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1 RACE AND SPORT IN AMERICA: AN INTRODUCTION Richard Lapchick

Everyone knows the story of and the way in which his joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 began to change the face of American sports. He is celebrated in virtually every ballpark, his number has been retired, and there are regular ceremonies in his honor. When Americans are asked who the greatest racial pioneer in sport is, Jackie Robinson’s name will most often be mentioned. Yet, few know names of the people who broke the barriers in the just a few months later, in the NFL, NBA, NHL, who were the first African-American athletes to break down the barriers of segregation at the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 8/Big 12, and Ivy League conference schools. Some know about Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson in tennis but few know the names of those who led the way in other sports. Many who know Muhammad Ali might not know Jack Johnson. Sports and race relations have traveled throughout most of his- tory on a parallel plane. It was only with the breakthrough and coura- geous actions of the 100 pioneers written about in this book that sport was able to influence the perception that society had about African-Americans. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were a few individuals who crossed the color barriers in MLB and the early NFL. However, those athletes were often unable to eat in restaurants or stay in hotels with their teammates due to segregation. Then society began to impose its barriers over sport once more. Gentleman’s agreements to keep African-Americans out of sports were quietly made. Sport was re-segregated. Jesse Owens’ victories in the Berlin Olympics, coupled with Joe Louis’ defeat of Max Schmeling, highlighted African-American 100Pio.qxp 12/2/07 6:05 PM Page 2

2 Race and Sport in America:An Introduction athletes once again but this time on an international stage. There were some colleges that had African-American student-athletes, in- cluding those highlighted in this book in the Big Ten and Ivy League. The early Civil Rights Movement heated up. Although ten- sions at some of those schools were palpable, athletics became a common bond and focus once again. The brave acts of the early collegiate pioneers began to shape the unified spirit of a team, a col- lege, a town, and sport as we know it today. However, there were many colleges and universities that dragged their feet and inte- grated their teams long after MLB, the NBA and the NFL. It took Jackie Robinson and the pioneers who followed him to finally re- ally open up sport in America. 100 Pioneers is designed to tell their courageous stories, our history, and the way in which sport positively impacted race rela- tions in the United States. It is the second book in a series, following 100 Heroes: People in Sports Who Make This a Better World. The series began at the National Consortium for Academics and Sport (NCAS). Because of the work that we do in the NCAS and the DeVos Sport Business Management Program, we have become all too aware of the problems that exist in sport. Each day, it seems, we read about a rule being violated, an athlete getting in trouble with drugs, an athlete being arrested for sexual assault, steroid use in base- ball, the NFL, or track and field, the threat that gambling poses to col- lege sports, or agents recruiting young athletes with illegal monetary inducements. The list goes on and on. That is why it was so joyous for me when Dr. Taylor Ellis, the dean of undergraduate education in the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Florida, came to my office in February of 2005. I had just put to bed a book called New Game Plan for College Sport and was frankly tired of writing. I vowed that I would not take up another book project for several years. Taylor changed all of that on the morning after the 2005 NCAS banquet. He came in, sat down, and said, “When I was a boy, I wasn’t involved in school. I had no sense of direction or sense of purpose.” He said, “Then someone gave me this book,” and placed a well-worn copy of Real Life Stories: Champions All the Way by Barlow Meyers, published 45 years earlier, on my desk. He said, “About that time in my life somebody gave me this book about seven athletes and the obstacles they overcame to do great things in life. This book transformed my 100Pio.qxp 12/2/07 6:05 PM Page 3

Chapter 1 3 life and gave me a sense of direction and hope.” Taylor continued, “Every year you honor five or six such athletes at the Consortium’s award banquet. You have to write a book about them.” So came the idea for 100 Heroes. It was a no-brainer to think about undertaking the project in spite of my vow to the contrary. This book could be, I thought, a real celebration of sport. It could portray the power of sport to transform not only individuals, but their impact on the broader society. I ran through my head the names of all the award winners I could recall and knew that their stories would inspire people collectively who could not be in the presence of these people in the halls when we honored them. With the 20th anniversary of the Consortium exactly a year away, I knew that we would have to work hard to get this project done. I enlisted the support of Jessica Bartter, who is the assistant di- rector for communications and marketing of the National Consor- tium. We began to draw all of the names and addresses together and contact the previous award winners who were still alive. Their sup- port for the project was overwhelmingly positive. We began to col- lect the biographical materials and stories that were the basis for the awards. We also asked Drew Tyler, Stacy Martin, Jennifer Brenden, and Brian Wright, all graduate students in the DeVos Sport Business Management Program, to help write the individual stories. 100 Heroes was published in February 2006. I knew there was more to do. In 100 Pioneers, we have gathered the stories of the first African-American players, coaches, general managers, and team presidents in the various professional sports. We hoped to have the first African-American male and female student-athletes to compete in each of the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 8/Big 12, and Ivy League schools, as well as the first African-American coaches and athletic di- rectors in those conferences. We have John Thompson and Carolyn Peck, the first African-American coaches to win the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball championships, respectively, and Ty Will- ingham, the first to coach in a BCS Bowl Game. Included are Willie Jeffries, the first African-American Division I football coach, and Gale Sayers, the first African-American Division I athletics director. We also included those icons who did not neatly fit categories, such as Coach Eddie Robinson at Grambling State and renaissance 100Pio.qxp 12/2/07 6:05 PM Page 4

4 Race and Sport in America:An Introduction man Paul Robeson. Don Barksdale made more than one break- through. He was the first African-American to be named a basketball All-American and the first African-American to appear in an NBA All-Star Game. There are four “events” that shaped their times, in- cluding Joe Louis’ 1938 defeat of German Max Schmeling, widely viewed as the victory of democracy over Nazism; the clenched fist, black glove salute of John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics; the 1975 NBA Finals, at which two African- American head coaches first faced each other for any championship; and the 2007 Super Bowl when two African-American head coaches faced each other for the NFL title for the first time. 100 Pioneers is a mixture of historical research and interviews with those who broke down color barriers on college campuses and in cities around the country. I believe sharing the inspiring life sto- ries of those who paved the way for other people of color in the world of sports can continue to make this world a better place. Such important figures deserve a platform from which to have their sto- ries told and share what their experiences have meant to them. I am part of a team of writers and researchers made up mostly of my grad- uate assistants at the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program in the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Florida. As with 100 Heroes, the team was led by Jessica Bartter. The writers also included Stacy Martin, Horacio Ruiz, Jenny Brenden, and Marcus Sedberry. The editor was Catherine Lahey, and research support was offered by Zoie Springer. We are all proud to have played a role in publishing these stories, which include the ad- versities each pioneer conquered, the decisions each faced, and the accomplishments each achieved. The book is organized into three parts. The first is on profes- sional sport and includes chapters on pioneers in MLB, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, tennis, golf, and boxing. There is an introduction to each followed by the individual stories of the pioneers. The second part is on college sport and includes chapters on college coaches, athletics directors, and student-athletes. Once again, there is an introduction to each of the three chapters, followed by the stories of the pioneers themselves. The largest chapter in the book is on student-athletes. The original goal for this chapter was to have the first African-American male and female student-athletes at each 100Pio.qxp 12/2/07 6:05 PM Page 5

Chapter 1 5 of the schools in the respective conferences. After exhaustive at- tempts, we found only a handful of schools that could identify their first African-American female student-athlete. In several cases, there was little or no information about the male pioneers. The next book in this series will be about women pioneers, and we hope to be able to find those female student-athletes and include their stories. Thus for this edition, we ended up with only the male student-athletes and, in some cases, only their names and a smattering of the story. This reflects so much of American history, in which the stories of some racial and ethnic groups were not recorded in writing but were passed on from generation to generation in an oral tradition. After tireless research efforts, there are still nine schools whose male pioneers’ stories remain untold. Their stories represent important threads in the quilted patchwork of our history. Although the details are unknown, the simple action of stepping forth into un- certain circumstances and forging a path for countless others to fol- low deserves praise and gratitude. Robert Bell of Mississippi State, Ansel “Jackie” Brown of the University of South Carolina, Nat Lucas of the University of Virginia, Clifford Evans of the Univer- sity of Colorado, Curtis Mills, Sidney Chachere, and Edgar Harvey of Texas A&M University, Danny Hardaway of Texas Tech Univer- sity, George Henry Jewett of Northwestern University, John Henry Weaver of Purdue University, and Howard M. Smith of the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania were the pioneers identified by our research and the individual school or conference, but the stories of their ex- periences as pioneers remain almost unknown still today. It is my hope that the publication of 100 Pioneers will lead to those missing stories being captured and celebrated in writing, securing their per- manent place in history. The final part of 100 Pioneers is about the Olympics. We have included the stories of the first African-American men and women to win gold medals in the summer and winter games. One story in the Olympic section recreates the historic 1936 Olympic Games when the multi-gold medal winning performance of Jesse Owens was a crushing blow to the Nazi hype of Aryan supremacy. We also included Wilma Rudolph, the first woman to win three Olympic gold medals, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the first lady of Olympic track and field. 100Pio.qxp 12/2/07 6:05 PM Page 6

6 Race and Sport in America:An Introduction

As I wrote in 100 Heroes, sport reaches all kinds of people for all different reasons. Sport can be played competitively or recreation- ally, or sport can be watched and enjoyed as entertainment. We watch sports we never play and we play sports we never watch. Sport can help build friendships, families, respect, confidence, and charac- ter. Sport provides health benefits some medical professionals can only begin to understand. Most importantly, sport is unique in the boundaries it crosses with both its participants and its audience. Differences in gender, race, physical and mental abilities, age, religion, and cultures are ir- relevant in the huddle, on the field, in the gym, or in the water. Sport smashes these barriers like nothing else can. The athletes in 100 Pi- oneers represent that better than anyone because of their own life experiences. Yet many of today’s young athletes do not realize how differ- ent their playing field may have looked 100, 50 or even 25 years ago. The racial history of the United States may be studied by young Americans but too many cannot relate. Young people do relate to sport. By illustrating the history of America’s racial barriers through the vehicle of sport, the picture may become clearer. It can be the role of those who lived it to educate the next generation and there will be no better time to do so than now. Young athletes who look up to LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Donovan McNabb, and Serena and Venus Williams should know of those who came before them and opened so many doors. For without these pioneers, today’s heroes might still just be knocking at the doors. 100Pio.qxp 12/2/07 6:05 PM Page 7

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MAJOR LEAGUE : AFRICAN-AMERICAN PIONEERS IN AMERICA’S FAVORITE PASTIME Introduction by Richard Lapchick

In the year 100 Pioneers was completed, (MLB) celebrated the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s break- ing the color barrier in a weekend of festivities at Dodgers Stadium. Jackie Robinson had a life cut short but had an impact on sport and America that was profound and historical. The future of sport was forever changed in that electrifying moment when he took the field and all that he subsequently stood for. My father, who was the coach of the New York Knickerbock- ers at the time, took my brother, Joe, to that first game. It inspired him to try to get the all-black Renaissance Five into the league that year, an attempt that proved to be unsuccessful. Three years later, my father brought Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton to the Knicks as the NBA’s first African-American player to sign, one week before the NBA draft when Chuck Cooper was drafted by the Celtics and Earl Lloyd by Washington. The three became the first African-American players in October of 1950. Students of the history of the game should note that 45 years before Jackie Robinson played, Major League Baseball was almost integrated. In 1902 John J. McGraw, the famous Baltimore Oriole’s , signed Charlie Grant, an African-American who almost “passed” with a light complexion, straight hair, and high cheekbones. However, owner Charlie Comiskey managed to get Grant banned from MLB before the start of the season. Denied the chance to play in MLB, African-Americans ended up developing their talents in the illustrious Negro Leagues. It was 1920 before the Negro National League completed a full season. 100Pio.qxp 12/2/07 6:05 PM Page 10

10 Part 11: Professional Sports Among the great teams were the Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords, and Kansas City Monarchs. Andrew “Rube” Foster, a former player, manager, and owner for the Chicago American Giants, helped launch the effort. Other leagues formed, mainly in states in the East and South. The talent of great African-American players was showcased across the land and served as a cultural affirmation for many black communities. Play- ers saw the country and developed as leaders in and out of sport. Superstars included James “Cool Papa” Bell, Josh Gibson, and Leroy “Satchel” Paige. Negro League players who went on to star in the major leagues included Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Roy Cam- panella, Ernie Banks, Junior Gilliam, Don Newcombe, and Joe Black. Aaron held the all-time homerun record for three decades; Mays, Aaron, Campanella, Banks, and Newcombe were all league MVPs; and Newcombe won MLB’s Holy Trinity: the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP awards. In , the took the field with the first all-African-American lineup in the history of MLB. Pitts- burgh Pirates’ manager ’s lineup card called for , 2B; , CF; , RF; , LF; Manny Sanguillen, C; , 3B; , 1B; Jackie Hernandez, SS; and pitcher . Ironically, much of what was written about the 60th anniver- sary of Jackie Robinson was about the declining numbers of African- American players in Major League Baseball. At 8.4 percent, MLB was at the lowest percent in decades and half of where it was on the 50th anniversary in 1997, when 17 percent of the players were African-American. By the time of this writing, African-American pitchers, who had always been rare, were even rarer. There had not been an African- American 20-game winner since 1990 when Dave Stewart starred for Oakland, becoming only the 12th African-American 20-game winner in MLB history. In 2006, there were only four African- American regular starters: Dontrelle Willis, Dewon Brazelton, C.C. Sabathia, and Jerome Williams. There are several reasons that could have led to the decline of African-American ballplayers in MLB: