50th anniversary of the Black 14 incident at Wyoming

[Toe]

Quote

It had been nearly 50 years since the University of Wyoming banished 14 black players from its football team, but the decades-old dispute was all Tom Burman could think about as he guided his car across the grain-colored plains stretching from the Denver airport to campus.

The university’s athletic director had spent the previous night in Orlando watching the players — known as the “Black 14” — accept an award and explain how they had been kicked off the team in 1969 after trying to ask their coach if they could wear black armbands during an upcoming game. They had wanted to show solidarity against racism at a time when civil rights protests were common on the nation’s college campuses.

Instead, they were immediately banished, sending many of their lives into turmoil. Some transferred away from Wyoming, others left school, never to return and never to receive a degree. Burman hurt for the men as he heard how they had been villainized throughout the state as insubordinate and ungrateful, how most fans sided with their white coach and his strict “no protest” policy.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/fifty-years-after-the-black-14-were-banished-wyoming-football-reckons-with-the-past/2019/11/30/fb7e9286-e93d-11e9-9c6d-436a0df4f31d_story.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

There's a couple Husker connections to this story. Lloyd Eaton, the Wyoming head coach responsible, was Bob Devaney's DL coach, who took over as HC at Wyoming when Devaney left for Nebraska. And of course, Wyoming's current HC, Craig Bohl, is also a former Husker.

[NUance]

That was a pretty good read.  Then Wyoming Coach Eaton sounds like a total d!(k.  

[Toe]

Makes you wonder how Devaney would've handled it if he'd still been at Wyoming, or if something similar happened at Nebraska...