If you're not familiar with the Black 14 event in 1969, you should read this little history lesson. Essentially, 14 Black Wyoming football players considered a protest against BYU in 1969 by wearing black armbands or some sort of nonviolent protest. In the 60s, Wyoming was a football powerhouse, winning 3 conference titles in the late 60s. Coach Eaton refused to allow any protest of any kind, and told the Black players that if they didn't like it at Wyoming, then transfer to Grambling. Eaton kicked all 14 off the team and booted them out of Wyoming. On campus, there was widespread support for the 14 ex-football players, and hatred towards Eaton and the Administration.

Up until October 1969, Wyoming football was often ranked in the top 15. But 1970 turned out to be a disaster for Wyoming football. 1-9 record and Eaton was fired.

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/black-14-race-politics-religion-and-wyoming-football

OTHER PROTESTS AGAINST BYU LATE 60S & EARLY 70S
Many schools protested against BYU due to the Black policy. Many schools refused to compete against BYU. They essentially "blacklisted" BYU and wouldn't compete. The affected sports were football, basketball, track&field, and others.

Amazingly, things calmed down a bit in the mid-70s. Maybe that was because Vietnam protests were over, many schools refused to compete against BYU, and BYU had to carefully schedule sports, aware of potential protests. In 1978, President Kimball miraculously received a revelation, and all people (well . . . all men . . ) could hold the glorious Mormon priesthood regardless of the color of their skin.

LDS leaders of the late 60s and early 70s were just plain stupid and stubborn. It should have been obvious by the 1960s that if TCOJCOLDS would survive and grow, they absolutely had to end the Black priesthood ban. It's just as obvious as slavery and polygamy. The idiots of the Confederacy fought a brutal war in the 1860s, even though it was obvious that global society was rapidly eliminating slavery, and it would not be possible to continue slavery. Likewise, Mormon polygamists of the 1870s and 1880s should have noticed that polygamy would have to end due to societal pressure, and without ending polygamy, the church would shrivel down to "on life-support" status.

U of Arizona 1970
You've gotta admire this student protest. Students staged a ONE-WEEK SIT-IN at the Administration Bldg demanding that athletics against BYU be cancelled.

MOBY ARENA RIOT - FORT COLLINS, CO - 1970
This was a wild night! Protesters brought "Bigot Young University" signs, For some reason, BYU Cougarettes unwisely performed a halftime dance routine (should have stayed in Provo). Protesters surrounded them, harassed them, called them names, and made threats. Cougarettes escaped unharmed, but the riot soon began. Protesters threw raw eggs and trash onto the court. Someone threw a big piece of metal which bounced off a security officer's helmet and injured a reporter (knocked unconscious). A flaming molotov cocktail thing was thrown, but didn't explode. Several dozen police and security officers secured the court and restored some order. Only 7 people were arrested. They managed to finish the basketball game after the rioting ended.

Sports Illustrated noted that BYU basketball had to prepare for anything: "man-to-man defense, zone defense, or even a grenade."

By the 1970s, only 4 Blacks had ever graduated from BYU.
BYU's first Black faculty member: Wynetta Willis 1970
1972 - Bennie Smith, first Black BYU football player
1974 - first Black BYU basketball player not a success story. He quit and was kicked off the team in his 1st semester. He said the recruiters were wrong about racial prejudice on campus.

This won't surprise anyone:
Up until around 1970, BYU Administrators discouraged Blacks from enrolling at BYU. They told Blacks that there would be very few Blacks enrolled, there were "no families of your race" in the community, and inter-racial dating was seriously discouraged.

June 1978 - there were 4 Black athletes at BYU when the PH ban was lifted.
1981 - 40 Black students at BYU
2011 - 176 Black students at BYU

Should protestors tear down Ernest Wilkinson statues? (if there are any)

Ernest Wilkinson was BYU President in the 50s and 60s. In 1958, BYU students debated segregation of the races, and analyzed Apostle Mark E. Peterson's 1954 speech:
"The Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage. That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away. We must not feel sorry for the Negroes. We must not open our arms and embrace them."

In 1960 somebody at BYU hired a young Black man from Florida part-time to teach some BYU classes. Wilkinson was furious and called it "a serious mistake of judgment." The man's picture appeared in the newspaper, further infuriating Wilkinson. He said he would not allow his students to "start mingling with other races." Wilkinson ordered his cronies to change the Black man's duties from teaching students to consulting with department administrators and some janitorial duties.

Wilkinson was pretty worried about colored boys gaining access to BYU campus. Harold B Lee (later to become Church President) once wrote to Wilkinson "if a granddaughter of mine should go to BYU and become engaged to a colored boy there, I would hold you responsible for the travesty."

In 1965, Black athletes said they were treated horribly in Provo, and called names by BYU players and fans in the stands. BYU students would laugh and mock when Blacks were taunted with horrible racist words. The BYU staff had to try to figure out how to get the BYU student section to stop their popular "CATCH THAT NI**ER" chant.

In late 1965, 2 Black football players wanted to join the BYU team, and they were amazingly members of TCOJCOLDS. Wilkinson intervened and did not want to actively recruit blacks. Wilkinson's reasoning: "We felt that since there is no colored population in Provo . . . they might be better off going to some other institution where there are other colored students."

The Dean of Physical Education Milton Hartvigsen declared "at the present time, we will limit our recruiting to non-Negro athletes."

After Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, a student opinion appeared in the BYU paper: "King was not to be admired since his advocacy of civil disobedience contradicted LDS teachings on obeying, honoring and sustaining the law."

Wilkinson had to handle a controversy in 1969 when Lester B Whetten (a BYU Dean) publicly opined "The Negro of today is not, and cannot become compatible with BYU standards."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2020 04:03AM by mrx.

Really interesting and well written. Thanks.

sports fans at the U of Washington weren't friendly to BYU players either.

I like this thread. IIRC, some of the Wyoming 14 recently returned to campus for a discussion about what happened.

If Mount Rushmore is tagged for destruction then apparently the Washington Monument should be high on the priority list for obliteration....might as well include the Lincoln memorial, the Jefferson memorial.

Hell, while you're at it might as well tear down all the statues, monuments and memories in DC. Do we really need the Vietnam memorial or anything to do with MLK?