PRENTICE GAUTT~ A SOONER'S STORY By CAROL J. BURR

1 0 SOONER MAGAZINE

hen the University's Cen- In his book, Forty-Seven Straight, on a regular athletic scholarship . tennial Commission gath- Harold Keith recalls that Gautt was Gautt had other scholarship offers, ered in the Union this not the first black to try out for the several from out-of-state and even one Wspring, in attendance were a number football team . Two years earlier three from A&M College, but OU of superstars-those whose under- Dunjee High School players had made was the collegiate big time and play- graduate triumphs still linger in the the attempt while commuting from ing on Owen Field was his dream . minds of their admirers and whose Oklahoma City. Without the financial Looking hack, Gautt realizes that with post-graduate accomplishments shine means to continue, two quit school ; the the talent OU was recruiting each with a little extra glitter. One of the third was injured and eventually year, Wilkinson didn't need the Doug- most sought-after introductions was to transferred to Central State . Gautt lass star and the controversy that ac- the associate commissioner of the Big was better prepared for the struggle companied his addition to the team . Eight Conference . ahead . But in this quiet, confident coach, he A handsome, soft-spoken man in his At Oklahoma City Douglass High found the quality which he later recog- late 40s, he moved through the crowd School, Gautt had been a superior stu- nized as the key to mutual acceptance . of distinguished alumni with the tell- dent, member of the National Honor "When I walked into Bud's office," tale grace of the former athlete to Society, president of the senior class, Gautt explains, "I saw a secure person whom the intervening years have been recipient of the Civitan Award for who felt pretty good about who and kind . scholarship and activities and the what he was . He could say to me, You "I've always wanted to meet Pren- DHS All-Around Boy Award . On the can he a part of my program . Regard- tice Gautt," one of his fellow Centen- football field he was a legend . less of what other people think or feel nial Commissioners remarked . "But During Gautt's junior and senior or do, I want you to be a part of my I'd pictured him as being so much big- years, Douglass ran up a 31-game win program .' So, because he was secure, ger." streak against the major black high whenever I was around him, I felt se- To those who watched his gridiron schools in a five-state area . Douglass cure ; I felt comfortable ." heroics on Owen Meld in the 1950s also played Oklahoma City Capitol Others were not so willing to set and thereafter followed his profes- Hill High School in the first integrated aside their prejudices and accept Pren- sional career with the St . Louis Cardi- tice Gautt as a person . Freshmen were nals, Prentice Gautt was a very big not eligible for varsity competition in man indeed . the '50s, and some members of the Strangely, his name does not appear Seldom can an freshman team objected to playing in Sooner record hooks, although he alumnus look back with a black ; one even left OU . After was a two-time selection as an All- a freshman game in Tulsa, Gautt was Conference hack . once as Academic on undergraduate refused service in the restaurant All-America . Bigger, faster, more days knowing that where the team was scheduled to eat . talented players have rewritten the His teammates abruptly left and lists many times since then . But no he changed the found an eating establishment that one who has ever worn OU Red has course of history. would also serve Gautt . surpassed the dignity, intregrity and Such expressions of support became strength of character which an 18- increasingly important as Gautt year-old from the ghetto of Oklahoma struggled to make the team as a sopho- City brought to the greatest, challenge game ever staged in Oklahoma, losing more. The strain of transferring from of his life . 13-6 with Gautt scoring his team's an all-black to an all-white environ- Prentice Gautt was the first black only touchdown . He was the first black ment was taking its toll . At one point to play football at the University of to participate in the state all-star Wilkinson cautioned Gautt that he Oklahoma . game, a last-minute substitution play- might not make the traveling squad . r ., ing with special permission when both When he did qualify, he encountered The color barrier at OU had been North fullbacks were injured . With additional problems on the road . lowered for graduate students in 1948, only two days practice, Gautt dazzled President Emeritus George L . Cross eight years before an excited yet fear- the crowd, scoring three touchdowns, recalls in Presidents Can't Punt that ful Gautt stepped out of a car at the including a 90-yard kickoff return . state law in Texas forbade housing main entrance to the campus ready to Equally important, Gautt had sup- Gautt with the team in the Worth register for classes . A small group of port, both moral and financial . A Hotel in Fort Worth before the OU- blacks had attended nonsegregated group of black doctors and pharma- Texas game . Since Oklahoma had no classes since 1950, but the last restric- cists in Oklahoma City had funded a such law, OU officials were surprised tions on undergraduate enrollment our-year scholarship for a scholar- when Oklahoma City's Skirvin Hotel had been removed only the year before, athlete who could make the grade at. responded to some patron complaints on May 15, 1955 . Very few black under- OU. Gautt. was their choice . He was by refusing to let Gautt stay there with graduates lived on campus . In,the dor- also Sooner Coach :s the team on the nights before home mitories, they roomed together, two to choice . Very quietly, in October of games . The team transferred to the a house . In the athletic down, Gautt Gautt's freshman year. Wilkinson re- Biltmore for the remainder of Gautt's would room alone. turned the private money and put Gautt eligibility. Continued

1987 SPRING II Eight for two years running . Perhaps his most celebrated perform- ance was in the 1959 Orange Bowl against Syracuse when he unleashed a 42-yard touchdown run on the second play of the game . He was the first black player to score in the Miami classic . George Cross quotes Miami Ilerald sportswriter Jack Bell's account : "The best player on the field was Oklahoma's Prentice Gautt, the mighty Negro fullback . IIis touchdown run that put the Sooners on top was IMAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE DUE TO his most spectacular effort . But he COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS . reeled ofl'several other long gains and his defense play was the mostes' . As a linebacker he was everywhere when A paper copy of this issue is available at call number needed ." In 1985 Gautt was inducted into the LH 1 .06S6 in Bizzell Memorial Library. Orange Bowl Hall of Fame . His 15 .7 yards per carry--six carries for 94 yards-still stands as the Orange Bowl record,

Even as he was earning the respect and admiration of his teammates and OU fans for his athletic prowess, Gautt was acutely aware that his acceptance off the gridiron was limited and far From universal . His social lift:, for in- stance, was practically nonexistent . Although Gautt had grown up in an all-hlack environment, largely shel- tered from direct racial confrontation until he came to OU, he knew the rules : "good" Negroes got by, kept their In this old wirephoto from the Associated Press, Sooner fullback Prentice Gautt "noses clean," never confronted any- turns upfield and heads for immortality as the first black ever to play fhr OZ% one who could "do something" to them, let. the slights and slurs run off their The out-of-town housing problems Gauttt broke down the middle and cut backs . In short, young blacks of the soon were resolved . Harold Keith re- to the outside . One after another, three '50s were taught to keep their places . ports that the athletic business man- Mountaineer tacklers bounced off Gautt remembers playing with a ager, Ken Farris, cleared Gautt's accep- Gautt's hitting shoulder and his thick white boy whose father ran a grocery tance with the hotels in advance . At thighs like grasshoppers off a -speeding store in his family's black neighbor- first Gautt was booked into a single automobile . Running 27 yards, Gautt hood . "We would play around the gro- room, but teammate Jakie Sandeler scored standing . `He had finally found cery store every Saturday," he says . put an end to that . Gautt and Sandefer himself and had the confidence he "There seemed to he a time when were road trip roommates until the needed,' recalls halfback Brewster white and black were allowed to grow Texas halfback graduated the follow- Hobby. 'I was so glad for him that I up together, then there would be a ing year. grabbed him by the legs and tried to parting of the ways around 11 or 12 Although Wilkinson had never lost chair him around the field ."' years of age . And that was what hap- faith in Gautt's ability to be a major Gautt then proceeded to throw the pened . After we got to the 6th or 7th factor for the Sooners, many Sooner block that sprang quarterback David grade, I didn't see him anymore ." fans would have been pleased to see Baker for the Sooners' first-ever two- Rule No . 1 for the young black man this highly touted black fullback fail . point conversion, a scoring option was never to talk to a white female . As a junior, Gautt quieted his critics which was new that. season . The rest On a college campus just emerging on the opening day of the 1958 season of Gautt's Sooner gridiron career is, as from segregation, populated almost against West Virginia, they say, .history. In a day when the entirely by young people, such a pro- Keith describes the events as "The good ones played both ways, he was a hibition was awkward if' not impossi- Breakthrough of Prentice Gautt :" formidable linebacker on defense as ble . Gautt still recalls his discomfort "Six plays later fullback Prentice well as the best fullback in the Big during his sophomore year at having 12 SOONER MAGAZINE

to avoid being seen with a female class- dren in those days were teachers," he token black on Devine's staff. He went mate in a late afternoon art course . insists . "They expected you to get your to Missouri in 1968 . a time in which "When class was over, she would go work, and it was reinforced ; my mom black athletes at major white institu- back to the Quad (women's dor- expected me to do those things . I really tions were drawing up lists of grie- mitories), and I'd go the same way to didn't know any other way. If' I were vances and demanding changes . practice," he says . ever going to do something with my Gautt, the black coach, was never Any other two students naturally life . 1 first had to learn to read, to asked to intercede with black players would have walked together. One day write, to compute . I wasn't the excep- to put out the fires of discontent . they did, and Gautt was painfully tion ; everybody did it . "Dan Devine's staff made a con- aware of other people watching them, "They gave homework, and we were certed effort to listen to the players," including his teammates . Thereafter expected to have it ready . We read out Gautt says, "and Devine responded he employed any delaying tactic he loud, so if you didn't know how to read, very positively. He took care of it ." could devise to keep from leaving class you were embarrassed . You went to the Although he remained on the ath- at the same time . board and did your math in front of letic staff for six years, four coaching "i can remember slowly putting up God and everybody. It wasn't even a and two counseling while completing my brushes one at a time," he shakes matter of saying, 'f have to get this his Ph .D., Gautt decided early that his head, "washing them and washing work because I'm going to college .' I coaching was not for him . "There was them and thinking `Holy cow, we have didn't even think about going to col- an aloofness between coaches and to do all of this . . " lege ; I knew that it cost money to go ." players at that time, not the rapport Gautt's social life-when there was Just as the youthful Gautt had not that I see, say, a Barry Switzer having time for one-required him to climb counted on going to college, the college with his players now. The head coach into his old car and go back tohis Okla- athlete did not anticipate a profes- was farther removed . Since then coach- homa City neighborhood . The desire sional football career. In 1960 when ing has changed immensely. Perhaps to belong and to have something to Gautt received his bachelor's degree I would relate a little bit differently belong to was probably one reason for in education, there were only 12 NFL to coaching today." his decision to get married during his teams. He was drafted by the Cleve- Gauttt chose counseling psychology, senior year. The marriage did not last . land Browns and after a year was earning two degrees at Missouri . In Although mostt of his associates traded to the St . Louis Cardinals 1975 he was appointed an assistant thought the young black student- where he played for seven more . professor in the department of educa- athlete handled his difficult situation "I was really surprised to be tion, serving as coordinator, trainer with a good deal of class, Gautt him- drafted," he says . "I wanted to see if I and supervisor for a variety of counsel- self is more self-critical . He recognizes could do it . I thought maybe one or ing programs, primarily involving that his personality, then and now, is two years and that would be it ." minorities and athletes . not confrontational, nott defiant . He Gautt was drafted long before pro- "1 saw myself in a lot of them," he wanted to be liked and to that end sup- fessional salaries made millionaires of admits . "I knew the importance of hav- pressed any trait he considered unlik- untested college athletes, but even ing somebody to talk to, somebody to able . He felt like only half a person . then he was dazzled. "It was the first. say, `Yeah, I care,' " "To this day," he admits, "whenever time 1 had ever seen thatt amount of On a personal level, Gautt found I talk about those experiences, I think money," he confesses . "That's what someone to share his life at Missouri . that I really should have said some- gets you . You get hooked into having His marriage to Dr. Sandra Whayne- thing when this thing happened or some of the niceties, and you don'tt Gautt, a member of MU's special edu- that thing happened . But what would think about whatt happens when you cation faculty since 1971, brought to- it have served? The only thing it would get injured . When you are young and gether two very busy-and often diver- have served would he for me to ventt crazy. you do crazy things ." gent-careers . Somehow they have my frustration, and more than likely After eight years, however, Gautt managed to make it work. I would have. lost the opportunity to Faced Facts . "I was not that good . I hap- In 1979, Gautt was offered the assis- play at the University." pened to be in the right place at the tant commissioner's job for the Big But Gautt is quick to emphasize right time ; circumstances just fell to- Eight Conference in Kansas City . He that there are more positives than gether to keep me playing for eight decided to go for a year to get the ex- negatives in his memories of his col- years . But I realized, hey, this isn't perience he needed in athletic admin- legiate days . He prefers to think of the going to last ." istration but left the door open for a professors, coaches and teammates If Dan Devine, the head coach at. the return to his Missouri job . He took an who accepted and supported him and , had not offered apartmentt in Kansas City while to forget the rest . Gautt an assistantship with the oppor- Sandy kept. the couple's house in Col- * *: 1 : tunity to continue his schooling, he umbia . At. the end of' the year, the Football enabled Gautt to obtain would have looked for a job in Okla- Gautts made the two-home arrange- what he wanted most-an education . homa and returned to OU's class- ment permanent . He had been taughtt from childhood rooms . As it was, he became one of "We get together on weekends," he that classroom achievement was the only two black assistant coaches in the says of the past eight years, "and she only way to success . Big Eight . tries to meett me when I'm traveling . "The role models for minority chil- Nevertheless, he never felt like a But lately she hasheen consult.ingand

1987 SPRING 13

IMAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE DUE TO COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS .

A paper copy of this issue is available at call number LH 1 .06S6 in Bizzell Memorial Library.

Prentice Gautt with a stuck of books was a popular sports New York Giant defenders converge on Gautt in this 1967 publicity shot. Asaserr.iorli.emadeAcademieAtl-America . AP photo taken near the end of his professional career .

doing quite a bit of traveling, too." not effective until August 1, 1986, to that rich academic background ." Gautt takes obvious pride in his at- give people an opportunity to get on Gautt terms the Big Eight's enforce- tractive wife's professional accom- the path, to chart their course through ment policies a "preventive" program . plishments as a specialist in early the core curriculum," Gautt explains . lie visits each member institution at childhood development, behavior dis- "An NCAA flier went to some 22,000 least twice a year, meets with the orders and the like . He seems equally high schools across the nation, plus coaches of all sports, discussing the pleased with their life together . our conference schools sent them out rules and regulations, answering any "She's quite a character," he says to local high schools in their areas ." questions the athletic personnel may fondly. "She's the kind of person that Nevertheless, last, spring the Big have . With the tightening of NCAA re- you can he kind of crazy around be- Eight office was inundated with calls strictions on recruiting, particularly cause she can be that way, too . She's protesting the ineligibility of various the participation of boosters and out- a good person ; I enjoy her." athletes . "I didn't realize that there side athletic interests, such informa- x * k were so many high schools that, were tion is the schools' best protection . Now associate commissioner of the not what you'd call college prep "The message is loud and clear," conference, Gautt's responsibilities lie schools," Gautt, says, "but there were Gautt stresses . "The student athlete in the currently hot areas of education, quite a few of them ." is going to have to take the responsibil- eligibility and enforcement . Gautt ac- Gautt is emphatic in his support of ity for the illegal things they get in- knowledges thatt intercollegiate athlet- the core curriculum but admits that volved with . And we're saying, 'Coach, ics have been tarnished by public dis- there are some legitimate concerns you're going to stand responsible . We closures of lax academic standards and about, standardized tests . want to find out how you are spending widespread recruiting violations, and "Some of the traditionally black in- your recruiting budget . We want an he welcomes recent NCAA moves to stitutions are saying that the standard- audit of all monies advanced through regain control ofthe "runaway train ." ized test unfairly impacts the black the athletic department .' The NCAA Gautt has taken a special interest student," he says . "I can remember has put some tough penalties out in NCAA bylaw 5-1-W, which regulates taking a standardized test-not to get there . We think that if they have the academic eligibility requirements into the University, just a placement knowledge of the rules, they won't vio- for students entering an NCAA in- exam-but I froze . You want to do your late them ." stitution and sets subsequent stan- best but you feel so inadequate . I can The "preventive" program has dards for satisfactory progress toward see pretty sharp kids freezing, kids worked amazingly well . Gautt con- a degree . Basically, if a high school who lack self-confidence, whether tends that the Big Eight polices itself' recruit wishes to participate as a they be black or white . with 75 per cent of all allegations com- freshman at an NCAA division I or II "I'm not sure that the standardized ing from within the conference . Each school, he or she must have completed test is going to say that you're going allegation is written up by Gautt and a "core" curriculum of college pre- to graduate from college, but I will say sent to the faculty representative of paratory courses and have scored 15 this: the core curriculum is highly cor- the institution involved, along with on the ACT or 700 on the SAT. related with ones ability to score questions the conference office wants "This thing was passed in 1983, but higher on those tests . You have to have answered, If the response is not com-

14 SOONER MAGAZINE plete, the school will get another list of questions from the associate com- missioner to make certain there are no cracks in the information . Gautt also has the right to talk to any athlete at any school mentioned in the allega- tion . If anything significant is found, the institution has the option of having the Big Eight continue the investiga- tion or of asking the conference to defer to the NCAA . Occasionally the two groups co-investigate . Whatever the decision, the conference must even- tually notify the NCAA, When Gautt talks about eligibility, recruiting, enforcement and penalties, his concern fi)r the welfare of the stu- dent-athlete is obvious . He can only shake his head at the effect of high- pressure recruiting on an 18-year-old's equilibrium . How can the high school superstar Big Eight Associate Commissioner Gautt returns to the scene of his triumphh to keep his head on straight? "Some of view last seasons OU-UCLA game from OUS Memorial Stadium press box . them don't," he says simply. "And then they get to the institution and find kids there who are just as good as they are if not better. Then there has to be somebody around to help pick up the pieces . Otherwise the kid may finally decide, `I'm not as good as I thought I was,' and somehow just give up- and that's really sad ." Gautt leaves the impression that lie might be thinking of what might. have been 30 years ago if a black kid from Oklahoma City had succumbed to his own feelings of inadequacy. Not surprisingly, Gautt periodically is asked to return to the in the role of alumnus, to share his insight and experiences with young people to whom the '50s are days out of time. Most recently he spoke at OU's Black Students Awards Banquet . "I hope I can still relate," he says . Serving as a commissioner of another kind, Goutt confers with Alumni Director "I talk about challenge-not just ac- Paul Massad at a planning session of the ('ni,rr :sity Centennial Commission . cepting challenge but your motivation in accepting it . how you accept it and "Of course I give them some of the Editors note : As this edition of Sooner what you do with it . Regardless of how historical perspective from my life Magazine goes to press, announcement far we've come, we still have a long coming to the University of' Okla- has been made of the 1987 recipients way to go in terms of people relating homa," he continues, "some of the of the Distinguished Service Citations, to people . things I experienced, some of the past . the University of Oklahoma's• highest "We're not talking about just black I hope that we can take the past and honor. The five honorees are Dr. Lowell to white and white to black : we're talk- use it . as just that-the past . There is Dunham, Mary Eddy Jones, Harold ing about people relating, families, nothing we can do about it except to Keith . Alexander H. Massad - and husbands and wives, kids and other say, 'Hey, that's heritage .' We need to Dr. Prentice Gautt . kids . Underlying that is a message of think about the future and enjoy today, love--what it really means to care for because you can only make the best of somebody. this day-just do your best ."

1987 SPRING 15