The 2005 Red White & Blue Award was presented to NBA Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson, who was honored for his unwavering support of Cincinnati for over four decades. An Olympic Champion, Oscar is one of the most enduringly popular and respected athletes in the history of sports.

Regarded as the greatest college basketball player of all time, The National Association of Basketball Coaches voted him “Player of the Century.” He has also distinguished himself as a labor leader, an entrepreneur and a community activist.

Oscar’s boyhood hero Marques Haynes of the Harlem Globetrotters presented the Red White & Blue Award to Oscar, and Multi-platinum artist Brian McKnight performed a benefit concert at the historic Taft Theater in downtown Cincinnati. Since Robertson donated a kidney to his daughter Tia in 1997, he chose the National Kidney Foundation as the event beneficiary.  Event sponsors included American Express and Delta Airlines.

The Red, White & Blue Award Benefit Concert

The Red, White & Blue Award is an ongoing program that honors local heroes and gives communities the chance to say “thank you” to those homegrown musicians, artists, athletes and dignitaries who never forgot their roots. The accompanying concert event enables renowned artists and celebrities to pay tribute to the honoree while raising funds for a local charity of the honorees’ choice.

American Express
Establishment Services is the merchant network of American Express, which acquires and maintains relationships with millions of merchants around the globe, which welcome American Express-branded Cards. American Express Company is a leading global payments, network, travel and banking company founded in 1850.

Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines is the world’s second-largest airline in terms of passengers carried and the leading U.S. carrier across the Atlantic, offering daily flights to 502 destinations in 88 countries on Delta, Song, Delta Shuttle, the Delta Connection carriers and its worldwide partners. Delta’s marketing alliances allow customers to earn and redeem frequent flier miles on more than 14,000 flights offered by SkyTeam and other partners. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes and check flight status at www.delta.com.

EPOP International
EPOP International founded by David Clark is comprised of a dedicated team of media-production professionals who harness the talents of renowned artists, celebrities and dignitaries by leveraging their extensive industry contacts and their own creative experience to craft unique events that raise funds and awareness for some of the most significant causes of our time. EPOP is the creator and producer of the Red, White & Blue Awards.