Today our nation celebrates Martin Luther king, one of the iconic figures of one of the great defining moments in our national history. On this national holiday it is appropriate to remember the wrongs of the past, appreciate the progress that has been made and acknowledge the work yet to be done to allow a free society for all.

Due to the nature of this site it is appropriate to limit the scope of this topic to its impact on college football and take time to reflect on how quaint and insignificant the issues generally discussed here, the BCS slights, truly are.

It is not the intent of this historical recap to suggest that institutions today represent the sins of their past, but to remember our roots and how we, as a nation, have grown and will continue to grow.

Dawn of Time

Black players have always participated in collegiate sports, though often in separate leagues in what are now referred to as the historically black colleges. The Missouri Tigers vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers rivalry began in 1892 with a forfeit because Missouri has a policy prohibiting competition against teams with black participants.

Charles Follis

Taking a short diversion to professional football, arguments can be made that Charles Follis' success in professional football just over 100 years ago helped inspire teammate Branch Rickey to eventually sign and promote the legendary career of Jackie Robinson.

Jack Trice

In Follis's first year playing with a professional team (without a contract for the first two years), in Hiram Ohio, Jack Trice was born. Trice would become the first black player for the Iowa State Cyclones. The day before his first game came on October 6th 1923 he recorded these words to himself:

My thoughts just before the first real college game of my life: The honor of my race, family & self is at stake. Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I will. My whole body and soul are to be thrown recklessly about the field tomorrow. Every time the ball is snapped, I will be trying to do more than my part. On all defensive plays I must break thru the opponents' line and stop the play in their territory. Beware of mass interference. Fight low, with your eyes open and toward the play. Watch out for crossbucks and reverse end runs. Be on your toes every minute if you expect to make good.

Trice would suffer a broken collar bone in the first half but continued to play until being trampled in the third quarter by three Minnesota Golden Gophers players and taken to a Minnesota hospital. He was cleared to travel home but died two days later from injuries suffered in the game.

Ozzie Simmons

In 1935 Ozzie Simmons was one of the first black all Americans and played for the Iowa Hawkeyes. He was also dealt a serious series of blows against Minnesota in 1934 that (combined with Minnesota's public support of a suspension for slush fund violations) lead to outrage amongst the Iowa fans. The following year Iowa Governor Clyde Herring added fuel to the fire by saying, "If the officials stand for any rough tactics like Minnesota used last year, I'm sure the crowd won't." Minnesota's Governor Floyd Olson responded with the following telegram:

Minnesota folks are excited over your statement about Iowa crowds lynching the Minnesota football team. I have assured them you are law abiding gentlemen and are only trying to get our goat...I will bet you a Minnesota prize hog against an Iowa prize hog that Minnesota wins.

This is the history of how the Floyd of Rosedale was born.

The Johnny Bright Incident

In 1951 Johnny Bright was starting his second year as QB/HB for Drake and had never lost a game. He was even mentioned in Heisman discussions. After starting 5-0 Drake faced Oklahoma A&M, now the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Bright was knocked unconscious three times in the first seven minutes, including a hit that broke his jaw that was caught in a Pulitzer Prize winning series of photographs that showed Wilbanks Smith accelerating into Blake from the blind side long after he had handed off the ball.

Even with the photographic evidence, the Missouri Valley Conference refused to take any form of corrective action, leading to Drake and Bradley University leaving the conference.

This incident also lead to improved NCAA rule changes regarding blocks in the back and the implementation of facemasks that marks one of many examples of the civil rights movement inspiring improvements for everyone.

Buffalo Bulls

In 1958 the Buffalo Bulls were invited to the Tangerine Bowl (now the Capitol One Bowl) on the condition that starting RB Willie Evans and back up DE Ralph Wilson would not play due to rules prohibiting interracial games at the Citrus Bowl.

The Bulls would eventually make their first bowl appearance in 2008.

I Have a Dream

These were the offenses large enough to make the national news. Ignored are the countless offenses that went under the radar as part of the way things were in those days. Football was not a breading ground for these actions; rather these actions reflected a far deeper resentment woven into every aspect of our society.

It was in this context that Martin Luther King gave his iconic speech after hundreds of thousands marched from the southern states to Washington DC in 1963.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

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We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

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Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

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When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Alabama and the Repentance of the Tangerine Bowl

The world does not change over night but the nation was changing. In 1966 the Alabama Crimson Tide finished the regular season undefeated only to watch as teams passed them in the ranking and finished ahead of them, despite having a tie game which typically dropped teams in the standings in those days. This is generally considered to have been one of Bear Bryant's most dominating teams. Many people of the day ascribed this to a national backlash against Governor Wallace's staunch pro segregation stance.

In 1966 the Tangerine Bowl invited Morgan State, an historically black university, to participate, creating the first interracial Tangerine Bowl.

Dixie's Last Stand

In 1969 a game dubbed many titles, including "Game of the Century" and "Dixie's Last Stand" featured the last major sporting event in American history with two all white teams. While a few such college games were played after this game, none had the profile of this game, where the #1 Texas Longhorns played the #2 Arkansas Razorbacks in a game delayed over a month to cater to a national audience. In 1972 the LSU Tigers and Mississippi Rebels became the final collegiate schools to become racially integrated.

More on topic for this blog, President Richard Nixon attended this game and controversially awarded a trophy to the winning team, taken by many to be an official awarding of a national championship. This ruffled the feathers of then unknown Joe Paterno at Penn State who had just coached his team to their second consecutive undefeated season. Add in undefeated and uncrowned seasons in 1973 and 1994 and Joe Paterno has seen 4 teams go undefeated without a chance at a national title, more than any other coach in college history.

Future

To be sure, our country has come a long way and college football has gone along for the ride. Much work has yet to be done. When Kentucky coach in waiting Joker Phillips took the reigns on January 4th he became the 12th current black NCAA D1 FBS head coach out of 120 institutions, and 5th among the 64 institutions from BCS automatic qualifying conferences.

This represents a percentage far less than the percentage of black players 20 years ago, indicating that some force is still impairing their progress to the highest coaching ranks. More optimistic is the fact that race was rarely mentioned in most media reports on the promotion, a fact not yet attained with our first black US President.

I still look forward to the day when the census stops asking "What race are you" with a select one option and realizes that a "Which ethnicity are you" with a select all that apply option is a far better representation of the future majority of Americans.

In that day, we will all be able to truly sit hand in hand at the table of brotherhood.

I too have a dream.