April 23, 2010

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of a four part story written by T. Berry of Elgin ISD, honoring John Westbrook, the first African American to play varsity football in the Southwest Conference and at Baylor. Westbrook will be honored April 25, 2010 as a Distinguished Alumni by Elgin.

READ PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR

By T. Berry

The Southwest Conference came into existence in 1915 and crowned its first champion in football the very same year. Texas, Texas A&M, Rice, Baylor, and Arkansas were original members. SMU joined in 1918, TCU in 1923, and Texas Tech in 1958. Fans cheered for legendary players like Sammy Baugh, Bobby Layne, Doak Walker, and John David Crow. By 1965, the 12th Man, the Junction Boys, Bevo, the Cotton Bowl, cries of "sooey-pig," and the Humble Radio Network were all part of the conference's storied tradition. For a half century, despite all the bowl victories, consensus all-Americans, and Heisman Trophy winners, the history of the conference was somewhat tainted because black athletes had been excluded from participating. During those 50 years, the only blacks allowed on the fields of the Southwest Conference were those who mowed and maintained them.

Texas had a rich pool of talented black high school ballplayers. Shunned by the SWC, they lined up to play for black institutions like Texas Southern, Prairie View, and Bishop College. Others took to the friendly skies and achieved stardom performing for integrated programs such as Michigan State, UCLA, or Arizona State.

In 1954, the Supreme Court's Brown v. the Board of Education decision declared the permissive or mandatory segregation that existed in 21 states to be unconstitutional. Still, defiance to the Court's mandate remained strong and integration came painfully slow. It was a movie theatre here, a drugstore lunch counter there.

In the Southwest Conference, university chancellors, regents, and athletic councils continued to stonewall integration efforts. In addition, head coaches who wanted and needed the use of black talent didn't push hard enough to gain it. In a recent interview, former UT coach Darrell Royal revealed, "I had played black players when I coached at the University of Washington. When I wanted to recruit blacks to play at UT, I was told by the president of the Board of Regents that it couldn't be done because the university's housing wasn't integrated."

Many college administrators were prisoners of the past. They dug in, determined to delay the diversification of their campuses. Even the federal government seemed to be taking a business-as-usual attitude. In 1963, events in Alabama finally forced President Kennedy to act. When demonstrations led by Martin Luther King began in Birmingham, protesters were attacked by police dogs and sprayed with fire hoses. The governor himself stood in the doorway, blocking two black students from enrolling in the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Kennedy responded by sending to Congress a sweeping civil rights bill, intended to protect the principals on which our nation was founded.

In a televised speech, the President said, "We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and as clear as the American Constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated..... We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes: that we have no second- class citizens except the Negroes...."

Many Americans regarded segregation as ungodly, so it's no wonder the church schools, Texas Christian University, Southern Methodist University, and Baylor (Southern Baptist), were the first conference schools to seek black student-athletes.

During the summer of 1965, two young men destined to remove the stain of segregation from the conference packed their bags to leave for their respective college campuses. They were both born the same year that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball. Like Robinson, their efforts would also become part of the long historical struggle for equality in America.

Be strong and of good courage: be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. - Joshua 1:9

Heading for Dallas and Southern Methodist University was Beaumont's Jerry LeVias. He was a highly skilled halfback who had received scholarship offers from nearly 100 schools. LeVias could have easily joined the parade of black athletes leaving the state for the campuses of the Big 10, Pac 8, or Big 8. Instead, he had elected to take his considerable talents to "Big D" and play for the Mustangs.

In Elgin, John Westbrook said goodbye to family and friends and began the 115-mile drive to Waco and Baylor University. To help pay his first year's tuition, he had acquired a National Defense Student Loan, a small Ministerial Alliance Scholarship, and what little money his family had scraped together. Westbrook hoped by joining the Baylor football program as a walk-on, he could earn a full scholarship to finance the remainder of his studies. Moreover, he wanted to receive a religious-based education that would better prepare him for his chosen calling.

When fall practice began, the other freshmen treated him as if he was nonexistent. Not with hostility, but they ignored him as much as possible. Several players on the team simply didn't like having a black teammate. Some teammates called him Coon. "I would go out to practice by myself and come back mostly by myself," Westbrook recalled. "I started to quit the first day of football. If it hadn't been for my parents...." He remembered what his father always said: "don't start something you can't finish."

Later John freely admitted, "I thought it would be a little better than it was since it was a Baptist institution. Maybe my expectations were too high."

Westbrook was housed in the athletic dorm, but his roommate, Charles Houston, was not a fellow football player. Houston, who was also black, had come to Baylor hoping to shot put his way onto the Baylor track team. They knew the two of them had been thrown together simply because of race. Houston was irked by the university's decision to resegregate him. Nor did he relish being paired up with a preacher. According to Westbrook, "He was very much disappointed when he found out who I was. I felt, look, here's a guy that's black and even he doesn't like me."

"At first I felt, having a preacher for a roommate would cramp my lifestyle," Houston now recalls, "But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise." The two eventually became close friends and would room together for three years. They were part of a black student population that numbered 6 out of Baylor's 7,000 students. As for a social life, there were only two black female students on campus and they were both taken. Several times John tried attending events at neighboring Paul Quinn College, but many students there regarded him as an Uncle Tom because he had chosen not to attend a predominantly black school. It made for a lonely first semester. John spent many a Friday and Saturday nights staring at the walls. The two roommates befriended another black student, Choice Richardson. Together, they circled their wagons and buried themselves in their books.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand - Ephesians 6:13

At practice it was immediately established that Westbrook was one of the fastest players on the team, but according to the freshman coaches his blocking skills were suspect. John hoped to catch the eye of head coach Catfish Smith. Apparently Coach Smith had a winning personality and initially John was very impressed with him. Later, John acknowledged that perhaps he was too naïve. "I don't think Coach Smith ever had any intentions of playing me. Once, he slipped and called me Sambo."

Westbrook played less than three minutes his freshman year. At practice, he turned inward and didn't say anything unless he was spoken to. In the season finale, he was sent into the game and upon reaching the huddle time expired. Afterwards, in the dressing room, he was approached by one of the assistants, Coach Corley. "Big'un,' the coach said in an emotional manner. "Don't quit. We should have played you more. Come spring training, I want you to get out there and give it all you got."

To help fill the down time after the season ended, John united with Antioch Baptist Church, where he occasionally preached on weekends. He also integrated Baylor's a cappella choir.

Going into spring training, John knew those 20 practices would probably make or break his athletic career. "I was hungry," Westbrook later said. "I wanted that athletic scholarship." Before practices began, he was pulled aside by defensive backfield coach Taylor McNeel who told him, "Now listen, Hoss. I'm from Mississippi. I hope that doesn't bother you, because it doesn't bother me. Now you know good and well, you're gonna have to be twice as good as any of my ballplayers out here before you even sit on the bench. You know that. I hate that and I know you don't like it. That's just the facts of life. I'm gonna give you every benefit of the doubt. I'm gonna be on your butt left and right. I'm gonna holler at you, scream at you, and I hope you can take it. And anyway I can help you, I'll help you out." John appreciated the coach's candor. At least he was honest.

Early in the drills, Westbrook worked his way into a starting position in the Bears defensive backfield. The first time he touched the ball on offense, he ran for a 60 yard touchdown. When spring practice ended, Westbrook had an eye-popping average of 9 yards per carry. His days on defense were numbered. Head Coach John Bridgers told the press, "I think he has the ability to be a good football player. I'd say that on the basis of spring practice, he's been one of our more impressive boys....But we've been impressed with him at defensive back. He's done well there too."

Despite his nifty runs during spring drills, most of the coaches didn't feel Westbrook deserved a scholarship, but Bridgers overruled them. The coach had installed a NFL type offense built around quarterback Terry Southall, but he needed a quality running back to complement the passing attack. None of the other halfbacks matched John's total ability. Some were faster, stronger, quicker, but Westbrook had the complete package.

That fall, the Bears opening opponent was the seventh-ranked Syracuse Orangemen. Because television wanted to carry the game nationally, it was moved up a week to September 10th. This change in the schedule virtually assured that Westbrook, not LeVias, would be the history maker. The Syracuse attack featured running backs Floyd Little and Larry Csonka. After the national anthem, a teammate put his arm on Westbrook's shoulder pads and quipped, "I told them, our nigger is going to play better than their nigger [Little]."

A touchdown pass by Southall gave Baylor an early lead. By the fourth quarter, Baylor was leading 28-6 and a waiting Westbrook was finally sent into the game. As John ran toward the huddle, he was unaware of the callous remark being made into the microphone by Baylor's own stadium announcer. "Colored football for color television!" exclaimed "the voice of the Bears," Dr. George Stokes. As the Bears came to the line of scrimmage, everyone knew history was about to be made.

The next morning the headline in the Austin American-Statesman read, "Southhall Hits 4 TD's; Bears Frolic, 35-12." Summing up Westbrook's contributions, Dick Collins wrote, "Baylor, always a leader in passing among Southwest Conference schools, gained another first when halfback John Hill Westbrook went into the game. Westbrook, a 200- pound sophomore from Elgin, became the first Negro to play in the eight-team circuit. And he did himself well. He carried the ball three times, once on a double reverse, and all three plays made yardage."

Following the Bears upset win, a calm Westbrook tried to downplay his historic achievement, "I wasn't very nervous - no more so than in any other football game. The fact that I was the first Negro to play in the Southwest Conference had no significance. It didn't even cross my mind."

For John Hill Westbrook, the gloom of the previous year was momentarily forgotten.