Forty-nine years ago this week a protest never occurred at the University of Wyoming. And it made history.
In 1849, the French journalist and critic, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, penned a phrase that has lived through the ages: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Smith and Carlos protest, October 16, 1968 (photo, The Washington Post)
That adage applies well to many things in life, including sports. It certainly applies to black athletes who protest during athletic events. It happened a half-century ago when Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the Black Power salute during a medals ceremony at the 1968 Olympics. It’s evident today as NFL athletes kneel before pro games.
While both of those protests are well known to the public, one circumstance has been largely lost from America’s memory bank. It took place 49 years ago this week in Laramie, Wyoming involving a group of University of Wyoming football players. The players became known as “The Black 14.”
Ironically, the protest these athletes planned never took place.
Intending to wear black armbands during the October 18 football game—to protest racist acts perpetrated the previous year by players on an opposing team—the players decided to meet with the head coach the day before the game, to talk things through. When they arrived at the meeting, the coach told them they were no longer on the team—not for what they had done, but for what they intended to do. There would be no protest by players on his team. The idea of organizing a protest merited dismissal.
The Black 14 (photo, Wyoming Historical Society)
The head coach was Lloyd Eaton. The protest target was Brigham Young University. The fourteen Wyoming players were Earl Lee, John Griffin, Willie Hysaw, Don Meadows, Ivie Moore, Tony Gibson, Jerome Berry, Joe Williams, Mel Hamilton, Jim Issac, Tony McGee, Ted Williams, Lionel Grimes, and Ron Hill.
Eaton’s decision was controversial. It included a counter-protest by Cowboy fans who wore armbands to the BYU game – supporting Eaton’s action. A week later, players on Wyoming’s opponent (San Jose State) wore armbands to support The Black 14.
But the controversy wasn’t just about the decision. It was also about the way Eaton handled it. He was dismissive and abusive. As player McGee told Sports Illustrated years later, Eaton “said we could go to Grambling State or Morgan State (historically black schools)…. If anyone said anything, he told us to shut up.” Eaton reportedly peppered the exchange with racist epithets, including the N-word.
“It was pretty belligerent talk,” recalled Ann Marie Walthall, spouse of a faculty member who was walking nearby at the time. “I felt embarrassed for the young men hearing this tirade.”
It was also controversial for football reasons. Wyoming football was on a roll. The team had won 27 out of 32 games over the previous three years, ending two seasons in major bowl games, beating Florida State in one. Going into the BYU game, the ’69 team was undefeated and ranked 12th nationally.
Courtesy: WyoHistory.org
Fans wondered: How would Eaton’s actions affect the team? Recruiting? The record held answers.
The Cowboys went on to crush BYU, 40-7, and then beat SJSU the following week. But the winning streak ended there. A 4-game losing skid followed and WYO finished the season 6-4.
The losing continued. Eaton left Laramie after going 1-9 in ’70. The Cowboys had only two winning seasons over the next decade. Wyoming slid out of the ranks of big-time college football.
Of course, what happened in 1969 was about more than football, just as NFL protests spawned by Kaepernick are today. But the larger storyline isn’t about protests. It isn’t about whether protests have a place at sporting events. And it isn’t about whether employees have the right to protest at work (e.g., pro players protesting at NFL games).
The larger storyline is this: after all these years, the underlying circumstances are the same–from Smith and Carlos to Colin Kaepernick. And forty-nine years ago this week, that reality turned fourteen college teammates into ‘The Black 14.’
(Watch this Spike Lee-produced documentary about The Black 14.)
