OU/Texas Racial History

H

HugeTexasFan

< 25 Posts
I've gotten tangled up in an argument on a different message board and thought maybe some of you could help give me some background ammunition.

I have a Sooner claiming that Texas was the last school to desegregate and have black players. I don't think that is true, and in fact, I though I remembered one of OU's coaches being a well-known rascist and refusing to recruit black players. I could be inagining this, so I don't want to respond in ignorance. Can anybody shed some light for us younger or less educated folks on the history of segregation and desegregation at UT and OU, espcially with regard to the football teams?

Your help is appreciated!
 
Granted I'm not old enough to know this for sure, but I have been told by some back-country Southerners (mountains of GA) that they always liked UT and the coaches there because we were the "last great all-white" football team.
 
That actually is true. Texas was the last major university to field an all white team.
 
I thought UT was pretty well known for its "all white" teams. The attached link is a pretty nice description about the first african american to play at the University of Oklahoma for one of Bud Wilkinson's teams.
The Link
 
I just remembered. Get out your 2001 media guide, not sure if it is also in the 2002 one, and they even say that UT was the last all-white MNC. I was shocked when I read it, I couldn't believe they would print that.
 
It is a sad and embarrassing fact that UT was the last all white team to win a National Championship. OU integrated several years before UT did and that is to their credit. That was a long time ago, and when the entire nation was struggling with this issue in many areas.

Today, UT is one of the most integrated campuses as well as athletic teams and coaching staffs. For all of his faults, Mackovic made a very strong statement in this regard. He walked into a team meeting, looked around, and told them that he would come back when they looked like a team. He walked out and it took them a while to figure out that the white guys were on one side and the black guys were on another. He returned and started the meeting after the team had figured it out and mixed it up. Chris Simms has said that one of the reason he came to Texas was the team unity and color blindness. Cory Redding is on record as saying that he's never seen any racism at UT.

UT has put its past behind and become a leader in regard to race relations.
 
BTW the year that Texas was the last "all-white" NC team, freshmen were not eligible.

Julius Whittier was a member of the freshman squad that season.

And while we are at it, we ought to mention running back Lonnie Bennett. Royal has mentioned that Lonnie was an important recruit, because without Lonnie he doesn't think Roosevelt Leaks comes here, and without Roosevelt, Earl may not have been comfortable coming here,

In other words Lonnie let others know that an African-American athlete could not only survive here, but flourish.
 
Texas being the last "all-white" MNC is now just a footnote in history.

It is what it is: history.

No more relevant 32 years later to the present University of Texas than "all-white" cafes, restrooms, water fountains, public schools.

No one should be "shocked" by it. Unbelievable, maybe, to the younger crowd, but that's the way life was......and still is in many respects in America 2002 (but that's for the West Mall, not here).
 
This occurred 34 years ago and we are still talking about it? As to why this continues to resurface -- I can’t tell if it is nostalgia or intended as some kind of mark of shame by our opponents?

That being said, I think Texas should strive to be the first major university to win a MNC with a non-white football team – no white scholarship nor walk-ons. We can add that to our legacy so we have both bases covered.
 
What is sad is how many don't realize how far this country has come in a very short period of time.

srr, thanks for the footnote.
 
I'm not "shocked" that it happened, some team had to be the last one. I was "shocked" that we had it in our media guide in 2001. Go read it, it is written in an almost bragging way (if I remember correctly).
 
echeese --

No kidding. Talking to my parents’ generation at times feels like I am talking to people from 1866. We have come a long way in 35 years but still have a long way to go.
 
We were not as far behind as some of these posts would imply. From reading previously on this subject, DKR recruited several black athletes before he actually landed one. He wanted the first to be a very special player who not only had the talent but also the thick skin necessary. It is sad that for any reason we were not leading the way. However, we weren't exactly years behind the other schools in the south. To their credit OU was a little ahead. Sometimes a win-at-all-cost attitude leads to a good decision.
 
I also remember reading that we had a black player on the '67 or '68 squad who at least made the team picture. He had no siginificant playing time. Can anyone verify this? If true it backs up our integration date a few years. It still blows me away that I was alive at that time. Although I do vaguely remember the '69 season, I sure don't remember it being all white nor do I remember the integration soon thereafter. I guess it wasn't talked about or at least not in circles that included young children. How far we have come.
 
OU a little ahead? OU recruited a very fine running back in 1958, and his name escapes me, but he had an excellent career with the St. Louis Cards. He died recently of natural causes.
 
Okay, more than a "little" ahead. However, if we did have a player on before the '69 squad (still awaiting confirmation) and we recruited others in the mid-60's than the gap isn't as great as many claim. Anyway, props to OU. That is impressive. I hope it is still true that UT was more or less in line with other football powers from the south. Not that that is any real defense. I would have hoped that we had led the way. Obviously not. Again it is just hard to imagine that those times weren't that long ago.
 
That is pretty amazing especially when you consider Iowa had black players in the teens and 20's and Nebraska had a black player in 1894. But as everyone has mentioned it's a Southern thing.........
I wonder when these all-white Texas teams first played against integrated teams and if there was resistance to that?
 
Hi Horns. I read your site occasionally but don't post on opponents boards. This topic transcends football so I decided to join in.

A couple of stories--
Not sure of the time frame, but Bear Bryant knew that his school's unwillingness to play blacks was crippling his recruiting and that 'Bama football was deteriorating because of it. Since Bear knew that he couldn't compete with the fully-integrated football powers, and the powers-that-be wouldn't agree to integration, he took matters into his own hands and scheduled a game in Tuscaloosa against a USC team fielding black players.

USC whupped 'em, as Bear fully expected, and when admin and alum wondered what happened, he replied, ""Well, you saw 'em. If you won't let me get those players, that's what's gonna happen" (or words to that effect) and the result was that 'Bama got integration.

The second is not happy. Iowa State integrated 20 or 30 years before the Southern schools when a black player named Jack Trice enterred a game (circa 1932) in Minneapolis. The all-white Gophers decided to "take him out" and Trice was waylaid on a late hit, went to the hospital and later died. If DKR waited until he found someone with "thick skin," that makes alot of sense. In the 90s ISU named their stadium Trice Stadium.

I hadn't heard that Prentice Gautt had passed. That's sad news indeed. He was a true champion and gentleman and a credit to the University and State of Oklahoma.
 
I've heard the Bear story also, although it does seem to get embellished as time goes on. It seems unlikey that he could plan that far ahead to schedule USC for that reason. I suspect he was playing them anyway and he did get beaten badly. He then used it as amunition to integrate. I think the Alabama have revised history to make the Bear look better. Possibly I am guilty of the same thing in defending DKR by saying he tried to integrate sooner.

What I would like to hear is from some people on campus in the 60's. Was it controversial or even an issue. Given the left element that has always been present at UT I'm amazed that it wasn't a big deal. Again, maybe it was a big deal but because of my young age I don't remember it. Of course, I don't remember Central High School, Selma or many other racial battles from the '50's and 60's but I am sure aware of them. It seems history does not talk about the integration of football very much.
 
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