After 50 years, the University of Wyoming apologized for the dismissal of 14 black football players

Wyoming
Published at 11:07 am, September 17, 2019 | Updated at 11:07 am, September 17, 2019
Leah Asmelash, CNN


Members of the Black 14 pose for the camera at the University of Wyoming. From left: John Griffin, Tony Gibson, Lionel Grimes, Tony McGee, Ted Williams, Guillermo Hysaw, Roy Hill and Brian Lee, representing his father, Earl Lee. In front is Mel Hamilton. | Courtesy Cayla Nimmo, Casper Star-Tribune

(CNN) — Nearly 50 years ago, in 1969, 14 black football players at the University of Wyoming wanted to protest a racist policy.

The team was set to play Brigham Young University, a university affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which at the time had a policy prohibiting black people from becoming priests. Students were planning a protest outside the football stadium, and the players wanted to wear black armbands during the game in support. ... When the players approached their coach to ask for permission, they were immediately kicked off the team.

The campus fell into disarray — there were protests calling for the reinstatement of the players, and the situation garnered national attention. The team, though it beat BYU 40-7, lost its last four games of the season and went 1-9 the next season. Though three of the players came back to play for the team in 1970, three others transferred to all-black schools. Two eventually went on to play in the NFL.

None of them ever received a public apology. Until Friday.

The University of Wyoming held a commemorative week in honor of the 14 players, dubbed the “Black 14,” this year, marking the 50th anniversary of the incident. The week, attended by eight of the 11 living players, culminated in a dinner Friday, when the university’s athletic director Tom Burman read from an official apology letter from the school.

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Lionel Grimes, a member of the Black 14, called it “mind-boggling.” ... “I never thought I’d see that happen at the University of Wyoming,” he told local media. ... “That’s all I ever wanted was an apology,” Tony Gibson, another member, said. “That’s it.”

BREAKING
University of Wyoming apologizes to Black 14 nearly 50 years after their dismissal
Davis Potter Sep 14, 2019

LARAMIE — Since Oct. 17, 1969 — the day 14 black football players were dismissed from the University of Wyoming’s football team for wanting to protest racial injustice — no one has publicly apologized on behalf of the school for the incident that altered the lives of a group more commonly known as the Black 14.

That changed Friday night.

The Black 14 received a formal apology from the university during a dinner in the Wildcatter Stadium Club and Suites at War Memorial Stadium. Eight of the 11 living members are back on Wyoming’s campus as part of a weeklong 50th-year commemoration of the event ahead of the Cowboys’ game Saturday against Idaho, where the group will be honored at halftime.

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Davis Potter is the University of Wyoming athletics reporter. An Alabama native and 2011 Auburn University graduate, Potter joined the Star-Tribune in 2018 after five years covering Ole Miss and the Southeastern Conference. He lives in Laramie.