The Rollins/Ohio Wesleyan Football Game of 1947
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Rollins College Rollins Scholarship Online Faculty Publications Winter 2019 Race and Sport in the Florida Sun: The Rollins/Ohio Wesleyan Football Game of 1947 Wenxian Zhang Rollins College, [email protected] Raja Rahim University of Florida, [email protected] Julian Chambliss Michigan State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.rollins.edu/as_facpub Part of the Politics and Social Change Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, and the Sports Studies Commons Published In Zhang, Wenxian, Raja Rahim and Julian Chambliss, "Race and Sport in the Florida Sun: The Rollins/Ohio Wesleyan Football Game of 1947." Phylon (1960-) 56, no. 2 (2019): 59-81. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Rollins Scholarship Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Rollins Scholarship Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Wenxian Zhang, Raja Rahim and Julian Chambliss 59 Race and Sport in the Florida Sun: The Rollins/Ohio Wesleyan Football Game of 1947 Wenxian Zhang Rollins College Raja Rahim University of Florida Julian Chambliss Michigan State University Abstract As the most popular sport in the United States, football occupies a central place in popu- lar discourse. Since the early twentieth century, public engagement with football has been central to sport culture. Across the South, football provided a moment of common experi- ence, and this was especially true of Rollins College. Being the oldest liberal arts institution in Florida, life at Rollins was linked to football for decades. Yet, as this comment suggested, the nature of the relationship could not be unaffected by the changing racial dynamic in the United States. As a small liberal arts college, the faculty and students at Rollins has long supported “progressive” racial politics. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of that history in the 1947 Rollins/Ohio Wesleyan University football game is how that racial progressivism vie with the reality of White Supremacy. Despite notable social progress since World War II, Florida in the late 1940s remained a frontier state in terms of racial relations, since the state law still prohibited the mixed participation in any educational programs. When Ohio Wesleyan led by Branch Rickey insisted on bringing its African American player to the game, President Hamilton Holt failed to take a stand against racial injustice, fearing violence, even though the cancellation was against his personal beliefs. Notwithstanding his own limit and surrender to political pressures in the segregated South of his time, Holt ultimately was able to stand on the right side of history and made his mark on the social integration in the United States. 60 Phylon 56 Introduction cerned the cancellation of a football game, the intersection of race and sports On Friday, November 28, 1947, Ham- in college athletics, and White southern ilton Holt, president of Rollins College culture. After much debate, Rollins Col- (1925-1949), gave lengthy remarks to the lege cancelled it against Ohio Wesleyan students and faculty in the Annie Rus- University (OWU) to ensure the racial sell Theatre: order of the South. The racial machi- We all are prone to take our stand on nations surrounding the Rollins-OWU controversial issues in accordance with game tells not only the history of college our general intellectual and ethical be- football and the execution of the Gentle- liefs, even before we have heard both men’s Agreement but also exposes how sides. I know that some of you have Whites interpreted the processes of so- thought that Rollins was wrong in can- cial change in the postwar South. celing the game, for I have heard already As the most popular sport in the a few such opinions expressed from United States, especially in the South, alumni, faculty, students and townsfolk. football has been a major part of Ameri- Others I know have approved. But it can life since its invention in the late is always better in cases of this kind to nineteenth century. Most people prob- hear the objections to what may be said ably do not know that Rollins College against your conclusions before your ut- once had a very active football program. ter them than after you utter them. In With mottos such as “Fit for Life,” “Fit other words, the spirit of tolerance and to Fight,” and “Study Hard and Play fair play requires educated men and Hard,” Rollins’ football program was women to make up their minds... Histo- launched in the early twentieth century, ry, I take it, is nothing but the coming into and its first victory was over the Univer- his own of the individual man, whatever sity of Florida (5-0) at home in 1906, af- his color, creed, race or religion may be. ter suffering two no-win seasons. Over But during the life-time of every one of its forty-five-year span (1904-1949), you in my hearing this morning, this is- Tars registered a record of 114 wins, 94 sue is likely to be with you, even though losses, and 13 ties, making Rollins one I hope and believe it will continually get of the best small-college programs in better as the years and decades roll on the country (Davis 1994). As a founding (Holt 1947a). member of the Florida Collegiate Ath- letic Association, Rollins regularly faced teams from much larger institutions and Speaking on the issue of race in the scored a few impressive wins, including United States, it may be assumed that beating the University of Havana (80- Holt’s speech spoke to the experiences 0) in 1923, and defeating Miami Hurri- of World War II soldiers, the tensions canes in 1932 (6-0), 1934 (14-0) and 1940 sparked by the onset of the Cold War, (7-0). Although the program was briefly or the forthcoming movement for Black cancelled (1942-45) due to the war effort civil rights. His remarks, however, con- and a lack of male enrollment as a result of the draft during World War II, under Wenxian Zhang, Raja Rahim and Julian Chambliss 61 the leadership of Coach Jack McDow- North and South (Demas 2010; Martin all (1929-1949) and with ardent support 1996). Written in ambiguous language, by President Hamilton Holt, for years the contracts masked the racist politics football occupied a central place in cam- of White college athletics. For instance, pus life at Rollins, and its annual ritual the Rollins/OWU contract read, “the is the homecoming celebration in each home management reserves the right to November (ibid; Rollins Alumni Record cancel said contest on account of inclem- 1948). ent weather or any other unforeseen or During the homecoming game on No- unavoidable cause, two hours before vember 22, 1946, Rollins beat Ohio Wes- the team leaves from its residence or leyan 21 to 13. The game took place in the place of the previous game” (Roll- the Orlando Municipal Stadium, at the ins/OWU Football Contract 1947). The current site of Citrus Bowl. On February language was typical of most gentle- 19, 1947, Jack McDowall, Rollins’ Athlet- men agreement contracts that left the ic Director, reached an agreement with meaning of “unforeseen or unavoidable G. E. Gauthier, his counterpart at OWU, cause” open to debate. By the late 1940s, on Rollins’ next homecoming game to however, many northern colleges like be played on November 28, 1947, with OWU began to express their oppositions a signed Southern Inter-Collegiate Ath- to the Gentlemen’s Agreement. letic Association football contract speci- fying the time, place, and financial ob- A Controversy and A Compromise ligations for both parties (Rollins/OWU Football Contract 1947). Five weeks before the game was to During the era of segregation, White take place, Rollins learned that the 1947- southern colleges and universities 48 football team of Ohio Wesleyan in- played their roles in maintaining the ra- cluded an African American freshman cial status quo, including their athletic named Kenneth Woodward. The inclu- programs. Since the development of col- sion of Woodward breached the inexplic- lege athletics at the turn of the twentieth it rule that barred African Americans for century, Northern and Southern colleges intersectional football games, especially and universities operated based on the those held in the South. After knowing Gentlemen’s Agreement—a mutual un- the fact, Rollins officials began to act derstanding that excluded the Black ath- immediately. In his letter of October 21, lete from competition when the teams 1947 to Dean C. E. Ficken at OWU, Rol- met. Under such an agreement, White lins’ Dean of Men A. D. Enyart clearly southern colleges avoided integrated outlined the dilemma the school faced: competition by not scheduling games with integrated teams of the North or by The Administration of the insisting those teams leave their Black College, the Faculty, the Athletic players behind. Throughout the first Department, the student teams and half of the century, White college leaders the student body generally, have contractually agreed that the color line no objection to playing against a would maintain on football fields in the Negro, but there are other serious 62 Phylon 56 obstacles in our way over which we progress in the United States, especial- have no control. Our College lawyer ly of that in the state of Florida. White informs me that there is a State law Floridians—like most White southern- forbidding mixed participation in ers—resisted the integration of baseball any educational function. Whether and exposed the myth of a level playing this law would stand up in our case field. When Jackie Robinson arrived in is a question which I doubt and it Central Florida for his first spring train- need not here be considered, but a ing with the Montreal Royals in 1946, he more serious situation confronts us was forced to sit in the back of the bus in public sentiment.