SAN JOSE — Harry Edwards, one of San Jose State University’s most radical and vocal students from the civil rights upheavals of the ’60s, has come a very long way. On Tuesday, the university announced that Edwards, 73, still a towering presence in the areas of human and civil rights, will be the 2016 commencement speaker. He will also receive an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at the May 28 ceremony at Spartan Football Stadium.

“Harry Edwards came to San Jose State to pursue an education while representing the university in intercollegiate athletics, and he accomplished both with extraordinary distinction,” said SJSU Interim President Susan Martin in a statement. “Dr. Edwards went on to dedicate his life to developing innovative approaches for raising the nation’s consciousness about the hidden inequities and barriers that exist in our society through his work in athletics. We are proud to recognize his contributions with an honorary degree and look forward to hearing him address our graduates.”

About 9,000 SJSU students will earn bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees this year and another 15,000 family members and friends are expected to hear Edwards, a powerful public speaker. Standing 6-foot-8 inches tall, Edwards is still built like the double-sport athlete he was at the university, where he was captain of the basketball team and set school records for the discus.

In 2013, when SJSU was roiling with racial animus over a bullying incident involving a black freshman, Edwards came to campus with several other major speakers who analyzed the highly charged situation accompanied by marches, meetings and angry speeches.

Before a packed auditorium, Edwards, known at the school as the catalyst behind the 1960s Olympic Project for Human Rights, and the famed Olympic Black Power salutes, urged modern-day students to sacrifice, protest and work for the future campus community — but not to be naive.

“When you stand up,” he said in his famed, booming voice, “you will pay a price. … If you really take this thing on, you will not get out unscathed.”

That night on stage, Edwards pulled out a thick, tattered scrapbook and showed off yellowed copies of numerous newspaper stories about protests, standoffs and marches either inspired by Edwards or led by him.

This graduation day trip back to SJSU will be notably more soothing than back when Edwards was a catalyst who went on to graduate in 1964 with a degree in sociology. While he was pursuing his doctorate at Cornell University in New York, he took a break to return to San Jose State, where he worked as a part-time instructor of sociology.

“The year was 1966, and the civil rights movement was in full swing,” read a biography offered by the university. “Drawing on his childhood experiences, his years as a college athlete, his academic training, and his desire to educate, Edwards began gaining national attention for speaking out on the inequities he perceived in the nation and the sports world.”

During the 1967 college football season, Edwards presented a list of civil rights grievances to the administration on behalf of black students, particularly its athletes. Edwards’s group threatened to disrupt the opening game of the season if the demands were not met. The New York Times reported: “It was a regional watershed in radical sports activism, and the mainstream reaction was also a first; the opening game was canceled.”

The following year — with the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy — Edwards backed the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which called for black athletes to boycott the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. During the gold and bronze medal ceremony, SJSU track stars, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved, black power salutes that were condemned around the world. Three decades later, the school had grown so proud of them, a 24-foot statue of the two runners, raising their fists was erected in the center of campus.

Raised in East St. Louis, Ill., the second of eight children, Edwards was inspired by his dad, who had only a third grade education, for the way he supported his family. Still, his dad encouraged his bright, athletic son to take advantage of the opportunities the sports world provided.

Ultimately, Edwards earned that doctorate from Cornell in 1971, and launched a distinguished, three-decade career as a professor of sociology at UC- Berkeley. His famed course — “Sociology of Sports” — was among the most popular on campus.

Today, Edwards lives in Fremont with his wife of 47 years — Sandra Boze Edwards — whom he met at SJSU. They are the parents of three adult children: a lawyer, a physician, and an information technology/computer programming specialist.

The author of four books: “The Struggle That Must Be,” “Sociology of Sports,” “Black Students,” and “The Revolt of the Black Athlete,” Edwards has worked as a special counselor for a number of professional leagues and teams — including the Warriors and the Forty-Niners.

“In all of these roles,” according to the university, “he sought to develop practices and programs to increase minority representation in the coaching ranks and to support players of color as they navigated the opportunities and pressures of college and professional sports.”

Contact David E. Early at 408-920-5836 or dearly@mercurynews.com. Contact Katy Murphy at 510-293-6424.