As a coach at Rio Rancho High School, former student-athlete Nick Gerard could be expected to know his X's and O's.

As a second-year teacher at his alma mater, he wants students to know about one X.

Malcolm X. And so it was that Gerard, a member of the Class of 2000, performed four times last Friday for students in the Performing Arts Center.

Gerard's 35-minute talk, encompassing much of what Malcolm X had said during his lifetime, provided students and teachers with a glimpse of a man who was a key figure in the Civil Rights movement.

Born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Neb., his mother was busy raising her eight children when his father, Earl Little, a Baptist minister, was murdered in 1931, after the family had moved to Lansing, Mich.

An educated man who had his run-ins with the law, and also had problems with alcohol and drug use, Malcolm X advocated the teachings of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, who taught that white society actively worked to keep African-Americans from empowering themselves and achieving political, economic and social success.

Needless to say, that theory wasn't a popular one in America 40 years ago. Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965, at a rally in Harlem in New York City.

In the persona of Malcolm X, Gerard spoke as if it were 1965 again.

It was easy to feel his passion, and it was understandable: Gerard has studied Malcolm X since he was 13 years old, which was 17 years or so after X's assassination.

Before his presentation, Gerard spoke about why he was standing at the PAC's podium.

"My parents were always big on teaching me black history, and history in general," he said. "Then, when I went to the high school, I was always fascinated with history in general. Then, when I was about 14 or 15, was the first time I read the autobiography of Malcolm X.

"And it changed my life forever," he said. "It made me rethink how I thought about myself, about the world, my race. So I started to in-depth study, for years, so that right before I graduated from Eastern (New Mexico University in 2005), was the first time that I did it, so I've done it now for three or four years."

Here are a few things, spoken by Gerard, and attributed to Malcolm X, that students heard in the PAC:

"You call him God, we call him Allah."

"I don't hate all white people."

"We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us."

"Preserve your life; it's the best thing you've got."

"Not all whites are racists."

"There's no place for apathy in this country."

"The system's what has got to be changed."

"We want peace, we want justice, we want respect."

His in-depth study and presentation of Malcolm X have been an eye-opening experience for him, Gerard said.

How so?

"I care more about the younger generation, leaving an impact on some of these African-American students I have, and basketball players, and even those who aren't minorities. ... I wanted to impact people in my own way, in the way I thought I could.

"I'm not an overtly political person, in terms of (being) in politics, running for office kinds of things. I thought I could have more influence on future generations by being a teacher," he continued. "Affecting the masses on a smaller scale: in my classroom, on the basketball court, on the stage."

To get the Malcolm X look, Gerard had to shave his head and his goatee.

The Gerards moved to Rio Rancho when he was still in elementary school. He attended Stapleton Elementary, where his mother still teaches. He went to Lincoln Middle School before heading to RRHS, where he was a basketball star and one of the school's first athletes to play at the proverbial next level.

How would the U.S. be different had Malcolm X not been murdered, Gerard was asked.

"Kids have been asking that all day, and it's a great question," he replied. "I told them not just Malcolm X or Martin Luther King but both the Kennedys (John and Bobby), if one of those men had been not assassinated and one of them, even, or all of them, had survived the Sixties, (we'd be) so much further in terms of evolution, we'd be so much closer to having a peaceful, co-existing humanity and world, if one of those men had lived.

"As far as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, I think that black people would be further than we are now."

What would Malcolm X have said if he'd been alive to hear Don Imus's comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team?

"Dr. King would be disappointed. Malcolm X would be pissed," Gerard said. "I think he would say, 'Look, it's not better. Just because racism now isn't a conscious thing, it's moved more into the subconscious and that's possibly worse. We still have prejudice in this country; not just racial, but religious, sexism, sexual orientation."

Although it may be hard for some to believe that Gerard endured racist taunts while attending RRHS, it happened.

"I remember some racial slurs when I went here; I remember being called (the "N word") once or twice," he said. "I don't hear that on campus as much anymore. But there are other things.

"I do think that compared to when I went here, students in general are much more prejudiced in terms of grouping; everybody fits into a group now, but I do think, racially, it has gotten better," he said. "In Rio Rancho, with the growth and everything and the variety of people moving in, I think it has gotten better."

Malcolm X would probably have been skeptical of that, but satisfied nonetheless.