The Fergus Falls Daily Journal

• Latest Stories

  • Authorities search for missing man
  • Company Drivers & Owner Operators
  • PHYSICAL THERAPY SPECIALIST
  • Magnusson sentenced
  • More bear sightings reported

King, athletes broke color barriers

Even here in Minnesota, racial discrimination was widespread a century after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who we honor today, deserves credit for helping change this, along with Minnesota’s African American athletes and other progressive individuals.

In the years following World War II, African-American students at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities remained isolated. An uneasy future loomed.

A 1947 survey on human relations conducted for the city of Minneapolis showed that in all of 121 public schools in Minneapolis, exactly one African-American was employed, as a clerk. There were no black teachers in the system.

Bill McMoore, an African-American who graduated with a degree in education from the U of M in 1951, was not able to find a job in the Minneapolis School District until 1958. He eventually became director of health, physical education, and athletics for all Minneapolis schools, a position from which he retired in 1989. He then worked as manager of community relations for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

In February 1950, McMoore was on the U of M boxing team. That year he was kept home when the team went to Miami. His stay at home was prompted by Florida boxing rules that prohibited white fighters from facing black fighters in the ring. The U of M boxing team wasn’t interested in making an issue of the matter.

That’s wasn’t the case with U of M President James Morrill. After learning about McMoore not being able to compete in Florida, Morrill issued a public apology that was printed in the Minneapolis Tribune.

“It won’t happen again,” Morrill told McMoore through the newspaper. “The right of a home team to prescribe conditions of athletic contests on its own campus has been generally recognized in intercollegiate competition. But the University of Minnesota cannot participate if those conditions are contrary to our own fixed policy.”

Morrill said that no further intercollegiate contests would be scheduled by the university under circumstances that might bar eligible members of its teams from participation.

McMoore, as noted on the U of M Alumni Association web site, arrived at the University in 1946 after a two-year stint in the U.S. Army. A graduate of Minneapolis South High School, he was the first member of his family to earn a high school diploma and would become the first to graduate from college.

At the U, he majored in education and was the only black person in the department.

“That wasn’t anything new to me,” McMoore said. “I was the only black player on the football team, and the only black boxer, too.”

In succeeding years many African Americans at the University still felt isolated. With the exception of a few black athletes, they kept a low profile and tended to live off campus.

Football players in the late 1950s and early 1960s included African Americans and star players Sandy Stephens, Bobby Bell and Bill Munsey. They were a part of the program’s first major effort at recruiting black athletes by head coach Murray Warmath.

They led the Gophers to the 1960 Big Ten championship and a national title. In 1962 they led the Gophers to a Rose Bowl victory — the last time the University of Minnesota has appeared in Pasadena. Tim Cashman of Fergus Falls played in that game for the Gophers.

Stephens was the nation’s first black all-American quarterback. Bell would also receive all-American honors and go on to a great pro career as an all-star tackle with the Kansas City Chiefs.

In 1963 the U of M awarded scholarships to its first three black players — the extremely talented trio of Lou Hudson, Archie Clark and Don Yates.

When I attended my first Gopher basketball game at Williams Arena in 1965, Hudson was the star player. His banner is displayed today inside the arena.

Hudson, after starring at the U of M, played 11 of his 13 years in the NBA as a member of the pro basketball Hawks who played in both St. Louis and Atlanta. He finished his career as a Los Angeles Laker in 1978 and 1979.

He had a lot of perseverance as a player. That same perseverance helps Hudson in his life, following a stroke in February 2005. It also motivates him to help others as an Ambassador for the Power To End Stroke movement.

Martin Luther King III, the slain civil rights leader’s 52-year-old son, said that athletes such as Lou Hudson played a major role in the integration of America. But he emhasized there’s still a lot of work to do.