Sport History, Race, and the College Gridiron: a Southern California Turning Point Author(S): Lane Demas Source: Southern California Quarterly, Vol
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Sport History, Race, and the College Gridiron: A Southern California Turning Point Author(s): Lane Demas Source: Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 89, No. 2 (Summer 2007), pp. 169-193 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Historical Society of Southern California Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41172364 . Accessed: 06/11/2013 01:14 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press and Historical Society of Southern California are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Southern California Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 35.8.11.3 on Wed, 6 Nov 2013 01:14:58 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Sport History, Race, and the College Gridiron A SouthernCalifornia Turning Point EfyLane Demas December3, 1898,the season-endingbanquet to honorHar- vard'sfootball team was a raucousaffair.1 Having completed an unbeatenseason, the squad celebrated surprise victories over sev- eralIvy League rivals, including the University of Pennsylvania and Yale. The evening'sfeatured speaker, Theodore Roosevelt, proved to be a bois- terous,energetic orator and a huge footballfan. Roosevelt, a Harvard alumand newlyelected governor of New York,received a warmovation froman audienceof influentialadministrators, students, and boosters. Yet the evening'slargest cheer came withthe introductionof assistant coachWilliam Henry Lewis. While a studentat Harvard'slaw school, the popularLewis had becomeone ofthe first African Americans to integrate 2 a college squad when he joined the team in 1892. Upon graduation, Lewiswas named an assistantcoach - also a firstfor a blackman. Lewis'popularity, eloquence, and skill as a juristhelped him join Roo- sevelt'sinner circle - a groupof old footballchums, Harvard gentlemen, and future"Rough Riders" in the Spanish-American War. While Lewis An earlierversion of this article appeared in HistoryCompass (Vol. 5, February2007) underthe " útle,"Beyond Jackie Robinson: Racial Integration in AmericanCollege Footbaü, havingwon an awardfor graduate student essays . The authorwishes to thank the Blackwell Publishing Company . 169 This content downloaded from 35.8.11.3 on Wed, 6 Nov 2013 01:14:58 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 170 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA QUARTERLY himselfstayed home duringthe war and continuedto coach, his rela- tionshipwith the new presidentpersisted until 1907,when Roosevelt promotedhim to assistantU.S. attorneyin Boston.Under the subsequent administrationofWilliam Howard Taft, Lewis became assistant attorney generalof the UnitedStates, at thatpoint the highest-rankingfederal officeever held by an AfricanAmerican. WilliamLewis used the burgeoning game of college football to earna reputationin the pressas a "verystrong," "intelligent," and "heady" player.3This imagemade him a nice fitfor Roosevelťs posse of head- strongleaders and administrators.In a periodof renewed racial animos- ity,contemporary black políticos had tofind some means to forge positive publicimages if they had anyhope of advancement. And yetLewis is not thoughtof as a blacksporting hero in the sameway as JackieRobinson orJoe Louis. Unlike boxing and baseball,college football has neverbeen a subjectof serious study in termsof culture, race, and integration.Rather than examinethe nebulousstory of integrationin collegiatefootball, scholarlyattention and popularmemory have both chosen insteadto focuson clear and powerfulindividual stories of integration- the leg- endarybiographies of professional black athletes like Jack Johnson, Joe Louis,and JackieRobinson. This remainsthe case even forthe postwar era,when television exposure launched a boomin thepopularity of col- legefootball and madesome student athletes household names alongside professionalboxers and baseball players.Scholars have exploredthe processby which black sports celebrities were appropriated in a number ofdebates, including the biological nature of blacks and AfricanAmeri- can physicalprowess, dissension over the emphasisplaced by the black communityon achievementin sports and entertainment, and the debates surroundingthe role of black athletesas communityleaders or racial "spokesmen."4Yet theseissues emerged out of a growingAfrican Ameri- can presencein selectprofessional sports at theturn of the twentieth cen- tury,particularly boxing and Negro League baseball, not amateur college athletics.Many later observers found them particularly difficult to apply in therealm of collegiate football. Indeed,there never was a single"color line" or integratingfigure in collegefootball, but rathera tediouslyslow and arduousprocess - one thatspanned nearly eighty years and countlessplayers. While William Lewishad played successfully for both Amherst and Harvard in the1890s, blackfootball players sparked very different reactions throughout the rest This content downloaded from 35.8.11.3 on Wed, 6 Nov 2013 01:14:58 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SPORT HISTORY,RACE, AND THE COLLEGE GRIDIRON 171 of the country.In 1897,the New YorkTimes announced the "firstfoot- ball gameever played by negroes in Tennessee."5The resultwas a fight betweenthe playersand a groupof "drunkenwhite men," leaving one playerdead and six seriouslyinjured. Only a fewdozen African Ameri- can studentsplayed on majorcollege squads for the next forty years, while zerocompeted for southern universities before World War II.6However, an importantexception is the ucla footballteam of 1939-41. Five AfricanAmerican players (including Jackie Robinson) won thesupport of nationalsports writers, the ucla studentbody, and the university administration- even withthe prospectof playingsegregated teams.7 Three ucla players- Kenneth Washington,Woodrow Strode, and JackieRobinson - held prominentstarting positions, each playingboth offenseand defense.Washington, who graduatedin 1940 aftercon- tributingto the team'smost successful season ever, was regardedas the bestfootball player in ucla's history.Jackie Robinson played two seasons at ucla, transferringin 1939 from Pasadena City College and excelling in foursports - football,basketball, baseball, and track.Although he left in 1941 withoutgraduating, Robinson's short career at ucla is perhaps the mostimpressive in collegiateathletic history. Woody Strode was a powerfulstarting end forthe Bruinfootball squad and also earnedcon- siderablesuccess throwing the shotput. Later in life,his athleticframe andgood looks helped land him movie roles throughout the '60s and '70s. Washington,Robinson, and Strode,often nicknamed the "Sepia Trio" bythe mainstream media, formed the core of the team. Washington and Strodealso wenton to becomethe first African American football play- ersto join theNational Football League, while Robinson's first season as a BrooklynDodger has joined the Montgomerybus boycott,Broten v. Торекпуand theMarch on Washingtonas a seminalevent in thehistory of Americancivil rights.Although not a consistentstarter, African Americanend Ray Bartlettalso made significantcontributions to the ucla squad,while black teammate Johnny Wynne played sparingly as a lineman.Yet theseucla athletesgarnered support not so muchas indi- vidualrace heroes(as Robinsonwould in 1947) but ratheras a "black team,"a groupof young men who oftenendured derogatory references, taunts,and policebrutality. While ucla wasnot thefirst major team to allowAfrican American participants,it was thefirst to featurea groupof black players in starting positions.Rarely was a prominentteam with a nationalfollowing even This content downloaded from 35.8.11.3 on Wed, 6 Nov 2013 01:14:58 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 172 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA QUARTERLY willingto accepta loneblack player. Many of the celebrated teams of the periodwere clear segregationistpowerhouses - the Universityof Ten- nessee,the Universityof Alabama,Duke University,and others- yet even northernfootball shrines like Notre Dame remainedall white.On theWest Coast,the king of football was undoubtedlythe University of SouthernCalifornia, a schoolthat had not featureda blackplayer since the 1920s. In 1922,the American Physical Education Review published an article entitled"Racial Traitsin Athletics."The author,Elmer D. Mitchell, articulatedboth the scientificand popularsentiment prevalent in the 1920sand 1930sregarding black student athletes. According to Mitchell, "a coloredyouth who remainsin schooluntil the age of interscholastic competitionis usuallyof the bright industrious type, and thesame quali- tiesshow when he participatesin athleticgames."8 When blackstudents competedon predominatelywhite teams, they were praised only insofar as theyfollowed the directions and leadershipof their white teammates. Whitestudents were often given free reign over initiating "inferior" play- ers,including lower-classmen and blacks.Again, Mitchellpraised the blackathlete who tooksuch racist criticism from his fellowcollege stu- dents: The negromingles easily with white participants, accepting an inferiorsta- tusand beingcontent with it. I have oftenseen a gay-spiritedcrowd