(soft music) - [Scottie] As we sat down with people for interviews.

- We're rolling?

- [Scottie] Everyone said a version of the same thing when reflecting on Jimmy Banks.

- Gee was close to the chest.

I'll give it to you like that.

- [Scottie] He was quiet.

- He didn't talk that much, but he was just a magnificent human being.

- [Scottie] Kept things to himself.

- Jimmy was a very calm guy.

- [Scottie] A humble man who downplayed his achievements and redirected the spotlight.

- I didn't end up finding out that he went to the World Cup from him.

I found out from a family friend.

- [Scottie] And while soccer took him around the world, he came home to grow the sport in the city he loved.

- He had a heart for the city of Milwaukee and for the northwest side.

- [Scottie] By most accounts, the best soccer player to ever come from Milwaukee, Banks leased behind a legacy of reaching out to young black athletes.

- It was one of the best things that ever happened in my life.

- [Scottie] This is the story of Jimmy Banks.

(dramatic music) (film reel whirs) (film reel clicks) (uptempo music) This is where it all started for Jimmy Banks, the Salvation Army on Milwaukee's north side, where he was first introduced to soccer at age six.

- [Jordan] This is a very surreal feeling.

- [Scottie] For Jordan Banks, the youngest of Jimmy's three sons, this gym feels like hallowed ground.

- Being in a place where it all started for my dad.

- [Scottie] Banks grew up during the '70s in the nearby Westlawn housing project with his four siblings, one of whom provided a lasting nickname, Gee Gee or Gee.

- Especially in these communities, a lot of black kids are expected to be football players or basketball players, but for some reason, he grew up really loving soccer.

- [Scottie] As a teenager, Banks played for the Milwaukee Bavarians Club before his talents flourished at Custer High School and was named Wisconsin's first all American soccer player.

After graduating high school in 1982, Banks would eventually end up at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee to play for head coach, Bob Gansler.

Gansler is another soccer legend.

He coached at every level and has a reputation for spotting talent.

It was clear Banks had plenty of it.

- Jimmy had a soccer brain, right?

He just knew what needed to be done, just about all the time.

Extremely humble.

If he'd give you a good pass and you'd screw it up, he would apologize to you.

He says, "I should have given it to you earlier."

- [Scottie] After college, Banks was selected to the US National Team.

He also joined the Milwaukee Wave in the American Indoor Soccer League as the number one draft pick in 1987.

- [Commentator] Here's Jimmy, moving around.

Here's the shot!

Scores!

- [Scottie] In 1989, Banks reunited with Gansler when he was named the new head coach of the US National Team.

Together, they qualified for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.

It had been 40 years since the Americans last played in the tournament.

- That's as high as you go.

And so, we felt proud of that.

It was a good, young bunch.

I, on purpose, went young in saying, "I'm not picking a team for 1990, "I'm picking a team for the '90s."

- [Scottie] Banks became one of the first African-American players born in the US to represent the country in a World Cup.

The other was his good friend and teammate, Desmond Armstrong.

- I had asked him to be my best man in my wedding and I wanted him to be right beside me.

- [Scottie] Armstrong and Banks met each other when they were 15 while playing in national tournaments, when the game was almost exclusively a suburban sport.

- I was the one black guy on my team, and Gee was the only black guy on his team.

So we were fast friends.

- [Scottie] During the World Cup, Banks wrote a column for the Milwaukee Journal.

He confessed to being homesick and for discovering a newfound passion to bring soccer to black neighborhoods back home.

- And I used to tease him all the time like, "Yo, man, we can go all over the world, man, and what?

"You just want to just stay in Milwaukee."

I mean nothing against Milwaukee, but I mean, we had the world at our fingertips, man.

I'm talking about we played in the World Cup.

We can go anywhere.

And that brother would not leave Milwaukee.

- [Scottie] When he returned home from the World Cup, he launched a soccer program that operated at Boys and Girls Clubs across the city.

- [Commentator] Last year, Jimmy took his dream of getting more blacks and minorities involved in soccer and made it a reality.

He started the Jimmy Banks City Soccer League, which now has 10 teams and over 250 kids involved.

- We're trying to instill some values and some good habits and discipline in these kids and try to teach them to let sports and education work hand in hand, and that's the way it works in life.

- [Desmond] I just have to give it up for him.

He actually did go back to his community.

He put the roots down there and he just poured his life into, you know, producing programs for kids in Milwaukee.

- I'm dribbling, right?

Even if I wouldn't do this, right, I'm still dribbling, right?

I'm here, the ball is here.

It's all about patience.

- [Scottie] In the mid 1990s, Banks left the Boys and Girls Club and co-founded the Milwaukee Simbas, a newly-independent soccer club that eased financial barriers and became a melting pot of diverse players.

(feet shuffling) His teams competed for state championships and won out-of-state tournaments.

A handful of his players went on to play professionally.

One of those players was Demetrius White.

- Keep the ball on the ground!

- [Scottie] Who now leads the revamped Simbas organization.

- Are we ready?

Go!

- [Scottie] The Bank's protege became the pro.

- It's really been remarkable how, you know, we can still be able to, you know, honor him and continue his legacy as well with what we're doing over here with the Simbas.

- [Scottie] And while Banks coached the finer points of the game, he always preached about the bigger picture.

- You know, Jimmy quotes was always, first, it was us becoming young men, young, responsible men, and then second was soccer.

You know, he preached to us, it's not about what you do in soccer, it's about what you do afterwards.

If you don't have a ball, you should be moving.

There we go.

- [Scottie] In 2009, Banks left the Simbas to become the head coach of the Division Three Men's Soccer Program at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, where he spent 20 years leading the program and winning several conference Coach of the Year awards.

Rob Harrington, MSOE's current head coach, was alongside him as an assistant for most of those years.

- The draw of playing for Jimmy Banks was a big deal to some kids, and I think that's his biggest legacy that I got from him was like, make sure that every kid is cared for and every kid is treated like they matter.

(soft music) - [Scottie] On April 26th, 2019, at the age of 54, Jimmy Banks died of pancreatic cancer, a diagnosis he hid until the very end from many friends and even some family members.

- Alright, hold on.

Yeah, it's hard to read.

Harrington was with Banks at the hospital during his last moments and shared this message on social media after Banks passed away.

- Many people didn't know Jimmy was sick, battling stage four cancer for four months.

Most didn't know it was his second or third battle with the disease.

That was Jimmy's way.

He passed away this morning quietly and gracefully befitting his life.

But for those of us who knew Jimmy, let's not be quiet.

Let's tell everyone who and what was lost today.

- You know, immensely sad, you know, receiving that news.

But he does leave a tremendous legacy with his family.

He's got three boys that carry his name.

- [Scottie] Those three boys, Demetrius, JC, and Jordan, and other family members, including his nephew, Christopher, continued the legacy through the Jimmy Banks Academy.

- We actually started this nonprofit where we want to be able to instill a lot of those values in a community, so that we can continue the cycle of bringing these kids up, introducing soccer to them, being able to develop them into, of course, better people.

- [Scottie] There's also the Friends of Jimmy Bank's Organization, which in 2002 successfully petitioned Milwaukee public schools to rename Custer Stadium to the Jimmy Banks Memorial Stadium.

Local artist, Tia Richardson, has been commissioned to create a mural that will hang near the entrance and celebrate his life, a life we know he was proud of.

- I do remember seeing an interview and he was saying that he wanted to make sure that he's able to inspire kids, that he's able to provide an opportunity for them to play soccer, and once he feel like he's done that he's done his job.

- When I leave this world, I want to be able to say that, that I've done something for someone.

And I think by helping these kids as far as us teaching them good values, not only teaching but motivating, and things like that, you know, I think if I can do that, you know, I've done my job.

(soft music) (uptempo music) (uptempo music continues) (uptempo music continues) (uptempo music continues)