutes” report on two St. Mary’s Academy graduates cracking the code on a trigonometric proof of the ancient Pythagorean Theorem that he has pledged $1 million to the school, the Birmingham (Alabama) News reported.

St. Mary’s principal Pamela Rogers told the Clarion Herald on May 14 that she has yet to officially hear from Barkley – who retired in 2000 as the fourth player in NBA history to achieve 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists – but she was excited by the prospect of the huge donation.

“We still haven’t gotten the call, but we feel comfortable that it’s going to happen,” Rogers said. “We don’t know about any of the parameters of the donation – if it’s a pledge over a certain amount of time.”

National report

The “60 Minutes” report, which aired May 5, chronicled the work of then-St. Mary’s seniors Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson's use of trigonometry to provide proof of the Pythagorean Theorem, which math experts have not been able to do for 2,000 years.

The Pythagorean Theorem holds that the length of the long diagonal of a right triangle (the hypotenuse) can be determined mathematically. In a right triangle with sides A, B and hypotenuse C, the theorem states that A² + B² = C². 

But no one had ever been able to prove the theorem using trigonometry alone. The students’ proofs are being peer-reviewed.

Johnson, who was St. Mary’s valedictorian in 2023, is majoring in environmental engineering at LSU. Jackson got a full ride to Xavier University of Louisiana and is majoring in pharmacy.

“They’re very humble girls,” Rogers said.

Barkley told the Birmingham News he was captivated by the story of Johnson’s and Jackson’s achievement.

“These beautiful Black women, man, they’re just the high achievers,” Barkley said. “A lot is demanded of everybody at the school – high excellence. And these two Black women did something in mathematics that was just incredible. It just inspired me.”

Barkley, who played basketball at Auburn University, also announced he was sending $1 million to women’s athletics at Auburn.

“I just want to make sure I always take care of the women at Auburn because I worry about them more than anything during this NIL movement,” he said. “Everybody’s worried about football and basketball. I just want to make sure the women know I’ve got a lot of love and appreciation for them.”

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