‘Give Back King’: Go-getter Jamal Woodson a leader on and off the court

The rumor that Jamal Woodson never sleeps turns out to be unfounded.

“I sleep 3½ hours a night,” said Woodson, a Murrysville resident.

Woodson, 45, seems to always be on the go, just as his long list of job titles would indicate.

Basketball is close to Woodson’s heart. A former player at Pitt Greensburg, Woodson founded the SLAAM girls AAU organization in 2012 and has served as its director and one of its coaches since the beginning. He has also been the head coach of the Baldwin girls since 2020. In addition, he’s the general sales manager at WAMO and owns a fitness facility in Monroeville called LFG Workout.

But Woodson’s impact in the community extends far beyond the basketball court, the airways and the gym. He helps run the CNX Foundation’s Mentorship Academy and is known as the “Give Back King,” a fitting title for someone who says he has given away more than $100,000 of his own money to needy and just good people over the past seven years.

Woodson knows what it feels like to fall on hard times. He said he was making really good money working at WAMO and as one of Pittsburgh’s biggest concert promoters when he helped bring in headliners such as Eminem, Lil Wayne and 50 Cent. But when the radio station shut down in 2009, Woodson’s success suffered a similar fate.

“It was one of the most terrible times of my life,” Woodson said. “I had to go on food stamps, but I remember thinking to myself, ‘I know I’m going to get out of this, and when I do, I want to help as many people as possible.”

WAMO returned in 2011, which in turn helped Woodson turn his life around. By 2017, he said he was financially where he needed to be, and, sticking to his word, he began to give back in a big way. Woodson’s first big “give back” went to DeShawnna Morris, a mother of two whose family was then living in a homeless shelter. The two had never even met before.

“I told her that I wanted her to get out of the shelter, so I got them a townhouse and paid for their cost of living for a year,” recalled Woodson, whose gracious act of giving was featured on the Emmy Award-winning “Tamron Hall” show in 2020.

The homeless are a frequent target of Woodson’s generosity. He said he typically visits homeless shelters a few days a month, sometimes even bringing his basketball team with him. He has delivered displaced folks doughnuts and meals. Some of the encounters with the homeless, along with many other of Woodson’s giving moments, are captured on video and are showcased on Woodson’s website — thegivebackking.com.

Ironically, Woodson has at times acted as if he is homeless in order to find people he’d like to repay for their own generosity. Woodson, wearing a wig and a mask to hide his identity, held a cardboard sign as he sat shoeless outside of Rodman Street Baptist Church prior to a Mass. As parishioners walked into church, Woodson asked each one for money. Most people either ignored him or told him no, but some did answer his plea, giving him money, food and bottles of water.

During Mass, the Rev. Dr. Darryl T. Canady, who is a friend of Woodson’s, brought up “the homeless man on the sidewalk.” That’s when Rev. Canady invited Woodson into church and onto the altar. After getting rid of his wig and mask, Woodson explained why he was there and shared the results of his social experiment. He then called up the 14 individuals who did give to him. After a round of applause, he gave each of them $100 for giving to him.

Woodson’s energy and eagerness to give is a case of the apple not falling far from the tree. His father, Robert Woodson, is a well-known civil rights activist and community development leader who founded the Woodson Center, which “helps residents of low-income neighborhoods address the problems in their communities.” Woodson has made many appearances on Fox News, his son said, and his X (formerly Twitter) account that Jamal runs has 72,000 followers.

“My dad is 87 years old and runs his own company,” Jamal said. “I have always wanted to be like my dad. That’s where my energy comes from. Everyone keeps telling him to slow down, but he says, ‘I will never slow down. That’s just how I am.’”

Woodson’s mother, Ellen, is a retired school teacher. Robert and Ellen raised Jamal, along with three other children, in Silver Spring, Maryland. One of Woodson’s brothers, Robert Jr., was tragically killed in a car accident in 2003. Jamal, a passenger in the car, survived the crash, which happened only three blocks from their home.

Woodson suffered another big loss in 2016 when his best friend, Mark Brown, died from a heart attack at the age of 39. Brown and Woodson ran “about 90% of the urban nightlife in Pittsburgh” for about a decade or so in the early 2000s, according to Woodson.

Working with teenagers is an area in which Woodson has extensive experience. As a mentor with CNX Foundation’s Mentorship Academy, Woodson helps high school juniors and seniors who don’t want to go to college find good career paths. What’s funny about that is that with SLAAM, Woodson helps similarly age teens find colleges to attend and play basketball. He has been pretty successful in that area, too. His top team this season, which includes Quaker Valley’s Mimi Thiero and South Fayette’s Juju Leroux, recently won a title at the Run 4 Roses Classic in Louisville and features five players with Division I offers.

When Woodson started SLAAM just over a decade ago, he said he had about 50 players. That number has since grown to about 250, he said.

“It’s been really good seeing the growth of it,” Woodson said. “In the very beginning, I was begging college coaches to come watch us play.”

Taking into account his energy, passion and success, it’s easy to imagine Woodson being an important member of the community for many years to come.

The Give Back King has big plans, too.

“My goal is for this to be way bigger than what it is,” he explained. “Right now everything is completely funded by myself. Every check I get, I always take a large portion of it and give it away. My goal is for this to be completely run by donations. My dad’s company is run by donations, and that’s kind of what I want, too.”

This story kicks off a series on Western Pennsylvania doers from a partnership of about 30 regional newsrooms as part of an inaugural Newsapalooza event, Sept. 26-29. The collaborative series demonstrates the power of a story when networked through an entire community. Read more on the event and buy tickets at newsapalooza.org.

Others in the series:

She came back a different person to help people and live well (from Soul Pitt Quarterly)

A Joe of all trades helps his North Side neighbors (from YaJagoff!)

Pittsburgh environmental activist’s ‘sustainability salons’ foster community (from The Allegheny Front)

A Penn Hills candy factory is making life sweeter for folks on the autism spectrum (from Pittsburgh Magazine)

‘Give Back King’: Go-getter Jamal Woodson a leader on and off the court (from Pittsburgh Union Progress)