I'm reading a great book about the integration of the major southern conferences in the 1960-70s, <span style="font-style: italic;">Benching Jim Crow.</span> The book goes through the process of each school in the ACC, SWC and SEC, with a special chapter on Texas Western (UTEP). It's a fascinating read, especially since I wasn't alive to witness any of this.
Anyhow, State gets mentioned a bit, especially the 1963 game against Loyola of Chicago. Unfortunately, the author only refers to us as the Maroons, although the Bulldogs has been used for decades now. I already knew that Frank Dowsing and Robert Bell were the first African-American football players at State in 1970 and that Melvin Barkum was almost the first black QB in the SEC (some guy at UT beat him out by a game or two in 1972).
What I didn't know was that Jerry Jenkins and Larry Fry were our first African-American basketball players - in the 1972-73 season. Anybody know anything about them? From what I found out, Fry is deceased (as is Dowsing), but I couldn't find anything about Jenkins, other than he was a major scorer during his three years at State. Anybody here old enough to remember seeing them in action?
A few other State tidbits I found out from the book:
- We were in the middle of the pack in football with integration, which is somewhat surprising due to the conflicts of the day. UM, LSU and Georgia were the last teams. UK was first.
- We were the last basketball team in the SEC to integrate, which might explain why those teams during that time sucked. There's no explanation given for this, other than Joe Dan Gold didn't recruit any black players and it took Kermit Davis over a year to bring Jenkins and Fry to Starkville.
- Houston was the first integrated team State played in football, and the first integrated team to play at Scott Field. Apparently after the game in Starkville, the home crowd rushed the black player to get his autograph after he had a notable game.
- Believe it or not, Loyola was not the first integrated team that State played in basketball. In 1956, State beat the Univ. of Denver at a tournament in Evansville, Indiana. Babe McCarthy found out that DU had a black player right before tip-off and decided to play the game anyway, even though there was the unwritten state rule against playing integrated teams. State won the game and would have faced Evansville, another integrated team, but the Jackson papers found out about it and blasted the news all over, which prompted Dudy Noble and Ben Hilbun to unfortunately call the Babe and inform him that his team was to come home immediately. The game against Evansville was forfeited.
- State played a football game against the Haskell Institute, a Native American institute, in 1917. It seems strange that the Pale Face would play Native Americans when they would not play a team with blacks.
- We were the last school in the SEC to admit a black student (Richard Holmes), which might explain why his arrival went so smoothly compared to UM, UA, etc.
Here endeth the history lesson.
Anyhow, State gets mentioned a bit, especially the 1963 game against Loyola of Chicago. Unfortunately, the author only refers to us as the Maroons, although the Bulldogs has been used for decades now. I already knew that Frank Dowsing and Robert Bell were the first African-American football players at State in 1970 and that Melvin Barkum was almost the first black QB in the SEC (some guy at UT beat him out by a game or two in 1972).
What I didn't know was that Jerry Jenkins and Larry Fry were our first African-American basketball players - in the 1972-73 season. Anybody know anything about them? From what I found out, Fry is deceased (as is Dowsing), but I couldn't find anything about Jenkins, other than he was a major scorer during his three years at State. Anybody here old enough to remember seeing them in action?
A few other State tidbits I found out from the book:
- We were in the middle of the pack in football with integration, which is somewhat surprising due to the conflicts of the day. UM, LSU and Georgia were the last teams. UK was first.
- We were the last basketball team in the SEC to integrate, which might explain why those teams during that time sucked. There's no explanation given for this, other than Joe Dan Gold didn't recruit any black players and it took Kermit Davis over a year to bring Jenkins and Fry to Starkville.
- Houston was the first integrated team State played in football, and the first integrated team to play at Scott Field. Apparently after the game in Starkville, the home crowd rushed the black player to get his autograph after he had a notable game.
- Believe it or not, Loyola was not the first integrated team that State played in basketball. In 1956, State beat the Univ. of Denver at a tournament in Evansville, Indiana. Babe McCarthy found out that DU had a black player right before tip-off and decided to play the game anyway, even though there was the unwritten state rule against playing integrated teams. State won the game and would have faced Evansville, another integrated team, but the Jackson papers found out about it and blasted the news all over, which prompted Dudy Noble and Ben Hilbun to unfortunately call the Babe and inform him that his team was to come home immediately. The game against Evansville was forfeited.
- State played a football game against the Haskell Institute, a Native American institute, in 1917. It seems strange that the Pale Face would play Native Americans when they would not play a team with blacks.
- We were the last school in the SEC to admit a black student (Richard Holmes), which might explain why his arrival went so smoothly compared to UM, UA, etc.
Here endeth the history lesson.