HBCU graduates who scored big in the World of Sports
15th March 2021 · 0 Comments
Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series focusing on some of the country’s iconic graduates of HBCUs and their accomplishments.
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
African Americans of all eras and both genders have excelled as athletics for more than a century and a half. On the gridiron, diamond, clay courts, cinders and hardwood, many of those Black sportive greats enjoyed tenures at HBCUs, in sports as varied as track, football, basketball and tennis as part of their athletic careers.
Some of those all-time greats became racial trailblazers in their respective sports; others were Academic All-Americans or established esteemed post-athletic careers as lawyers, dentists, team and league executives, college administrators, global goodwill ambassadors and esteemed humanitarians.
For decades, HBCUs offered aspiring Black athletes practically the only opportunities to attend school and enjoy collegiate sports careers. The institution of HBCU athletics was galvanized in 1912, when nine college administrators gathered to form the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the first sports conference in HBCU history. The CIAA still exists today as the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which over the years was joined by the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC), and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).
When integration and the Civil Rights Movement opened the doors of major, previously all-white colleges and universities to Black athletes, HBCU sports suffered in many ways, its ranks being thinned by the flow of sports stars away from Black institutions. HBCU programs also struggled through financial crises caused by lack of funding and a disproportionately smaller casting and other sources.
However, those athletes who chose to attend and compete for HBCUs often received more individualized attention from professors and coaches, allowing the athletes to sharpen their skills in a more intimate, tradition-laden setting.
And occasionally, HBCU athletes stepped up to the front lines of the society-wide Civil Rights Movement. For example, in February 1968, several student-athletes from the South Carolina State football team tested the state’s implementation of the terms of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act by attempting to enter a segregated bowling alley in Orangeburg. Police attempted to block the students, including with beatings, a reactionary response that triggered days of city-wide protests that culminated in the killing of three students, including an SCSU football player, in what infamously became known as the Orangeburg Massacre.
Overall, HBCU athletics have, for well over a century, provided educational and athletic opportunities to tens of thousands of men and women across the country. In the process, they helped launch legendary careers in a myriad of sports, and with all the success has come challenges still being faced today. Wrote scholars Willis A. Jones and Lydia F. Bell in the April 2016 issue of the Journal for the Study of Sports and Athletes in Education:
“Historically, intercollegiate athletics have been an important part of HBCU culture. For decades HBCUs offered many of the most elite athletes in the country their only opportunity to compete at the college level. Though not the powerhouse they once were, today HBCUs continue to offer students of all backgrounds and abilities the opportunity to compete in athletics while earning their degree. HBCU athletics departments, however, face a number of serious challenges ranging from resources acquisition to student graduation rates.”
During Black History Month, then, it is appropriate to shine the spotlight on several such athletic leading lights, champions and groundbreakers who made their mark on the giant sports stage.
Florida A&M graduate Althea Gibson made her mark as a tennis trailblazer with a career that has drawn comparisons to Jackie Robinson for the way she led the desegregation of her sport and presaged Venus and Serena Williams by more than four decades. Born to South Carolina sharecroppers in 1927, Gibson battled and refined her game as an amateur before debuting at the U.S. National Championships (now the U.S. Open) in 1950 as the first African American to receive an invitation to the prestigious tournament. In 1956, she became the first Black player to earn a Grand Slam title by winning the French Nationals (now the French Open). The following year Gibson won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals and became the first African American to garner the No. 1 world ranking. She repeated as Wimbledon and U.S. champ in 1958; she earned AP Female Athlete of the Year in both 1957 and ’58. Gibson was eventually inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Her resilience, determination and skill made her a hero and influence to other tennis groundbreakers like Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe and the Williams sisters. In addition, much like Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Gibson excelled in several sports, including a golf career in which she became the first Black player on the LPGA Tour in 1964 at the age of 37.
Wilma Rudolph’s life and career were nothing less than masterly and miraculous. As a child in the small community of St. Bethlehem in Tennessee, Rudolph was stricken with pneumonia, scarlet fever and polio, the last of which left her physically disabled for much of her early life. But she overcame such challenges to blossom into a star track and field athlete who eventually attended, competed for and graduated from Tennessee State University. However, her athletic fame started in 1956 as a 16-year-old, when she competed for the United States at the Melbourne Olympics. Four years later, while still attending TSU, Rudolph became a legend with her performance at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where she became the first American female athlete to win three gold medals at one Summer Games by winning the 100 meters and 200 meters and running a leg of the winning 4 X 100 relay squad. Her sterling performances earned her the informal title of “fastest woman in history.” Rudolph returned to TSU, from which she graduated in 1963 with a bachelor’s in elementary education. Following her competitive career, Rudolph worked as a television sports commentator, an elementary school teacher and a global athletic ambassador.
Four years after Rudolph excelled in Rome, Florida A&M graduate “Bullet” Bob Hayes starred at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where he won gold in the men’s 100 meters by tying the then-world record of 10.06 seconds, then ran a leg of the winning 4 X 100 quartet that also set a world record. But Hayes wasn’t done, going on to a lengthy career in pro football as a receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, with whom he won a Super Bowl and made three Pro Bowls before being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009, an honor to match his election to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. He remains the only athlete in history to win both an Olympic gold medal and Super Bowl ring.
Legendary hurdler Edwin Moses posted one of the most impressive successful streaks in sports history by winning an incredible 122 consecutive races over nearly a decade in a career that included earning two Olympic gold medals in the 400-meter hurdles (it would likely have been three but the U.S. team boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow) and setting the world record in the event four times. In doing so, he became the greatest hurdler of all time, but his top-level career began as a scholarship track athlete at Morehouse College, where the Maroon Tigers lacked their own on-campus track, forcing Moses and his teammates to train at public high-school facilities in Atlanta. By the time he retired from the cinders, Moses’ accolades included two golds at the track World Championships, three golds at the IAAF World Cup, a Congressional Gold Medal, the 1980 Track & Field News Athlete of the Year Award, the first recipient of USA Track & Field’s Jesse Owens Award in 1981, the AAU James E. Sullivan Award, Sports Illustrated co-Sportsman of the Year with fellow 1984 Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton, and a No. 47 ranking on ESPN’s Sports Century 50 Greatest Athletes list.
Perhaps the most prominent team sport to feature legendary HBCU alumni is football, where stars from some of the greatest Black college programs have not only excelled as student-athletes, but have gone on to make marks on the pro game. Two such HBCU greats even staked legitimate claims to the title of greatest football player of all time. The first is running back Walter Payton, known as “Sweetness,” a native of Columbia, Miss., who attended his hometown Jackson State after being passed over in recruiting by higher-profile SEC schools. While at Jackson State, Payton rushed for 3,600 yards and 65 touchdowns, was named Black College Player of the Year twice, earned All-America status as a senior and posted a career that would later earn him induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.
After graduating from JSU in 1975 with a degree in communications, Payton was drafted with the No. 4 overall pick by the Chicago Bears, with whom he enjoyed a 13-year career from 1975-87. In addition to winning a Super Bowl, Payton became arguably the best all-around running back in NFL history, retiring with an NFL all-time career record in rushing with 16,726 yards, plus 110 touchdowns. He also snagged 492 passes for 4,538 yards. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993, but just as importantly, his humanitarian and charitable efforts were recognized when he became the namesake for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, which honors a player’s work in the community. Sadly, Sweetness died too young, at the age 45, from a rare form of bile duct cancer in 1999.
The second HBCU gridiron legend to earn unofficial accolades as the greatest football player of all time is wide receiver Jerry Rice, who graduated from Mississippi Valley State and went on to rewrite the NFL record book by accumulating numbers that for many years looked unmatchable. In a college football Hall of Fame career from 1981-84 at MVSU, Rice piled up 4,693 receiving yards and 50 50 touchdowns on 301 catches, an outsized performance that twice earned him All-America honors. Rice was drafted with No. 16 overall pick in the NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers, with whom he won three Super Bowls as part of one of the greatest dynasties in pro football history. Over a 20-year pro career that also included stints with the Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks, Rice set numerous receiving records, including most catches (1,549), most receiving yards (22,895) and touchdowns (197); many pundits believe the marks for yards and touchdowns are virtually unbreakable. Rice was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010 and was named the best player of all time by NFL Network and the second-best ever by The Sporting News. (As a side note, the 49ers dynasty’s second receiver was John Taylor, who attended Delaware State, another HBCU.)
While Rice and Payton excelled on otherworldly levels, many other HBCU players made their mark with the pigskin, including two who became trailblazers in the pro ranks. One is Doug Williams, one of the greatest alumni of coach Eddie Robinson’s legendary tenure at Grambling State. During his senior season in 1977, the Zachary, La., native led the nation in total yards from scrimmage, passing yards and touchdown passes; he placed fourth in voting for the Heisman Trophy. Upon graduating from Grambling, Williams had the unenviable task of becoming the first starting quarterback in the history of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise, which drafted him in the first round in 1978 as an expansion team. After a couple bruising first seasons, Williams eventually guided the upstart Bucs to the playoffs three times. But Williams’ most important claim to fame came during his “encore” career of sorts, when, in 1987, he came off the bench to lead the Washington Redskins to the Super Bowl in 1988. Williams excelled in the big contest, earning game MVP honors and becoming the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, an achievement that helped to dispel the erroneous, long-held notion that Black quarterbacks didn’t have the intelligence and leadership abilities to lead an offense. After retiring as a player, Williams served as a head coach and executive at several colleges, including his alma mater, and NFL franchises.
Another African-American NFL groundbreaker was Art Shell, who not only starred at tackle for Maryland State but also for the Oakland Raiders, with whom he won two Super Bowls as the anchor of the Raiders’ down and dirty O-line. His pro playing career ran from 1968-82, all of it with the Raiders, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989. However, Shell’s accomplishments continued after his tenure as a player when, in 1989, he became the first Black head coach in the NFL in the league’s modern era. (Fritz Pollard served as a head coach for teams in the 1920s, during the league’s formative years.) Shell had two stints as Raiders head coach, from 1989-94 and 2006, and was named NFL coach of the year by multiple media outlets in 1990.
Numerous other HBCU gridiron grads staked out successful careers in college and the pros, including Pro Football Hall of Famers like Mel Blount (Southern University), the lockdown cornerback for the Pittsburgh Steelers dynasty in the 1970s and ’80s who went on to serve as the NFL’s director of player relations and to found the Mel Blount Youth Home, a shelter for abused and neglected children; defensive tackle Buck Buchanan (Grambling), the anchor of the Kansas City Chiefs’ defensive line from 1963-75, including the Super Bowl-winning 1969-70 squad; linebacker Willie Lanier (Morgan State), Buchanan’s Chiefs teammate, eight-time All-Pro and 1972 NFL Man of the Year; Ken Houston (Prairie View A&M), a 12-time Pro Bowl safety; Larry Little (Bethune-Cookman), a guard who went undrafted by the NFL before bolstering the Miami Dolphins’ offensive line that steamrolled defenses en route to two Super Bowl titles in the 1970s; defensive end Richard Dent (Tennessee State), a stalwart on the 1980s Chicago Bears defense that was arguably the greatest defense of all time; defensive back and New Orleans native Aeneas Williams (Southern), who racked up 795 tackles and 55 interceptions in the NFL; and cornerback Willie Brown (Grambling), who won a total of three Super Bowls with the Raiders, including two as a player and one as assistant coach.
Although basketball traditionally isn’t as high-profile on HBCU campuses as football, several stars in Dr. Naismith’s game have staked out stellar careers. That begins with Earl Lloyd, an alumni of West Virginia State University who, on Oct. 31, 1950, became the first African American to play in an NBA game when he took the floor for the Washington Capitols. He went on to an excellent pro career that included an NBA championship with the Syracuse Nationals in 1955 and induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. While at WVSU, Lloyd made such an impact that he was eventually named CIAA Player of the Decade for the 1940s. In 1971, Lloyd became the third Black head coach in NBA history when he was tapped to lead the Detroit Pistons.
In May 1970, Grambling State alum Willis Reed created one of the greatest and most iconic images in pro hoops history. In game seven of the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, the New York Knicks center, fighting off a torn thigh muscle that had kept him out of game six and purportedly would keep him out of the final contest, unexpectedly hobbled out of the locker room during pregame warmups, to thunderous cheers from the Madison Square Garden crowd. He scored the game’s first two baskets, setting the Knicks up for a game-seven win and NBA crown. It was the biggest moment in a stellar career for the undersized, scrappy big man that also included a second NBA title, seven all-star nods, an NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 1965, the 1970 league MVP and induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1982.
Earl Monroe, known by his famous nickname, “the Pearl,” first gained fame as a playground legend during his youth in Philadelphia, where he became known for his almost-otherworldly ability to create plays. At Winston-Salem State University, Monroe enjoyed one of the greatest collegiate careers in history, guiding the Rams to the 1967 NCAA College Division national championship and NCAA Player of the Year honors. He remains the leading scorer in CIAA history. The Pearl was taken second overall in the 1967 NBA draft by the Baltimore Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) and earned league Rookie of the Year honors. He immediately built on his legend as a spontaneous, smooth, thrilling playmaker, eventually winning an NBA crown in 1973 (with Willis Reed on the Knicks) and being inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1990.
Shooting guard Sam Jones was part of the greatest dynasty in pro basketball history, winning 10 NBA championships with the Boston Celtics during his career from 1957-69, after being scouted and signed out of North Carolina Central University by legendary coach Red Auerbach. Jones teamed with point guard and fellow Hall of Famer K.C. Jones to form a supremely formidable backcourt on a team that also featured game-changing players like Bill Russell, John Havlicek and Bob Cousy. He was elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1984.
While a four-year letterwinner at NCCU, Sam Jones played for one of the greatest college coaches of all time, John McClendon, who, while not an HBCU grad himself, earned eventual induction into several halls of fame and in 1944 made history by coaching NCCU in “the Secret Game,” a clandestine exhibition with the all-white Duke University Blue Devils that marked the first time in history Black and white players played on the same floor.
Not all HBCU hoops legends were men. Yolanda Laney posted arguably the best career in HBCU women’s basketball history while at tiny Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, where in the early 1980s she earned All-America status and led the Wolves to two NCAA Tournament Final Fours, including the inaugural NCAA women’s national tournament in 1982 in which they advanced to the title game. Laney also found success off the court, graduating from Cheyney in 1983 after being a four-time Academic All-American and then earned a law degree from Temple 1990. Her legal and civic career includes stints as the assistant city solicitor for the city of Atlantic City, as well as official counsel for several city boards and agencies; accolades as a legal mediator; and four decades as a coach and volunteer for numerous youth basketball teams and other programs.
Finally, the history of America’s pastime features several HBCU standouts. Leading the baseball greats is speedy Lou Brock, who guided the Southern University Jaguars to the 1959 NAIA World Series title; the triumph for the Jags marks the first, and so far only, time an HBCU team won a national collegiate baseball crown. Brock went on to star in the professional Major Leagues in a career that spanned nearly two decades, first with the Chicago Cubs, then with the St. Louis Cardinals. Although the outfielder was potent at the plate – he posted a career batting average of .293 and piled up 3,023 hits – Brock shined most prominently on the basepaths, where his fleet feet and heady savvy set steal records for both a season (74 thefts in 1986) and a career (938 swipes). The latter feat was especially important, because Brock shattered the previous career mark by the infamously racist Ty Cobb, whose record had stood for nearly half a century. Brock was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985 after a career that also included two World Series titles, six All-Star nods and the 1975 Roberto Clemente Award given annually to players who most resemble the massive charitable and humanitarian efforts of Clemente.
The Hawk, as he is known by his nickname, outfielder Andre Dawson went from being a star under legendary coach Costa “Pop” Kittles at Florida A&M from 1972-75 to induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010 after a storied Major League career with the Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox and Florida (now Miami) Marlins. By the time “Awesome Dawson” retired in 1996, he had earned eight All-Star nods, National League Rookie of the Year honors, the 1987 NL MVP Award, eight Gold Gloves and four Silver Slugger Awards. After baseball, Dawson became a successful businessman, and won a World Series ring in 2003 as a member of the Marlins’ front office.
Prior to the integration of so-called “organized baseball” by Jackie Robinson in 1946 and ’47, the Negro Baseball Leagues boasted several HBCU grads and former students among its ranks, included several who ended up in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
That honor roll included pitcher Hilton Smith, a native of Giddings, Texas, who was an early star at Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie View A&M) in the late 1920s before became one of the greatest hurlers in Negro Leagues history, mainly with the mighty Kansas City Monarchs. Emerging from the shadow of teammate (and rival) Satchel Paige to make his own mark, Smith used his wicked curveball to help the Kay Cees win six league pennants and a Negro World Series title. Smith was ushered into the Hall of Fame in 2001.
Another Monarch pitcher, Andy Cooper, likewise excelled in the HBCU ranks before going on to a National Baseball Hall of Fame career. A Waco, Texas, native, Cooper hurled for Paul Quinn College before posting a career Negro Leagues record of 116-57 with an ERA of 3.24. Cooper began his top-level pro career with the Detroit Stars in 1920 and concluded it as player-manager for the Monarchs from 1937-40.
And talk about emerging from someone’s shadow. Pitcher William “Bill” Foster was the kid half-brother of “the Father of Black Baseball” – the singular Rube Foster Negro National League founder, star pitcher and manager extraordinaire Rube Foster. But the younger Foster certainly made a name for himself, too, by becoming the greatest left-handed pitcher in segregation-era Black baseball. Willie took classes at Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University) during the baseball off-seasons while starring for his brother Rube’s Chicago American Giants and several other top-level Negro Leagues teams. He retired in 1936 and was posthumously inducted into Cooperstown in 1996. Bill stayed connected to Alcorn State throughout his life, eventually serving as his alma mater’s baseball coach and dean of men, a tenure that led to membership in the SWAC Hall of Fame and Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. He is also the namesake of Foster Baseball Field at McGowan Stadium at Alcorn State. (The stadium is named for Willie “Rat” McGowan, who won more than 700 games over 38 years as Foster’s successor as head baseball coach.)
Other Negro Leaguer greats who graduated from or attended HBCUs included Dizzy Dismukes (Talladega College), who staked out a half-century-long career as a star pitcher, manager, team executive, journalist and major-league scout; pitcher Ted Trent (Bethune-Cookman), who starred for the St. Louis Stars and Chicago American Giants; Wabishaw “Doc” Wiley, a standout pitcher in Black baseball who earned a dentistry degree from Howard University and established a lengthy career as a dentist; Bruce Petway, one of the greatest defensive catchers ever who attended Meharry Medical College; and shortstop Dick “King Richard” Lundy (Edward Waters College), who many believe belongs in the Hall of Fame.
Last but not least is Union, La., native “Gentleman” Dave Malarcher, the author’s favorite baseball player of all time and a graduate of New Orleans University (a precursor of Dillard University). Malarcher starred for and captained the NOU baseball team in the 1910s, before serving overseas in the Army during and after World War I and then playing for the Indianapolis ABCs and later the Chicago American Giants. With the American Giants, Malarcher manned third base in the 1920s and apprenticed under Rube Foster, becoming team manager after Foster’s retirement. As Chicago skipper, Malarcher won two Negro World Series and became known for his fiesty yet collegial personality and playing style, and his clean living and intellectual pursuits off the field. Malarcher developed a keen talent as a poet, including penning several book-length, epic poems. He later established a successful career as a realtor, and as a civic leader and civil-rights activist in the Windy City.
This article originally published in the March 1, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
