In 1904, the first black football player for Ohio University, Arthur Carr, stepped onto Peden Stadium’s field as quarterback. More than a century later, many black players have charged their way through racial barriers and across the stadium.
While there are many tales of discrimination during the movement toward racial equality, George Hall, a 1960 OU graduate, raves about the time he spent at the university during the ’60s, smack dab in the middle of the civil rights movement.
“I went not looking for anything,” Hall said. “I was welcoming of my environment. … I had a great experience.”
Hall came to OU with an athletic and academic scholarship, something he said was becoming more common for black athletes at the time. He played basketball his first year in college, then quit to focus on his academics. However, he then went on to run track for the rest of his college career.
“I saw no favoritism or discrimination between athletes or within the university,” Hall said. “Nobody talked about (African-Americans) being there. … There was nothing anti-black on campus.”
Hall added that the experience was a change compared to his hometown, Cincinnati. There, he attended an all-black parochial school in Lincoln Heights. He said surrounding institutions didn’t support the integration of black student-athletes.
“OU was a small community, and (it seemed) like they were apart (from discrimination),” Hall said. “They were more open than other universities.”
During the same time, schools such as USC welcomed their first black quarterback in the 1920s, but black students still faced hard times as they attempted to integrate teams in the South running into the ’60s.
At OU, which he described as one of the more progressive educational programs, Hall studied elementary education, going on to be the first black principal of Glendale Elementary School in the Princeton School District. He chronicles his experiences from ages five to 75 in his book, By George, He’s Got It!
Today, about 5 percent of OU’s student population is black, some of which are athletes. Track and field coach Clay Calkins said that about 20 percent of his team is black.
Calkins said to understand the current perception of black student-athletes, it is necessary to consider public opinion, not just a coach’s perspective.
“We don’t look at race in the recruiting process,” Calkins said. “From a coach’s standpoint, it doesn’t matter what race you are; (we notice) whether you jump high or run fast. … (Discrimination) may have been something (student-athletes) faced in the past, but I don’t think it’s as much of an issue. … A lot of things have transpired since then.”
Calkins also said that within the general population, there might be a perception that some sports attract more minorities.
In contrast, Hall said most black athletes were in track or football during his stay at OU. He added that very few African-Americans played baseball.
Camyel Young, a sophomore studying civil engineering, has experienced firsthand what it’s like to participate in a sport with less diversity as a member of OU’s rowing team. The women’s team has about five minority athletes out of its 32 members.
“It began during my freshman year when we had the involvement fair in The Convo,” Young said. “I had wanted to do rowing in high school, but I couldn’t afford it. I joined and (have been doing it ever since). … I fell in love with crew.”
Though Young said there isn’t a large minority representation on the crew team, she attributes it to a lack of advertising and people simply not knowing about the existence of the sport at OU.
Young added that throughout her career as a black collegiate athlete, she hasn’t experienced any discrimination.
“I don’t feel like an outsider on the team,” Young said. “There was nothing really for me to overcome — with my friends, they don’t really see color.”
eb104010@ohiou.edu
