Historical Question
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You won’t find a lot of information on this subject out there. The short answer is Willie Townes. He was a JUCO defensive lineman out of Coffeyville CC and a second round pick of the Dallas Cowboys. He played during our glory years of 1964 and 1965.
Native Americans students enrolled at TU from its founding. TU quietly desegregated in 1943 with the school’s first black students enrolling in sociology courses at night and neither the faculty nor the white students objecting. No National Guard like Ole Miss. Or federal marshals with court orders like OU. No media coverage. Pretty incredible since it was just 20 years after the riot. Though TU did operate some segregated graduate level courses for black students at Carver Junior High into the early 1950s. In hindsight, this is reprehensible, but was viewed as very progressive at the time to offer graduate level work to black students on scholarship. Many faculty and students were unaware of the practice at the time. By 1959, this arrangement was over as I understand it.
Mike Stripling started at QB in 1966 for TU, about 10 years before Barry Switzer started proclaiming himself a humanitarian for playing black quarterbacks in Oklahoma. A black QB was virtually unheard of at the time, even amongst northern schools.
Prentice Gautt desegregated the OU football team in 1956. TU had a string of mediocre teams under Bobby Dobbs and Glenn Dobbs from 1955 to 1964. Bobby won 7 games twice in 7 seasons but never got over .500 otherwise. Glenn went 2-8, then 5-5 and 5-5, before adding Townes and going to the Bluebonnet Bowl. With OU desegregated and TU’s classrooms desegregated, and TU had a whites only basketball team until the 1960 season, you wonder about the delay until 1964 and whether the statue and the street for Glenn Dobbs is still a good idea. It could have been the boosters blocking it, or the conference, but it is a bit of a stain even though it was 5 or 6 more years before many major teams in the region desegregated.
I hope this helps.
Native Americans students enrolled at TU from its founding. TU quietly desegregated in 1943 with the school’s first black students enrolling in sociology courses at night and neither the faculty nor the white students objecting. No National Guard like Ole Miss. Or federal marshals with court orders like OU. No media coverage. Pretty incredible since it was just 20 years after the riot. Though TU did operate some segregated graduate level courses for black students at Carver Junior High into the early 1950s. In hindsight, this is reprehensible, but was viewed as very progressive at the time to offer graduate level work to black students on scholarship. Many faculty and students were unaware of the practice at the time. By 1959, this arrangement was over as I understand it.
Mike Stripling started at QB in 1966 for TU, about 10 years before Barry Switzer started proclaiming himself a humanitarian for playing black quarterbacks in Oklahoma. A black QB was virtually unheard of at the time, even amongst northern schools.
Prentice Gautt desegregated the OU football team in 1956. TU had a string of mediocre teams under Bobby Dobbs and Glenn Dobbs from 1955 to 1964. Bobby won 7 games twice in 7 seasons but never got over .500 otherwise. Glenn went 2-8, then 5-5 and 5-5, before adding Townes and going to the Bluebonnet Bowl. With OU desegregated and TU’s classrooms desegregated, and TU had a whites only basketball team until the 1960 season, you wonder about the delay until 1964 and whether the statue and the street for Glenn Dobbs is still a good idea. It could have been the boosters blocking it, or the conference, but it is a bit of a stain even though it was 5 or 6 more years before many major teams in the region desegregated.
I hope this helps.
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Thanks, yeah there's a lot of hubub about this at other schools and I never really knew the history of TU's racial story. I would consider it pretty important for kids at the school in a time with such racial tension.
Obviously I knew about Native Americans having been enrolled in the school early on due to the nature of TU's founding, but I also knew that the basketball team was all-white for some period and I didn't know when the switch occurred.
I’ve got some class pictures from when my father was a student in the late 40s & early 50s.
What surprised me in those photos is that about 40% of the students are female. I didn’t realize that many women attended the university back then.
What surprised me in those photos is that about 40% of the students are female. I didn’t realize that many women attended the university back then.
Lots of women attended university but few majored in certain male dominated subjects, because it wasn't expected that they would have (or need) careers.
I there there was a player about 1963 who wanted to go to Alabama, but did not want to be the first in that state, so he came to TU. dont remember his name. think it starts with a M.
Thanks for the info. I didn’t realize that was the case.
My father and my uncles attended the University but my mother and aunts did not. I guess I just assumed that the student body was male dominated back then.
By them time the next generation grew up, I and all of my cousins, both male and female, attended TU.
My daughter is our first 3rd generation attendee.
Much, much less so, but some still go for the "MRS" degree for lack of a better term.
Townes was one of four Black football players who came on campus in 1963. One was a fullback named Randy Phillips and I've forgotten the names of the other two. Phillips didn't play much at TU but he signed as an undrafted free agent by the KC Chiefs, but didn't catch on..
From Willie Townes Wikipedia page. The source was the TU Athletic Department announcement when Willie Townes passed away in 2017.
"He accepted a football scholarship from Indiana University, but ended up transferring after his freshman year to Coffeyville Junior College. In 1964, he transferred to the University of Tulsa, where he along with Charlie Brown, Randy Phillips, Richard Tyson and Jim Brown, were the first athletes to break the school's color barrier."
I grew up in Western Pennsylvania in the 1950s and 1960s. College football was different then. The service academies, Army and Navy had several national championships but no black players. Pitt, Penn State, Syracuse Michigan State, Ohio State etc and the West Coast school had black stars but none in the South.
In 1956 Pitt was invited to play in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia Tech. The Governor of Georgia went to court and got an injunction to stop the Georgia Tech team from playing against Pitt and it's black players. The Georgia Tech coach left town before the injunction could be served and the game was played. It was the first Sugar Bowl with black players.
In 1963 Pitt was 9-1, number two in the nation to Navy with QB Roger Staubach. Pitt's only loss was to Navy. Pitt had black players, including star end, Eric Crabtree. The number two team in the nation did not get a Bowl bid. The Orange Bowl gave offered a bid to Pitt but allegedly it was contingent on leaving the black players in Pittsburgh. I was 15 years old that year, I will be 72 next week and I am still irritated about that situation. I am also proud that I am an alum of both Pitt and TU.
All of the bowl games were in the south (except the Rose Bowl). This is one reason that the Liberty Bowl was started. It originally was in Philadelphia for a couple of years and then one year inside at the Atlantic City Convention Center.
"He accepted a football scholarship from Indiana University, but ended up transferring after his freshman year to Coffeyville Junior College. In 1964, he transferred to the University of Tulsa, where he along with Charlie Brown, Randy Phillips, Richard Tyson and Jim Brown, were the first athletes to break the school's color barrier."
I grew up in Western Pennsylvania in the 1950s and 1960s. College football was different then. The service academies, Army and Navy had several national championships but no black players. Pitt, Penn State, Syracuse Michigan State, Ohio State etc and the West Coast school had black stars but none in the South.
In 1956 Pitt was invited to play in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia Tech. The Governor of Georgia went to court and got an injunction to stop the Georgia Tech team from playing against Pitt and it's black players. The Georgia Tech coach left town before the injunction could be served and the game was played. It was the first Sugar Bowl with black players.
In 1963 Pitt was 9-1, number two in the nation to Navy with QB Roger Staubach. Pitt's only loss was to Navy. Pitt had black players, including star end, Eric Crabtree. The number two team in the nation did not get a Bowl bid. The Orange Bowl gave offered a bid to Pitt but allegedly it was contingent on leaving the black players in Pittsburgh. I was 15 years old that year, I will be 72 next week and I am still irritated about that situation. I am also proud that I am an alum of both Pitt and TU.
All of the bowl games were in the south (except the Rose Bowl). This is one reason that the Liberty Bowl was started. It originally was in Philadelphia for a couple of years and then one year inside at the Atlantic City Convention Center.
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The first black basketball player born in Tulsa, OK and drafted by the NBA could not play for OU, OSU or even TU. Julius Pegues from Washington High School was probably the best high school basketball player from Oklahoma in the early 1950s. He went to Pitt and was the first black basketball player for that school. He was drafted by the NBA St. Louis Hawks but entered the Air Force through ROTC. He was the first Tulsa born basketball player of any race to be drafted by the NBA.
I was born at St. Francis Hospital on Penn Ave in the Lawrenceville part of Pittsburgh. My family lived in Shadyside then. When I was 2 1/2 we moved to the country, McCandless Township with an Allison Park address. I graduated from North Allegheny High School and Pitt. In about two weeks I will have lived in Tulsa for 50 years. I came to Tulsa for law school at TU. My plan was to get into oil and gas law. That and several other plans never worked. I have, however, been a private practice attorney for 47 years.
In the 60s we did not recruit much and freshmen were not able to play varsity. OU and the other big schools could build freshmen classes with 50 or 60 recruits. That didn't leave much for us. We built a jv team of a few freshmen, p5 transfers and jc.
When the ncaa set a limits on recruiting numbers, we were able to start recruit our fair share. Also players were able to play as freshmen.
When the ncaa set a limits on recruiting numbers, we were able to start recruit our fair share. Also players were able to play as freshmen.
We used to grab a few "leftovers" from NEO that were place there by OU, Arkansas, Alabama, and others when they thought they had over recruited them. One player I remember was a safety that Bear Bryant at Alabama felt he no longer needed by the name of Ralph McGill.
Ralph McGill did transfer to TU from NEO. I do not think he was ever associated with Alabama and Bear Bryant. McGill was at NEO in 1968 and 1969 and at TU in 1970 and 1971. Bear Bryant did not recruit black players until 1971. McGill was born in Georgia.