Tuesday March 29, 2022
Coach Fartun Osman showed Safiya Muse where she should throw the ball during a game Thursday at McMurray Field in St. Paul. The McKnight Foundation honored Osman on Friday for her work. JEFF WHEELER – STAR TRIBUNE
Minneapolis (HOL) - Fartun Osman, the CEO and head coach of Girls Rock, an all-girls club founded in 2004 that promotes sport for Somali and Muslim girls, will be honoured by the NCAA with the 2022 Legacy Award for her local activism in the Minneapolis area.
The award ceremony is part of the NCAA Men's and Women's Final Four festivities.
Osman is one of eight community leaders in the US to be recognized for her contributions to female athletics. She will be awarded a plaque during the semifinal games at the Women's Final Four in Minneapolis on April 1.
Born in Somalia, Fartun Osman was a rare female basketball player in her native country. She was always active in sports and said that her first love was soccer but pivoted to basketball because of the lack of opportunities for women in the sport.
Osman travelled to other countries as part of the women's Somali national basketball team as a teenager.
Following the breakout of the civil war in the early 1990s, Fartun emigrated to the US. She quickly discovered similar barriers to entry for Somali and Muslim girls into sports and made it her mission to make sports more equitable for girls who look like her.
She fought hard for the rights of her all-Muslim girl soccer teams to play with their hijabs, and her Girls Rock initiative has coached and mentored over 1,000 girls.
"The 2022 NCAA Legacy honorees are an impressive slate of community leaders and citizens who, through their daily actions, have shown their care and concern for their neighbors," said Felicia Martin, NCAA senior vice president of inclusion, education and community engagement.
"Each awardee has found a way to address specific issues in their community or their industry, and each has shown their dedication and investment to their city and surrounding areas. The 2022 Legacy honor acknowledges a small group of extraordinary, real-life heroes and sheroes who have dramatically improved the lives of other citizens and the conditions around them. It is our pleasure to recognize them during our NCAA Women's and Men's Final Four weekends."