OU/Texas Racial History

Lonnie Bennett played at Texas when I was going to school there. I didn't see or hear any negativeism towards him because of the color of his skin. I did see and hear some because he occadionally had some trouble holding on to the ball.

I would bet that the fact that the "last all white NC team" is mentioned as such in the Media Guide is the fact that it does get mentioned (I would imagine that that is brought up a lot during recruiting even now, sad to say) and we want to be aboveboard about it. We are diversified as all get out now, the LAWNCT is part of our past and we should not hide it.
 
Willie Morris writes about the first negro to play in Memorial Stadium, sometime in the 50s, (maybe from Washington?) and says the home crowd gave him an ovation when he scored against UT. I asked my parents if that was true, and they said it was the way they recalled it, too.

The University community was more concerned with issues like integrating student housing I think than integrating the SWC. Besides, those calls are made by the money folks, not the UT folks.
Jerry Levias (SMU) coming to play as the first scholarship football player in the SWC so raised expectations they installed temporary bleachers in the south end zone (where I sat) to watch him. I think by that time the handwriting was on the wall.

I was twelve during the last UT national championship season, and it wasn't until twenty years later I realized that team was the last "all-white mnc team".

There has been a lot written about the integration of SWC athletics and UT in particular: see hereThe Link

Also, check out the Syracuse/Texas game in 1960. I've heard some ugly stories about that.
 
"It seems history does not talk about the integration of football very much."

Yeah, that's true. I'd never heard the Jack Trice story until about 6-7 mos ago I read (part) of a pretty interesting book on the "social history" of college football. I'd cite it for you but all my stuff is on a boat right now, so sorry. It had quite a bit on the integration of college footbal, and the story was much different than I had anticipated. (You usually just get the PC version that all those Northern schools, where African-Americans were treated just like the white boys, sat around leering at us backward Suth'ners who wouldn't let the black kids play. But it's much more complicated. Yes, alot of Northern teams had a black player years before OU or TX, but most of the time, that was it. One black player. Seems like Trice was the last black player at ISU for about 20 or 30 yrs, but I can't say for sure. Maybe one of you knows.

If you're interested, you could probably find the book on Amazon with a search like "social history" and "football," because I bet there aren't too many books on that.

About the Bear story--It does sound a little fishy about the scheduling, and now that you mention it, it also sounds a little like it might be enhanced by modern Tiders. Could be.

And sorry I got some details wrong. I was writing from my head, and you know us Sooners aren't smart. But we can play football.
wink.gif
 
Belga: Thanks for joining in the discussion. You've added a lot to a subject that has always interested me, but I don't know much about.
 
Prentice Gautt is not dead. he is very much alive and working for the Big 12. He will be at the Big 12 Championship to cheer on the Sooners.
 
The USC team in question was a John Mckay coached squad led by Sam "Bam"Cunningham. Don't know if Bryant brought them in for the purpose of showing folks what needed to be done, but that was the effect.

BTW Bryant's return trip to LA was the first time he used the Wishbone -- and he always gave Royal credit for helping him make the switch.
 
"It is a sad and embarrassing fact that UT was the last all white team to win a National Championship."

But we weren't the last all-white team. The other ones just sucked when we didn't.
 
Also if Longhorn (and other folks as well) want to read the history of UT-Austin intergration look for a book called " The Forty Acre Follies" by Joe B. Frantz- he was a former UT history prof and the book is just great. One of the reasons Coach Royal had problems recruiting black players was that there was a by-law handed down by the Board of Regents that forbade ANY UT coach from recruiting black players. I remember that issue coming up when they renamed the stadium after Coach Royal. I think the Texan mentioned that info.
 
oops, thanks 7nc Sooner. I was sure that I had read about him in the obits, but I am happy that reports of his demise are premature. He was and is a fine chap and was a wonderful football player.
 
Joe Frantz was a wonderful prof. I had for a history class and I will always remember something he said, and I paraphrase.
<The Democrats are really dumb---but the Republicans are dummer.>
He also wrote a biography of LBJ and may be still teaching at the university in Corpus Christi, or was, the last time I heard. I think the school is affiliated with ATM. I will not pronounce him prematurely deceased as I did Prentiss Gautt.
Franz wrote and taught in the rich Texas tradition of J. Frank Dobe, Roy Bedicheck and the other great UT prof(whos name escapes me at the moment) memorialized in statue at Barton Springs.
 
Frantz died about ten years ago; he ended up teaching at CCSU (now Texas A*M at CC).
 
srr50,

Sam '"Bam" Cunningham played for USC in the mid-70's. By then, Alabama had been ingregated for several years.
 
I was student from '67 to '71. The '69 team was the last all white team to win the national championship. This factoid was documented on the day after the win over ND in the Cotton Bowl by Houston Post columnist Mickey Herscowitz (sp?) who mentioned that that team would probably be the last all-white team NC. Ever since, it's been reported as true. And I beleive it is.

I do remeber some black students who were involved in recruiting black athletes to UT. They were guys Coach Royal had personally contacted to help him recrutie black athletes.

I am not sure if BYU had any black players on the NC team they had. Surely there were some or somebody wuld have made a federal case against thier being NC's with only white players.
 
Wesley: Nope -- read below


'fullback Sam “Bam” Cunningham, traveled to Dixieland on September 12, 1970 and thrashed Alabama, 42-21. Not only was Sam Cunningham a powerful runner, but he was the first player in college football to go over the top during a goal line stand. Later, former Bear Bryant assistant coach Jerry Claiborne noted, “Sam Cunningham did more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes that night than Martin Luther King had accomplished in 20 years.”
 
I am a 1998 Texas grad and an African American. I am extremely proud of my Texas degree and cherish the memories of my years at Texas. I had and have friends from every ethnicity. My dormmate at The Dobie was white as well as my apartment roommate during my sophomore through junior years. I had never encountered any racial discrimination or anything of that nature. I am shocked that UT reportedly was the last non-integretated National Champion, but I do understand that was then (sign of our ugly past), and this is now (Texas is probably the most integrated of any of the Big 12 schools)!! I even read that Chris Simms was roommates with either Quentin Jammer or currently with Rod Babers, I am not sure which player, but I do know that the player is or was African American. That just goes to show you the racial unity and inclusiveness on this team now as compared to the times then. Especially when the highest profile player on the team (whom just happens to be white rooms with a fellow non-white player. I also read that Simms took Roy Williams and another African American player to his New Jersey home to meet his family and to show them around New York. I am truly glad that Simms decided to attend UT and ended his last home game on such a high note. Although he had his detractors, I was always a fan, and from all accounts that I have read and heard from friends of some of the athletes still on campus, he is one of the most down to earth people that one could ever meet.
 
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