Ernest Eugene Barnes, Jr.

Ernie Barnes, a North Carolina Central alumnus, played in the NFL and then became a painter whose elongated figures defined a visual language of Black life, including the Sugar Shack image used on a Marvin Gaye album.

• NFL player turned widely collected painter.
• Creator of The Sugar Shack and official artist of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
• Inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame in 2009.