OTHER INSTANCES WHERE BLACK ATHLETES WERE VICTIMIZED BY INTEGRATED SCHOOLS SCHEDULED TO PLAY EITHER SEGREGATED UNIVERSITIES OR IN BOWL GAMES
1909 Archie Alexander, an American of African descent, enrolled in the School of Engineering at the University of Iowa, at a time when such educational aspirations for a black person were almost unheard of. He also tried out for, and made the football team as a 6'2”, 177 lb. Tackle. He was held out of several games early in his Hawkeye football career when University of Iowa officials agreed to the demands of the other colleges involved, in particular the University of Missouri and Washington University of St. Louis.
1916 The name Paul Robeson is well known to most Americans with some sense of their country's history. He was among the most multi-talented, as well as politically controversial Americans of the 20th century. He became an All- American football player at Rutgers; was class valedictorian; went on to both Columbia University Law School and the National Football League; and became an internationally known star in music and dramatic acting.
In 1916 Robeson was emerging as a star football player at Rutgers. Some who saw him play went so far as to describe his athletic talent as boundless. On Oct. 14 of that year Rutgers was scheduled to play a home football game against Washington & Lee, a Virginia school. Just before gametime, Washington & Lee informed Rutgers that they refused to play against a team which used a black player. Rutgers Coach George Sanford chose not to make a decision on the matter by himself. He chose instead to put the question “to play or not to play” before his entire team as well as whatever Rutgers officials were present to watch the game. Not one of Rutgers' administrators, coaches, or fellow team members came to Robeson's defense. After a lengthy period of silence by all, Robeson finally spoke up and volunteered to sit the game out. In an interview of Robeson years later, he described an earlier incident related to his football experience at Rutgers. “On the first day of practice, I was attacked by 21 guys – all the guys on defense and all the guys on my (offensive) team. They put me in the hospital for two weeks”.
1925 Butler University of Indianapolis, Indiana left black football player John Southern at home when the Bulldogs travelled south to Shreveport, Louisiana to play Centenary College, a school associated with the United Methodist Church. Three years later, in 1928, Butler officials withheld another African American player – Alonzo Watford – from a game played in St. Louis against Washington University.
1926 Colgate University left black player Raymond Vaughn behind in Hamilton NY when the football team took a trip south to play the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Later that same season, Vaughn was held out of a game at the University of Pittsburgh. During Vaughn's senior year – 1928 – he was held out of a home game against Virginia Polytechnic Institute (now known as Virginia Tech) as well as a road game against Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee.
1929 Duquesne University, a Catholic University in Pittsburgh, held black football player Raymond Kemp out of a road game against West Virginia University.
1929 In the same year, David Myers, a talented black NYU football player, was twice required to sit on the bench when NYU officials failed to stand up to southern segregationist sentiments – first, in a game against West Virginia Wesleyan, and later, in its much higher profile game against the University of Georgia, to be played at Yankee Stadium because of the large crown expected. Against Georgia, NYU officials again allowed themselves to be dictated to on their home field, by a southern school. In an attempt to save face, they came up with the transparently lame excuse that Myers had sustained a shoulder injury, and was unable to play. New Your City sportswriters unanimously condemned NYU's decision. Ed Sullivan, then writing for the N.Y. Evening Graphic, had urged the NYU administration not to allow the Mason-Dixon line to be erected in the center of its playing field. Heywood Broun described NYU Coach Meehan as the gutless coach of a gutless university. Even Myers himself was attacked in the black press as failing to have the manliness to quit the team and leave NYU. For Myers, it was truly a lose-lose situation.
1930s During the decade of the 1930, highly ranked University of Minnesota football teams benched their black players virtually automatically whenever the Golden Gophers played a southern opponent. IN 1931 they withheld Ellsworth Harpole from a game against Oklahoma State University, whom they benched again in 1932 in a game against Mississippi. In 1935, Dwight Reed was kept on the bench against Tulane. And in 1936, they again benched Reed as well as sophomore Horace Bell for a game against the University of Texas.
1931 For a home game against Vanderbilt, Ohio State University allowed the southern school to call the shots, and withheld black player William Bell from the game.
1932 In 1932, the University of Iowa football team travelled to the nation's capitol for a game with George Washington University. The Hawkeyes' two black players remained on the bench for the entire game.
1932 Indiana University kept black player Fitzhugh Lyons on the bench for the Hoosiers' home game against Mississippi State University.
1934 Michigan State left its two black football players at home while the rest of the team travelled south for a game with Texas A&M.
1934 Also that year, the University of Cincinnati scheduled a home game against powerful Vanderbilt. In order to get the booking, they had to agree not to play their one non-white athlete, London Grant, in the game.
1934 The University of Michigan – Georgia Tech, at Ann Arbor, Oct. 20. Prior to leaving for the trip north , Georgia Tech officials asked that Michigan keep star player – the black Willis Ward – out of the game. In addition to his gridiron exploits, (he was a 2-way end) Ward was also the heart and soul of the Wolverines' track & field team. He was the main reason that Michigan had won the most recent Big Ten Track & Field Championship. Michigan readily agreed with Georgia Tech's requirements, and Michigan coach Harry G. Kipke quietly sent Ward out of town on game day to perform scout duties at the University of Wisconsin.
Playwright Arthur Miller was a student at Michigan at the time. Somehow he managed to get himself to Atlanta, where he was able to meet with several members of the Georgia Tech football team. He wanted to plead Ward's case. Not only was Miller rebuffed with strong language, but he was told that the visiting team would actually attempt to kill Ward if he set foot on Michigan's own playing field. Miller afterwards wrote an article describing his experience and submitted it to the UM student newspaper – The Michigan Daily - which chose not to publish it. Years later, in an interview, Ward said: “The Georgia Tech game knocked me right square in the gut. It was wrong. It killed my desire to excel”.
1934 The University of Minnesota's Homecoming Game vs. Tulane. Tulane officials informed their counterparts at Minnesota that they would refuse to come north unless Minnesota agreed not to play their lone black player – Dwight Reed – a first string end. Tulane's racist sentiments carried the day. Reed remained on the Golden Gophers' bench for the duration of the game.
Prior to the game, Walter White, secretary for the national office of the NAACP, had sent a telegram to Minnesota President Coffman shortly before the game. Some of its text was: “We respectfully urge cancellation of (the) game, as (a) rebuke to (the) unsportsmanlike and prejudiced attitude of Tulane. We do not believe (the) University of Minnesota will surrender high principle for (the) sake of gate receipts. Cancellation of (the) game would set a high moral standard for other northern institutions....” The university president ignored the pleas, and went on with the game, choosing to play by the rules of Jim Crow.
1937 Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, California) a Catholic institution, left two black members behind when its football team travelled to Beaumont, Texas for a game against Baylor University.
1940's As late as the early 1940s, both Georgetown University and the Catholic University of America (CUA) continued to refuse to compete against teams with black athletes in events held in Washington DC.
1941 In 1941, NYU observed the Gentlemens' Agreement with CUA by with- holding three black athletes from a track meet in Washington DC. In a similar instance, in a situation discovered by the NYU Council for Student Equality, the NYU basketball team, in December 1940, somehow made black star player Jim Coward ineligible for its game at Georgetown, which refused to play against black opponents in games played in the District.
|