African-American Integration into Professional Sports

     What would the world of sports be without African-American Athletes? Where would the sports world be without, Jackie Robinson? Earl Lloyd? Nat Clifton? Chuck Cooper? Willie O’Ree? Marion Motley? Not very far I can tell you. These men were the pioneers of the sports that we watch today. They led the way for black athletes all across the country to incorporate the African-American race into sports.

Marion Motley

      The first major sport to be officially integrated was the NFL (National Football League). Prior to 1944 there were no blacks in the NFL. In 1946 a man named Marion Motley became the first African-American to play in an all white professional football team. Motley was born in Leesberg, Georgia. Motley attended high school at McKinley High in Canton, Ohio, where he was not given football pads or an football uniform. Instead of giving up he decided to play without pads he would compete in practices without wearing any football pads at all, and he would still run over the boys he was playing against. After attending the University of Nevada, Motley was signed by the Cleveland Browns in 1946. He had a long career in the NFL, and in 1968 he was inducted into the National Football League Hall of Fame, and was included in 1994 on the NFL’s 75^th Anniversary All-Time Team. A study was done in 1998, and has provided that 65% of all NFL players now are African-American.

     The second sport to be officially integrated was the MLB (Major League Baseball). Before 1946 there was not a single African-American in the “White MLB”. The first man to break this color barrier in baseball was Jackie Robinson, who was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. Jackie Robinson was not only a baseball standout he also was the first UCLA athlete in their history to letter in four different sports (baseball, football, basketball, and track). Robinson was drafted into World War II, and was soon promoted too Second Lieutenant. He was then soon given an honorable discharge from the United States Army to play baseball. While Robinson was with the Dodgers in Brooklyn they won 6 pennants in 10 years. Jackie Robinson also had some awards for himself; he stole home plate 19 times, he was the NL MVP in 1949, he was an All-Star from 1949 to 1954, and was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. It was not an easy opportunity for African-American athletes to brake the color barrier in sports but like Jackie Robinson says in this quote they are not fighting for something extraordinary they just want their basic rights, “I don’t think that I or any other Negro, as an American citizen, should have to ask for anything that is rightfully his. We are demanding that we just be given the things that are rightfully ours, and that we’re not looking for anything else.” In 1998 15% of all MLB players were African American, a huge leap from 1946.

Harold Hunter

     The first African-American to sign a training camp contract with a team in the NBA (National Basketball Association) was Harold Hunter, when he signed a contract with the Washington Capitals but was soon cut from the team and never played in an official NBA game. The first African-Americans to play in an NBA game were Earl Lloyd, Nat Clifton, and Chuck Cooper in 1951. Like Jackie Robinson these men faced many obstacles including racial slurs, threats, and even fans spitting on them. Earl Lloyd’s story was compared to Jackie Robinson’s and he soon responded with, “I don’t think my situation was anything like Jackie Robinson’s – a guy who played in a very hostile environment, where even some of his own teammates didn’t want him around. In basketball, folks were used to seeing integrated teams at the college level. There was a different mentality. But of course, the team did stay and eat in some places where I wasn’t welcome. I remember Fort Wayne, Indiana, we stayed at a hotel where they let me sleep, but they wouldn’t let me eat. They didn’t want anyone to see me. Heck, I figured if they let me sleep there, I was at least halfway home. You have to remember, I grew up in segregated Virginia, so I had seen this stuff before. Did it make me bitter? No. If you let yourself become better, it will eat at you inside. If adversity doesn’t kill you, it makes you a better person.” Now more than 77% of professional basketball players are African-American.

Willie O'Ree In His Prime

   
     The last major sport to be integrated with African-Americans was the NHL (National Hockey League). Even today the NHL has the least amount of African-American athletes of all major sports. But in 1950 a native of Canada named Willie O’Ree (Known as “The Jackie Robinson of Hockey”), made his first appearance in the NHL with the Boston Bruins in 1958. O’Ree only played one season in the NHL before playing in multiple Canadian minor leagues. One other interesting thing about O’Ree was that he competed all 21 years of his career in the NHL and Canadian minor leagues with 95% vision loss in his right eye. After O’Ree left the NHL there was not another African-American player in the NHL until 1974. Willie O’Ree was the recipient of many awards and honors including:

-New Brunswick Sports Hall Of Fame Inductee (1984)

-Breitbard Hall of Fame in San Diego Hall of Champions (2008)

- Lester Patrick Award for Outstanding Service to Hockey in the US (2003)

- Inaugural Recipient of Bill Walsh Champion of Change Award (2007)

- Order of New Brunswick (2005)

- Fredericton, New Brunswick City Council named new hockey arena after O’Ree (January 2008)

     These African-American athletes helped lead the way for many of these athletes but not limited too; Magic Johnson, Tiger Woods, Hank Aaron, Michael Jordon, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Reggie Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal, Barry Bonds, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Jesse Owens, Jerry Rice, Willie Mays, Mike Tyson, Serena and Venus Williams, Wilma Rudolph, Bo Jackson, Carl Lewis, Wilt Chamberlain, Condredge Holloway, and Cam Newton. These athletes have had a major impact on the world of sports.

Here is a list of a couple of African-American athletes to win:

-The Kentucky Derby – Oliver Lewis (1875)

-World Cycling Championship – Marshall Taylor (1899)

-Summer Olympics Gold Medal – John Taylor (1908)

- World Heavyweight Boxing Championship – Jack Johnson (1908)

- First Starting QB in the NFL – Willie Thrower (1953)

- Wimbledon Tennis Champion – Althea Gibson (1957)

- Professional Bowling Association Championship – George Branham III (1985)

- Major Golf Champion – Tiger Woods (1997)

- Chess Grandmaster – Maurice Ashley (1999)

- Winter Olympics Gold Medalist – Shani Davis (2006)


Bibliography:
Rutgers
Baseball Hall of Fame
Ferris State University
NHL Community
Trinity College
Smith.edu
Black Past