A LOOK BACK: KAPPA HISTORY
Dirty Play or Assault
were to get considerably worse before they got better. In the early 1950s, the Missouri Valley Conference was split between integrated Midwestern teams like Drake and Bradley, and Southern, segregated ones like Tulsa and Okla- homa A&M. By this time, it had already become clear that the doctrine of white supremacy—very much ensconced at traditional football powers like Alabama and Oklahoma— was not going to win national championships for much longer. Underdog teams like Drake, which quickly integrated following World War II, leveled the playing field. Up-and- coming teams like Oregon and UCLA also integrated, leaving Southern teams with a dilemma: either integrate or with- draw from the national scene to form a regional football subculture.” Central Michigan University professor Lane Demas is a professor who special- izes in African-American integration and the racial history of college athletics in 20th century America wrote in his book Integrating the Gridiron: Black Civil Rights and American College Football:
Bright set a NCAA Division I record as a sophomore when he led the nation in total offense in 1949 and led the coutnry the following year. Stillwater was a difficult place for black players to visit in 1951 and that condi- tions were ripe for a racially charged incident to take place. For many fans at the time – as well as some officials at Drake, Bradley and other Missouri Valley Conference schools – the Bright incident was an indication that Oklahoma A&M College was embracing a more Southern- type response to the prospect of racially integrated higher education and football.” Leading up to the 1951 game, rumors surfaced that the Oklahoma A&M head football coach J.B. Whitworth instructed his players to do whatever necessary to knock Bright out of the game. Johnny Bright was “a marked man” either due to his ethnicity, his play on the field or both. Within the first seven minutes of the foot- ball game, he was knocked unconscious three times.
Des Moines Register newspaper photographed the pivotal sequence in the game where an Oklahoma A&M defensive player, Wilbanks Smith stuck Bright in the jaw well after the play was over, the play was clearly away from Bright and after Bright handled the ball to his teammate. The play was consid- ered “cheap shot in a football game” and, at worst, considered a brazen example of horrific violence and bigotry played out on a college football field. Bright’s jaw was broken as a result of the play. Bright gamely stayed in the game for few plays after his jaw was broken includ- ing throwing a 61-yard touchdown pass. Bright’s injury ultimately caused him to be removed from the game. Drake lost the game 27-14.
The Aftermath
The photos and newsreels of the inci- dent was “front page news” across the country. Public outcry from across the sports world and the general public was swift and fierce. Dirty play toward Af- rican-American players whether on the
“We do have substantial evidence that
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