Growing up on the rough streets of Long Beach, Calif., Osei Appiah didn’t expect to end up as a professor at Ohio State. He doesn’t mind now. In fact he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Appiah, now a communication professor at OSU, originally wanted to become a professional basketball player as a teenager. He attended Polytechnic high school, a large school in Long Beach that was located in an area known for crime, as well as its competitive sports.

“You could only navigate through the environment by being a rapper, comedian, athlete or being affiliated with a gang,” Appiah said. “Those were the guys that were respected.”

Luckily for Appiah, he was very well known for his skills as a basketball player. His former school is well-known for its sports programs. In 2007, it was voted “Sports High School of the Century” by Sports Illustrated.

Poly generated a number of athletes that went to the next level, although Appiah vividly remembers having rapper Snoop Dogg on the basketball team.

He was then able to play his way into a Division I scholarship at Santa Clara University. A shooting guard, Appiah realized that members of the basketball team were not treated the same way he’d been accustomed to in high school.

“There were no benefits of being on the basketball team other than the joy of playing basketball,” he said. “I must’ve thought I was better than I actually was.”

Appiah received offers to play overseas, but knew he would be better off in the classroom than on the basketball court.

However, he didn’t leave without lending some wisdom to his younger teammates, one of who happened to be former NBA Most Valuable Player Steve Nash.

“Of course I taught him everything he knows,” he said.

Appiah played from 1986 to ‘89 before graduating in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in communication. He then applied for and received a fellowship to Cornell for two years of graduate school.

There he wrote his thesis on the perception of high school and college athletes on making it to the pros.

“I was able to use my own experience as research,” he said. “I knew I had a better chance of being an executive than playing in a professional league.”

Following his stint at Cornell, Appiah then worked at Yankelovich Partners, one of the top 10 market research firms in the country. Even though he was grateful for the opportunity, it taught Appiah a lesson.

“I didn’t like working the traditional eight-to-six job,” he said. “I knew there was a greater calling for me.”

From there, Appiah applied to Stanford for his doctorate education. There he was also able to work as a customer researcher at Apple Computers in 1994.

“Working at Apple was one of the best jobs I ever had,” he remembered.

One year later, he moved to Beaverton, Ore., in order to work at the Nike World Campus in their sports marketing department. During the six month stint, he worked in the marketing agency for premier athletes such as Deion Sanders, Ken Griffey Jr., Scottie Pippen and Pete Sampras. Some of his favorite memories there include playing against the 1996 women’s Olympic basketball team and seeing CEO Phil Knight asking to borrow money in the lunch line.

After graduating from Stanford in 1998, Appiah was certain teaching was his calling.

“I felt like I needed to make a difference in people’s lives,” he said. “I needed to go teach and work directly with children.”

He remembered several friends that had died during his youth, and said that he had been shot at before. From his childhood, he knew that a lot of youth in the black community could use direction.

“You make a big difference on the lives of people when you’re accessible to people through teaching,” he said.

“Often times the way you break the ice with college students is by playing basketball with them,” said Appiah, who still works out regularly. “You get even more respect by beating them.”

Following his graduation from Standford, Appiah received a job at Iowa State before accepting a job at OSU in 2002. He plans on writing a book very soon, and loves where his life has led him.

Married with two kids, Appiah says he’s happy with Ohio “nine months out of the year,” even though the winter months allow him to visit home.

He has tenure at OSU, and plans to teach here for some time. “I like being a Buckeye,” he said.