University of Virginia Library

Black Athletes

"Super-black", as he may be called, is a rare
commodity. He is tall, strong, and fast. He is
intelligent, with College Board scores hovering
over 1,000. He is, perhaps, Vice President of his
senior class, and the first of his race to crack
the real barriers at his high school. He is selling
a product for which supply is short and demand
is high. Thus far, he has told the buyers from
Virginia, politely of course, to forget it.

Recruiting athletes, whether black or white,
is not a mechanical process. It's a people
process, and its success or failure is determined
by the impressions made by the people
concerned. To often in the past, the
University has been unable to succeed.

Any attack on the problems which block
integration of the athletic program must begin
with the realization that the students, probably
more than the Athletic Department, are
responsible for the bad impressions made by
the University. Any lasting and effective
progress will be primarily the result of a
fundamental change in the social attitudes and
structures of the student body. But the Athletic
Department can do more.

Virginia has always recruited two basic types
of football players. The first is the "blue chip"
type, the kid whose talent and potential are so
obvious that he can choose between dozens of
schools, The second is the type that has the
grades to be admitted, but whose athletic
ability is uncertain. Some of these develop into
fine players. Some don't. This second type of
kid is brought to the attention of the coaches
primarily through the contacts they have
developed in certain areas of the country.
That's why some areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio,
and Virginia produce a preponderant number of
Virginia football players.

The problem has been that Virginia has only
been competing for the blue chip blacks.
Obviously enough, the University hasn't been
doing too well in this respect. And it will
continue to fail until contacts are opened with
the sources of black talent, including the
marginal type.

The Athletic Department, if it wants to tap
that source, will need a black man to help. A
white coach could never make the contacts in
the Negro community that a black man could.
A white coach could never communicate with a
black candidate as effectively as a black man
could. In short, by hiring a black coach, and
increasing the number of black athletes
pursued, the law of averages would begin to
work for the recruiters, rather than against
them.

The football staff fills at least two vacancies
(for graduate assistants) each year. If the
Athletic Department is truly interested in
integration, it ought to be willing to actively
seek to fill one of those positions with a black
man.

-Bob Cullen