As Phil White, former Editor-in-Chief of the Branding Iron, climbed the stairs of the Union on Friday, Oct. 17, 1969, someone told him that Football Coach Lloyd Eaton had kicked all of the African American players off the team. White thought it was a joke.
“I thought he was just pulling my leg, you know? That couldn’t happen. I mean, seven of them had started games. And so I found out it was true,” White said.
White went to University President William D. Carlson’s office to gather more information, and was invited to sit in on the meeting between the African American players and university administration.
Earlier that morning, the players, who would soon become known as “The Black 14,” walked to Eaton’s office to discuss how they could show solidarity with the Black Student Alliance’s call for protest against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ tenant that men of African descent were not allowed to hold the priesthood.
According to Eaton’s account of the interaction, he took the players to the field house, where he listened to their proposal for upwards of 10 minutes.
The players recalled that Eaton yelled at them and refused to listen to their cause.
“Like hell he gave us 10 minutes,” Joe Williams, one of the Black 14 said in a 1969 article published by Sports Illustrated
“He came in, sneered at us and yelled that we were off the squad. He said our very presence defied him.”
When the players eventually met with Carlson, the situation was tense.
“[The Black 14] were telling their story; they got sort of abused by the coach, verbally, he kicked him off the team, he wouldn’t let them talk, and he proceeded to insult them. [Eaton] immediately polarized the whole situation,” White said.
“He was just as angry as can be that they appeared in his office, wearing black armbands and all together. He saw that as a defiance of his authority and defiance of his generosity.”
White hoped someone would intervene in the players’ defense. He had expected a positive outcome for the Black 14 but was disappointed.
“I sat there and I kept thinking, ‘somebody in charge is going to stand up and fix this right away,’ but the President, all he did was call an emergency trustees meeting,” White said.
“There were like four trustees that were lawyers. The Governor was a lawyer. And I just thought, this was obviously a violation of the right to free speech, but nobody was concerned about that, apparently,” White said.
A large photograph of a student waving a Confederate flag at the BYU game on Oct. 18, 1969, was positioned front and center on the Branding Iron’s front page on Oct. 23, 1969.
The caption read, “Midway through the first quarter of last Saturday’s Wyoming-BYU game, this Confederate flag was hoisted into the crisp air over Memorial Stadium. The flag flew for three quarters from the last row of the middle section of the east stands.”
“Shortly after it went up, two spectators asked two different Laramie city policemen to request the person to put it away. They refused, saying it was ‘his right.’ When told it might cause trouble, the policeman smiled.”
Despite being disillusioned by the experience, White didn’t stop. In an act defying popular opinion, he wrote an editorial supporting the players.
“For some few white students and almost all black students on this campus, the past week has been not only unbelievable, but a cause for despair,” White wrote in an editorial also published on Thursday, Oct. 23, 1969.
“Few of the thousands of people who are throwing around the word “racism,” have even the smallest idea of what the word means. They have never read a black author or talked at length with a black man about the subject.”
“The only statement required of most Wyomignites this week has been: ‘I am not racist. Some of my best friends are colored and I went to high school with them.’”
Around this time, certain students at the University of Wyoming began calling for White’s removal from the Branding Iron. Roughly half of the Branding Iron staff resigned.
On Oct. 23, 1969, White also announced his resignation from the Branding Iron.
“White said he was bowing to the wishes of most UW students who apparently do not want to read anything about racism or the Vietnam War or the urban crisis or drugs or prison abuses or politics,” the Branding Iron reported.
“Admittedly, they are rather unpleasant subjects,” White told the Branding Iron at the time.
“Maybe if the BI doesn’t mention them, they will go away. I hope so. After all, we don’t have any problems here in Wyoming, and we don’t want any.”
White was disgruntled with the university’s administration, as well as much of the student body’s reaction.
“I was realizing there’s no way I could put this paper out with very few people still there, still supporting me. That’s the main reason I quit,” White said reflecting on the situation.
White went on to graduate law school at UW. Throughout his life and career, White continued to research political issues throughout Wyoming. In 2018 he published a book entitled, Wyoming in Mid-Century: Prejudice, Protest, and “The Black 14”.
To this day, White still thinks back on this experience, pondering on what he could’ve done differently.
“I’ve had many, many nights where I awoke in the middle of the night, and I knew the players were waiting in the union to go to this meeting of the trustees, and many times I’ve envisioned myself going to them, of course I was way too shy,” White said.
“But somebody should have gone in there and told them, ‘Number one, what the coach did this morning was obviously a violation of your civil rights. No question about it. So, by going to this meeting, if you say anything at all other than we demand reinstatement. If you say anything at all, you can only hurt yourself.’”
