The next star of The Bachelor might be a sports broadcaster, a coach and mentor for young children, and a former basketball player for Oregon State University.

Oh, and he might also be African American.

Lamar Hurd came out with a video to promote his effort to become the next star of The Bachelor. Hurd's assistant told Entertainment Weekly last week that he would have a meeting with ABC on Monday. If Hurd succeeds in his efforts, he would be the show's first bachelor of color.

The Bachelor and its spin-off, The Bachelorette, have been criticized for a lack of diversity since premiering on the tube a decade ago.

Oh, we have to wedge African-American chicks in there! Mike Fleiss, the shows' creator, told Entertainment Weekly in 2011.

We always want to cast for ethnic diversity, it's just that for whatever reason, they don't come forward. I wish they would, he added.

Hurd certainly looks like Bachelor material. He's got a great body, a beautiful smile, and the endorsement of several women, one of whom described his smile as infectious. He is 28 years old, according to the website BachelorExpert.com.

So what else do we know about Hurd?

He was born and raised in Houston, Texas and now lives in Portland, Oregon.

He played basketball at Oregon State University and lettered in all of his four years there, according to the college sports website LostLettermen.com. His OSU biography also claims that Hurd graduated as the valedictorian of his high school class.

Hurd's parents are divorced. He cited an old basketball coach, who he first met in the sixth grade, as a father figure and credits him for giving valuable life lessons (one piece of advice: treat girls he dated with respect).

Everything he said I really took it in, Hurd said of his old coach.

Hurd is also divorced after a brief marriage to his college sweetheart. They married in 2006 and split up the following year.

Personal details aside, Hurd is a fan of basketball, a sport he credits as being a vehicle to many opportunities. Today, he is a sports broadcaster and one of the directors of All In One Basketball, a youth-oriented sports organization.

Hurd admitted that he initially resisted the idea of trying out for the show, but now he's getting psyched.

If this all worked out and I actually got selected to be the bachelor, I'm going to have a good time with it, he said.

The excitement is certainly building up online. Hurd has been fielding comments on his Twitter feed (including warnings from former Bachelorette contestant Jesse Csincsak), and the Twitter handle @1stBlkBachelor, which is run by Hurd's publicist, has also popped up.

Check out his promotional video here. Do you think he has what it takes to be The Bachelor?

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