University of Virginia Library

Athletics, The Negro, And The University

By John Marshall

ONE BY ONE, THE TWO RATHER middle-aged hands
flip over the white cards and place them face down in the
pile on the desk. The eyes behind the glasses carefully
scan the writing on the front and back of each card for
about ten seconds. Then the easy-talking voice patiently
offers the explanations. "Too small, only 170. Board scores
too low. Poor high school grades and rank. Looks bad
in the films. Now this boy here-we've still got a shot
at him. But he was supposed to visit last weekend and then
cancelled out at the last minute. No telling now whether
he'll actually call back or not. It's getting pretty late in the
season."

THUS AS HE SURVEYS THE TEN to twenty Athletic
Information cards of high school Negroes he and his
staff have tried to recruit this year, head football coach
George Blackburn enumerates the obstacles which must
be overcome before signing the University's first Negro
grant-in-aid athlete. The major portion of Coach Blackburn's
life has been devoted to football and, both as a
player and as a coach, it has always been integrated
football-until he came here to work under Bill Elias in
1964.

SINCE THAT TIME, HIS EFFORTS have been directed
toward bringing the best athletes he can to Charlottesville
regardless of whether they are white, black, or polka dot.
He has full Administration backing. In a late Tuesday
afternoon interview in his office this week, Coach Blackburn
reaffirmed this non-discriminatory policy and showed
the tangible evidence-files containing information cards,
scouting reports, and correspondence on Negro athletes
considered for recruiting this year. He also added that
there are such files on some Negro high school juniors.

AS YET, NO NEGRO HAS SIGNED a letter of intent.
But after talking to Coach Blackburn, one is indeed hesitant
to criticize either his sincerity or his efforts. As a
professional football man, Coach Blackburn jealously
watches the O. J. Simpsons, the Leroy Keyes and knows
what they can do for a team.

HERE RECENT ACCUSATIONS by Negro students
of the University should be examined. In a letter to this
paper last week and in the just-published UVM interview,
Negro students accuse athletic recruiters of seeking
"white athletes of average ability" and ask that the same
standards be applied to Negroes. Surely a more fallacious
argument could not be advanced. To say that a coach
whose bread and butter is winning would knowingly settle
for recruiting mediocre athletes is utterly ridiculous. Why
would he subject himself to even more pressure in a job
that is a 365 day hot seat anyway? It simply does not
make any sense. And if those who argue that only average
white athletes are recruited would only take the time to
look over the high school credentials of grant-in-aid
signees, they would realize just how shallow their argument
really is.

RECRUITING IS, at best, a most hit and miss proposition.
Thirty-five football scholarships are awarded in
hopes of finding maybe fifteen really solid performers.
Such are the pressures of competing in a top-flight conference
like the ACC where the only reward for mediocrity
is defeat.

IMAGINE, FOR A MOMENT, that you are a Negro
athlete thinking of coming to the University. Your combined
SAT verbal and math board scores must be around
1000; the average score of University athletes is around
1100 and is clearly the highest in the conference. You are
the best football player in your school and one of the best
players in your state; most of the scholarship athletes
here are. Lastly, you realize that only .4% of the University's
students are Negroes-the lowest percentage in
the conference. You realize that you will be the first
Negro to wear a Virginia jersey; you stop to consider all
the added pressure this is bound to apply, both on the
field and off. You can't forget that you have been contacted
by the Ivy League schools and the Big Ten as well.

YOU COME TO VIRGINIA for the climax of every
recruiting campaign, the campus visit. And as you are
escorted around for the weekend, it hits you much harder
that there are only about seventy Negroes in the University
community. You realize that there are only three
or four Negro girls to date and you hear rumors that
if you have a date visit for a weekend, there's a good
chance you won't be able to find a place for her to
stay. You find out that you cannot join a fraternity. On
your visit, white athletes advise you not to come here, and
recruiters level with you. You soon realize that the only
way to gain even token acceptance at the University is
to be one of the top four or five players on the varsity.
You wonder if it's worth all that effort and what would
happen if you're a flop. And no one really blames you
at all when you decide to go to college somewhere else.

SUCH ARE BUT SOME OF the complexities involved
in signing that first Negro athlete here. But I can
guarantee that if you know a Negro athlete qualified to
come here both academically and athletically, we can go
over to University Hall any time this week or next and
he will be awarded a grant-in-aid. Coach Blackburn and
his recruiters are just this sincere in their desire to recruit
a Negro athlete. They simply have nothing to gain from
being two-faced and facetious. And to suggest that they
are saying one thing and doing another merely shows
ignorance and gross over-simplification.

OVER-SIMPLIFICATION IS, of course, a very real
danger in discussing such intense, personal issues-issues
like race or Vietnam. Things tend to be seen in a we-versus-them
light. And, then, it becomes difficult to see
the fundamental issues through all the peripheral issues.
Thus the problem of recruiting Negro athletes obscures
the far more basic problem of recruiting good athletes
of any color. By the same token, recruiting Negro athletes
obscures the greater problem of just getting Negro students
here. Finally signing that first Negro athlete-probably
in the not too distant future-will only be the
smallest of steps toward solving the larger, more complex
problem. But, at the same time, the major portion
of the University community will agree that it is a most
significant step, a step definitely in the right direction.