A LOOK BACK: KAPPA HISTORY
football field, the basketball court, in the boxing ring, or the baseball diamond oc- curred for decades prior to the “Johnny Bright Incident”. The differentiator was this incident was caught on film for the nation to see.
win the Schenley Award as the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player. Bright retired in 1964 as the CFL’s all-time leading rusher at that time. In his post-playing days, he lived in Ed- monton, Alberta and pursued his other passion: teaching. He became a teacher, coach, and school administrator. Bright held principal positions at two Edmon- ton-area junior high schools.
the Missouri Valley Conference disre- garded Drake University’s demand for disciplinary action against Wilbanks Smith and ignored the resulting outcry from the public. In 1957, Oklahoma A&M became Oklahoma State Universi- ty and the school left the Missouri Valley Conference for the Big Eight conference (now Big 12 Conference) in 1960. In 2005, Oklahoma State Univer- sity President David Schmidly formally apologized to Drake University in a letter which he called the incident “an ugly mark on Oklahoma State University.” Oklahoma A&M head football J.B. Whitworth Racist accusations surrounding the game and the hit on Bright centered on Okla- homa A&M head coach J. B. Whitworth. Whitworth denied any racist intent by his players toward Bright nor instruc- tions from him or his coaching staff to harm Bright. Whitworth left the Okla- homa A&M in 1954 for the University of Alabama consequently fired in 1957 after three losing seasons and replaced by a guy named Paul “Bear” Bryant.
Johnny Bright
Bright was an offensive force for the Drake Bulldogs amassing the majority of the offensive stats and points scored, despite missing the most of the final three games of the 1951 season. The games missed due to broken jaw argu- ably cost him a chance to become the first African-American to win the Heis- man Trophy. Bright finished fifth in the balloting for the 1951 Heisman Trophy and played in the post-season East-West Shrine Game and the Hula Bowl. Bright seldom commented on the infa- mous play and moved on with his life. Post-graduation from Drake, he was the 1952 first round draft pick of the NFL Philadelphia Eagles but selected to play for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). “I would have been their (Eagles) first Ne- gro player, but there was a tremendous influx of Southern players into the NFL at that time, and I didn’t know what kind of treatment I could expect,” Bright said. Eventually traded to the Edmonton Eskimos, he where led Edmonton to three Grey Cup championships, CFL’s equivalent to the Super Bowl. In 1959, he was the first African-American to
Wilbanks Smith
The offending A&M player who de- livered the crushing forearm shiver to Bright’s jaw, Smith received countless letters from around the country accus- ing him of being “a racist” and protesting his violent act. For the remainder of his life, Smith vehemently denied being racist or delivering the hit on Bright with racist intent. From his perspective, the hit was a legal play and thought he did nothing wrong.
Drake University
Drake University demanded disciplin- ary action against the Oklahoma A&M player. As a result of the incident, Drake University, in protest, dropped out of the Missouri Valley Conference for football and never returned to Division 1 (now called Football Bowl Subdivsion) football.
Des Moines Register newspaper
Des Moines Register photographers, Don Ultang and John Robinson, took six im- ages of the hit on Bright. The newspaper published the photos and the photog- raphers won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for photography.
Oklahoma State University
Both Oklahoma A&M University and
56 | SPRING 2021 ♦ THE JOURNAL
Publishing achievement for more than 107 years
Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software