When it came to "at-risk" African-American children, Sam Woodard wrote the book. Literally.

And he didn't have to look far to find a subject -- himself.

Dr. Woodard, 77, a retired Howard University professor who grew up in New Kensington, published the part-autobiography, part-motivational book "Anatomy of a Poor Black Orphan's Dream Achievement" in 2004.

Appropriately, this former star basketball player at New Kensington High School (now Valley High) has developed another meaning for NBA.

"In my way of thinking, Sam Woodard's NBA [means] 'Nowhere But America,' " he stated. "I don't believe that there's any country in the world where a welfare orphan could have achieved so much."

Though he grew up virtually without his parents -- his father died when he was 2, his mother when he was 6 -- their Christian influence still resonated with him.

And it was that influence that actually set him on his career path.

"My mother and father were profoundly religious," Dr. Woodard said. "Father was always helping someone. Mother would send food to someone. That was my spiritual legacy."

Dr. Woodard, who began delivering the Post-Gazette at age 8, became a dedicated student to the point that he routinely finished his lessons well ahead of his classmates.

"The teacher in elementary school would ask me to help the slower students," Dr. Woodard said. "That was the first experience [I had] with helping someone else."

He was not encouraged to become so studious.

"I was told when I was a child, 'Keep reading like that and you'll go crazy,' " Dr. Woodard said with a laugh. "It wasn't understood. Books became my friend."

Dr. Woodard, however, was still African-American at a time when such opportunities -- athletic or academic -- were limited for his race.

Even with his accomplishments in hoops -- "it wasn't possible to be on the team unless you were very good" -- he still had to deal with racism on the court.

"Sure, I was angry about discrimination," Dr. Woodard said. But instead of venting his anger inappropriately, "I shot baskets" and simply played harder and focused upon the weakest part of his game -- free-throw shooting.

Continuing his stellar academic record, Dr. Woodard graduated from New Kensington in the top 5 percent of his class, and numerous opportunities for higher education opened up.

He chose to attend all-black Lincoln University, earning a full academic scholarship and majoring in history and English. But after his sophomore year, he transferred to Mansfield University near the border with New York -- his sister lived in nearby Elmira, where he spent his summers. When he got to Mansfield, he found an unexpected complication.

"The dean told me that there were no black males at Mansfield," Dr. Woodard recalled.

But that didn't matter.

"I told him, 'I'm not here to socialize -- I have a sister 35 miles away.' "

Dr. Woodard earned a master's at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., then -- while teaching in Buffalo -- became the first African-American to receive a doctoral degree in educational administration at what is now the University of Buffalo.

Eventually, he would make his way to Howard, where he stayed for 24 years as a "transactional analyst," working with and studying children in the Washington, D.C., area who came from similarly "deprived" backgrounds.

Through his studies, however, he found kindred spirits in the academic world.

While attending Lincoln, he washed pots -- and argued regularly -- after breakfast with Martin Kilson, in what Dr. Woodard called "the most intellectual pot-washing operation in the world."

Dr. Kilson later became the first African-American to receive tenure at Harvard University.

Jim Gibbs, who was studying at Cornell University during Dr. Woodard's college days, became another confidant. Mr. Gibbs spent his summers in Mansfield with his sister.

Dr. Woodard's book, however, represents far more than his accomplishments. It also serves as a script for "at-risk" children with backgrounds similar to his.

Washington Post columnist William Raspberry noticed his work in the 1970s, publishing several articles.

Dr. Woodard has passed the quest for academic excellence on to his four daughters, all of whom are college graduates, three with Ph.Ds.

One daughter, Gail Edwards, is the chief executive officer of Urban League Charter School in Pittsburgh.

"When [daughter] Charlene was getting ready to get her doctorate at the University of Georgia," Dr. Woodard said, "[I reminded her that] those of us who are blessed with a good mind and a good education have a moral obligation to use it."