A group of 14 football players wearing identical black armbands met at the University of Wyoming field house on Oct. 17, 1969, planning to wear the armbands in protest of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ treatment of African Americans at the football game against church-owned Brigham Young University.
Instead, the 14 went down in civil rights history when UW’s Coach Lloyd Eaton dismissed them from the football team the day before the game.
On Friday, 50 years after Eaton’s decision sparked national media attention and a bitter controversy over the right of athletes to protest, six of the “Black 14” gathered on campus for the first time since 1969. Tony Gibson, Ivie Moore, Guillermo Hysaw, John Griffin, Tony McGee and Mel Hamilton visited the University to speak in the College of Law as part of MLK Days of Dialogue for Black History Month.
During their visit, the players received a Lifetime Achievement Award from UW’s African American and Diaspora Studies program for their role in the changes made to equality and freedom of expression at the university over time.
Hamilton said they continue to make appearances together to tell their side of the story, particularly in light of persisting claims that they refused to play in the game after being told they could not wear their armbands.
“I do it for one reason and one reason only, and that is to keep the memory alive and get the truth about what happened out there,” Hamilton said.
“We had decided before in a meeting that if he did not agree with what we wanted to do, we were just going to play the game,” Gibson said. “If he had said ‘No way you’re wearing those arm bands,’ that’s fine.”
According to the players, they were motivated to wear the armbands to protest the Mormon Church’s prohibition against black men in the priesthood and the behavior of BYU players in the previous year’s game — which they said included racist name-calling and cheap shots on the field that were ignored by referees and coaches. Black men and women were also denied certain privileges such as baptism and marriage ceremonies within temples until 1978, when the Church’s leadership declared that they had received a divine revelation to end the race-based restrictions.
Prior to the 1969 game against BYU, the players gathered in their game-day formal wear to meet Eaton, each bearing an armband, in the bleachers of a fieldhouse on the grounds.
“We went to, we thought, the conference room to talk to the coach about getting permission to wear those armbands in the game. We never got one word out,” Hysaw said. “We don’t know what incensed him, what enraged him, what infuriated him when he came around the corner.
“The one thing that resonated with me was, he said ‘You are defying me by wearing these black armbands.’ Now how are we defying him, in our mindset, to just come there to ask permission to wear them?”
Eaton stated at the time that he had removed the Black 14 from the team on the grounds that they had violated his rule that players could not participate in protest demonstrations — a stance that would divide the campus for weeks afterward.
The players were asked if they felt Eaton had been motivated by racism or being “a control freak.”
“All of the above,” Hamilton said.
Hysaw expressed his regret that the players had never been able to come to terms with Eaton, who stepped down from the head coach position following the controversy the Black 14’s dismissal caused for the University and a poor 1970 season. Hedied in 2007 at age 88 living in Idaho.
“One of the last comments I made before I left this campus was that I’d like to talk to him again,” Hysaw said. “My opening phrase would be, ‘I’m just wondering, Lloyd, why did you come out and talk to us in the manner you did?’ I never got that chance. My biggest disappointment was that he died. I really wish, more than anything else, more than going to the NFL, was having that conversation with him.”
Prior to a panel discussion with the players, Leslie McLemore recognized them in a keynote speech. McLemore is a professor emeritus of political science and former interim president at Jackson University, as well as founding director of the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute of Citizenship and Democracy. He also has a storied history in the civil rights movement including vice-chairing the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
McLemore opened his speech by advocating for the institutionalization the achievements of the Black 14.
“Wouldn’t it be marvelous thing to have open this campus, at this university, a scholarship named in honor of the Black 14?” McLemore said.
Speaking about Black Power, a movement in support of political power and rights for African Americans, McLemore emphasized the collaborative nature of the movement, such as how protestors and advocates needed armed groups to protect them, though equal rights would not have been won through violence.
“Without the teaching of Martin Luther King and Ghandi where we would be?” McLemore asked “When I integrated the few stores in my hometown back in 1968, there were men with guns who surrounded my house every night … Thank God we got a few black folk hired, but if we had tried to take over the town with our shotguns and our rifles and our 1040’s then a lot of us would be dead.”
More about the history of the Black 14 can be found at WyoHistory.org/education/toolkit/black-14.
