| Title | : | The Game Changers: Abner Haynes, Leon King, and the Fall of Major College Football's Color Barrier in Texas |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1613219377 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781613219379 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 |
| Publication | : | Published October 25, 2016 |
The players’ arrival came only a few months after North Texas first welcomed a black undergraduate student in February 1956. The school worked its way through both that episode and the integration of its most public face—the football team—with no fanfare and without the hostility on campus that accompanied similar events at many other colleges and universities across the South. There were, though, tense situations when a racial integrated football team played road games in small, segregated Texas towns. Jeff Miller, a veteran Texas sports journalist, has visited with those who lived through it—from the mixed welcome that Haynes and King initially received from their white freshman brethren to those same teammates standing with them after the two blacks were denied service at eateries on the road to a squad that grew into a Bowl team.
In The Game Changers , Miller ties the tale of what happened at North Texas beginning in 1956 to contrasting events that took place not far away that reverberated into national relevance. He also chronicles the continued racial integration of major college football in Texas throughout the 1960s.
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The Game Changers: Abner Haynes, Leon King, and the Fall of Major College Football's Color Barrier in Texas Reviews
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My first impression of Miller’s book was that it downplayed the impact and evilness of southern [Unted States] segregation and racism. It seemed like he was writing that north Texas cities that did not allow black people did so to protect them, not because of racism. That Denton, where North Texas State is located, was more accommodating of black students, despite segregation. That North Texas State was more welcoming of black students, and that the football team was particularly welcoming. And, I suppose, when compared to the University of Alabama, which Miller does, it is true. But Alabama and other southern schools set a very, very low bar. The white southern conferences set, in general, very low bars.
Somehow, I kept reading. Perhaps it was because Joe Green, better known by his nickname in the NFL, ‘Mean’ Joe Green, wrote the Forward. Or perhaps because I knew Abner Haynes had had a great professional career in the AFL. Whatever the reason, Miller’s history of the first Texas football team to integrate eventually finds a more realistic and less self-congratulatory tone. North Texas State was not the perfect school and Denton was not the perfect town for someone who was black. North Texas, after all, was a school that had been just as segregated as other Texas schools for 65 years and it took a court order to change that.
Although I continued to believe Miller treated North Texas, and its president James Matthews, with a gentleness they did not deserve, judging from what Miller wrote, and downplayed the difficulties of being black at the beginning of integration at North Texas, I decided that he was not some segregation apologist writing about how the Confederacy, segregation, and slavery were not so bad. In other words, I thought the book got better as it went along. But those first few chapters still have me wondering.
From what Miller wrote, Abner Haynes and Leon King, did have a somewhat easier time than many black students at formerly all-white schools. Their white coaches, Ken Bahnsen and Odus Mitchel, seemed to have a better idea how to build an integrated football team than most and encouraged players to be welcoming. And some white players were welcoming, including Vernon and Charlie Cole, George Herring, and Garland Warren.
Despite thinking the book could have been more focused, I thought some side stories, related to school integration, might have been missed. For example, there is a passing reference to Native Americans being admitted in 1890. Were Native Americans generally admitted to Texas universities in that era of segregation, or was that an exception?
So, this is an interesting story. There were probably nearly as many different responses to integrating southern and, sometimes, northern schools as there were schools. Sometimes, but not often enough, it brings out the best in people. All too often, it brings out the worst. North Texas State had some of both. -
The Game Changers documents desegregation in college sports, in universities, and in some school districts in north Texas. This is not an in depth study of the experiences of Abner Hayes and Leon King, though their years of playing football are well documented. Rather this tells the story of many people: the coaches, fellow players over many years, their families, instances of desegregation in other school and other sports, the troubles and the successes. Throughout every chapter are well reconstructed stories of football games and football seasons. My four star rather than a five star rating reflects my lack of interest in so much sports detail. For me some sections felt like a bit of an uphill struggle, yet I felt richly rewarded for the effort with the lovely human interest elements which were tucked in throughout. As a country we may have a long way to go to resolve all racial troubles, but this book is a reminder that progress that has been made, albeit progress that was long overdue.
