UM's History of Minority Athletes
I'm currently watching "The Express", a movie about the first black Heisman Trophy winner, Ernie Davis - definitely see it! It got me thinking - What is UM's history with minority athletes? I know academically, our history hasn't always been great.
If anyone has any information, it'd be greatly appreciated.
Check out Shoe's posts about Wolverines in 50 states. There are some great stories about minority athletes, including Charlie Fonville during the 40s.
Surely, you mean "experiences" in present tense. Not to knock our or any university. There is an issue that transcends (or really comes before) U of M admissions.
To go back to sports though, I think you allude to it, but figured I'd highlight it, is that we actually agreed to play Tech anyway, benching Willis Ward. I never knew about this story at all, I just looked it up to read more about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_Michigan_Wolverines_football_team
I wish we took the higher road, started hiim, and make GT forfeit.
Willis Ward's wiki is much more informative. Gerald Ford reportedly threatened to quit the team over it.
That's really cool that a football game helped shape Ford's public policy.
From the article:
"Long before he was known in Washington, Gerald Ford showed his character and his leadership. As a star football player for the University of Michigan, he came face to face with racial prejudice when Georgia Tech came to Ann Arbor for a football game. One of Michigan's best players was an African American student named Willis Ward. Georgia Tech said they would not take the field if a black man were allowed to play. Gerald Ford was furious at Georgia Tech for making the demand, and for the University of Michigan for caving in. He agreed to play only after Willis Ward personally asked him to. The stand Gerald Ford took that day was never forgotten by his friend." -George W Bush
At no point in our history (including the years when we used race as a criterion in admissions) has the proportion of black students matched their share of the state's population. The state of Michigan is 14% black. Our enrollment has never been more than 9% black. The same has held true for every other elite public university (Cal-Berkeley, Virginia, UNC, Texas, UCLA, etc.) - they've never been able to have proportional representation of black students, even when affirmative action was used.
But yeah, let's stick to sports discussion here.
Not trying to get political or anything, I'm just trying to understand what you mean. You say at no point has the population (%) of black students at UofM ever matched the state's population (%). So assume you mean even today this holds true. So isn't this still an "issue"? That's what I was getting at w/ the whole "present tense" vs past tense.
Oh, certainly it's still an issue. I thought you were suggesting that this just started to be the case after the referendum on affirmative action.
I like what Bo had to say: "I'm going to treat you all the same...like dogs!!"
I was referring to the University's low proportion of minorities pre-70s, which led to protests by the Black Action Movement. I had the privilege of learning about this in an environmental justice class taught by a black professor who was active in the movement as a grad student at the time. Pretty incredible to hear first-hand.
...black Michigan football player was George Jewett, an Ann Arbor native. Great Wikipedia page on him.
In 1882, Michigan's baseball varsity squad featured a minority.
The fourth guy (left to right) on the bottom row is not a white guy. Our baseball team has a history related to it with people like Branch Rickey.
When I first looked at it, I thought minority meant "dude without a mustache" in the 1880s. That's some epic lip cover.
The first African American Major league baseball player indeed played for Michigan. Here's his wikipedia
except the Irish!
That is one artsy (and by "artsy" I mean "gay" (NTTAWWT)) athletic team photo. I love how most of them aren't even looking at the camera. Although back then you probably suffered severe retinal damage when one of those flashes went off.
...on the history of minority participation in Michigan athletics at the Bentley Athletics site. Hail to the Victors! by John Beehe examines that not so pretty history and it includes a foreword by none other than Willis Ward. This link takes you to a review of the book.
Here's a great article about the mystery associated with Belford Lawson, a black athlete who almost beat/partially beat Yost's color line in the 1920s but was likely stymied by the system of segregation that was in place at the time.
Belford Lawson in the (unofficial) 1923 Michigan Wolverines Team Photo
Someone older than me will probably know more specifics, but I know that Bo was relatively noteworthy for having a black QB and hiring black assistants back in the 70s and 80s, when there was still lots of bias against them from the old timers who went back to the 50s and 60s.
There is still a lot of discussion today about the lack of black head coaches in NCAA football (Ron English, Turner Gill and Charlie Strong are the only ones I can think of right now), and the usual race-baiting suspects always accuse administrations and athletic directors of being racist. I think it's more because the black athletes who came through college football were never given a chance until recently, but they need some time to get experience and work their way up through the system. Also, many of the more talented black athletes and minds went to the NFL, which has always been more progressive (Rooney Rule) with hiring black players to be coaches.
A relative of mine was the baseball coach for Sparty at one time. He was very instrumental in gettiing Jackie Robinson into MLB. It's a source of family pride for us.
The first African-American (and, I think, the first Black person from anywhere in the world) to win a gold medal in the Olympics was William DeHart Hubbard. Hubbard was a 1927 alumnus of the University of Michigan, and won the gold medal in the Long Jump at the 1924 Paris Olympics.