Black History Month has been celebrated in some form since 1924. For sports fans, it is a chance to reacquaint themselves with those who broke down barriers in all areas of competition and all segments of society. Many are now household names and American icons: Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Wilma Rudolph, Muhammad Ali, up to Tiger Woods, Tony Dungy and Venus and Serena Williams today.Every day throughout February, FanHouse will shed light on the other figures in the history of sports whose breakthroughs were as significant as those mentioned above, but who aren't as instantly recognizable as pioneers. During Black History Month 2010, FanHouse aims to give them their due.
Jerry LeVias
Became the first African American scholarship athlete in the old Southwest Conference in 1965.
Jerry LeVias never set out to be a pioneer when he enrolled in Southern Methodist University and became the first black scholarship athlete in the Southwest Conference. He said he was just adhering to the desires of his grandmother, SMU coach Hayden Fry and, even bigger, God when in 1965 he accepted a scholarship from the Mustangs instead of the more than 100 other college suitors.
LeVias seemed to constantly pay for his decision, facing open acts of racism which included being spat upon, having his eyes gouged and, maybe most troubling, being the target of death threats. It was one thing to go through trials against the opposition, but LeVias also suffered those indignities on his own Dallas campus.
"I'm one that believes God has big plans for you because I certainly was a coward," LeVias, now 63, recalls. "I wouldn't have gone where I would have subjected myself to that type of treatment. I remember as a kid watching that stuff on television, people being beat over the head with clubs, and fire hoses and dogs. I would have never put myself in that position knowingly."
LeVias stepped on the football field for SMU in 1966 as a sophomore receiver (true freshmen were not eligible to compete on the varsity level at that time) and his impact was immediate. The 5-foot-7, 140-pound -- listed at a more imposing 5-9, 190 pounds -- speedster from Beaumont, Texas, helped lead SMU to its first SWC title in his first season.
LeVias, who left SMU with nearly every career receiving mark along with a degree, was consensus All-SWC from 1966-68 and was named an All-American following his senior season. He went on to spend six years in the NFL between the Houston Oilers and San Diego Chargers before going into business.
Today, LeVias lives in Houston and serves as the director of community outreach for Boys & Girls Harbor, an organization aimed at keeping families together through difficult times.
LeVias' story has been chronicled in two documentaries, Fox Sports Net's A Marked Man and HBO's Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of College Football.
"The last few years I'm amazed that I did play such a great role because that was not my intentions when I first entered into Southern Methodist University," LeVias said. "As a matter of fact, I would say I was kind of naive. Over the last couple of years, I've had more attention given to me with that role.
"It has been the last couple years since the Marked Man that I've only began to talk about what had happened to me because I didn't think that much of it personally, but a lot of other people did. I couldn't really deal with it because for years I didn't realize. I was hiding from the trauma and posttraumatic stress that I suffered from those years.
"So for years I sort of grazed over and didn't deal with the fact I maybe had something to do with the progress that we as African-Americans or blacks made in these United States."
Known in some circles as the Jackie Robinson of the Southwest, the most poignant moment for LeVias during that time may have come in a conversation with Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King.
"Dr. Martin Luther King told me one thing when I met him: 'Always keep your emotions in control,'" LeVias recalled. "I could have ruined everything by being radical. But I took it in stride. I can't tell you how I learned to turn the other cheek all those times of being spat on and called out of my name. It's one heck of a journey."
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Mr. Levias is a real role model for everyone. I remember a story about some taunting he received while waiting on a bus after a high school all star game. His team mates took up for him, which as a white kid about the same age, made me feel proud. I am truly sorry for the abuse he indured. He is a far better man than the jerks that tested him. God bless you Jerry.
I always read these articles with a tinge of sadness. Jerry LeVias, the article says, was "known in some circles as the Jackie Robinson of the Southwest." He started playing for SMU in 1966, 101 years after the end of the Civil War. Jackie Robinson, "the Jackie Robinson of the United States," meanwhile, enrolled at UCLA in 1939, where he was was one of four African-Americans on the football team (Robinson played baseball, football, and ran track at UCLA). Stories like this about LeVias are inspiring to a degree. I admire the man's courage. But it's saddening to remember how long it took to integrate the South.
LeVias, you are a real hero. We never ever will forget your whole-hearted contribution. You were not coward. It is our system which was liable most for that unbearable situation. We are proud of you. You are a Brave heart hero for all time.
I saw Jerry Levias play against Rice in the Cotton Bowl in 1966. He took a hard hit during the game and had his "bell rung". Despite this, he caught the winning pass with only seconds left in a 28-24 victory that was the 1st of SMU's 6 SWC victories during that season, during which they won their first SWC title since the late 1940's during the Doak Walker era. After the game, Jerry LeVias said that, because of the hard hit, he did not remember the last several minutes of the game, including his catching the winning pass. Apart from being a civil rights pioneer, Jerry LeVias was one heck of a football player.
Yeah, but the integration of college football goes back to to the 1890s, when William Henry Lewis, the son of Virginia slaves, became the first black All-American at Amherst, and not the only African American on that squad, incidentally. He then went on to Harvard where he graduated with a law degree, coached the Harvard football team for a time and wrote a book about the sport, and eventually served a number of US Presidents, including his former classmate Calvin "Silent Cal" Coolidge and Theodore Roosevelt. He reached as high in government as Assistant United States Attorney General, and in civil rights he was aligned with Booker T. Washington.
In this photo he's the one holding the football. Although he looks a little like (famous Arab American quarterback) Doug Flutie, remember, he was the son of former slaves and before being transfered to Amherst, he was enrolled in his home state's all-black college, the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute.
http://www.research.vt.edu/resmag/UG_Research/football.html
Nice story great man. I applaud his strength and determination to get through those very difficult times. Let me say I remember him playing against my high school Central of Galveston, Texas and running around and through them like there was no one defending against him. An amazing football player even then.