Local sports schedule
Rhinebeck at Kingston, 4:15 p.m. Pine Plains at Onteora, 4:15 p.m. Webutuck at Ellenville, 4:15 p.m. Pine Bush at Red Hook, 4:15 p.m. Taconic Hills at Rondout, 4:15 p.m. Coxsackie-Athens at Spackenkill, 4:15 p.m. Monroe-Woodbury at Kingston, 4:30 p.m. Kingston at Monroe-Woodbury, 4 p.m. Mount Academy at Burke Catholic, 4:30 p.m.
Marlin Briscoe didn’t want to be pigeonholed simply because of stereotypes against black men. He was a star quarterback in college, and he believed he had the talent, intelligence and leadership skills to be one in the pros.
Fifty years ago, during an era of massive social upheaval in the United States, just getting a chance to prove it took a risky ultimatum.
Briscoe refused to switch positions after being drafted as a cornerback by the Denver Broncos, telling his team that he’d return home to become a teacher if he couldn’t get a tryout at quarterback. Denver agreed to an audition, and that season the 5-foot10 dynamo nicknamed “The Magician” became the first black quarterback to start a game in the American Football League.
“It’s just so many different historic things that happened in the year 1968, it was unfathomable,” Briscoe, now 73, told The Associated Press. “It just seemed poetic justice, so to speak, that the color barrier be broken that year at that position. For some reason, I was ordained to be the litmus test for that. I think I did a good job.”
Briscoe’s groundbreaking accomplishments were somewhat lost in the shuffle during one of the most transformative years in U.S. history. Civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated in 1968. Civil rights riots broke out across the country and there were numerous protests of the Vietnam War. And less than two weeks after Briscoe’s first start, U.S. track and field stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised black-gloved fists on the medal stand at the Olympics to protest America’s social injustices.
But Briscoe’s legacy resonates among his contemporaries 50 years later, hitting on race as well as the pressures athletes face in pro sports. The Pro Football Hall of Fame calls Briscoe the first African-American starting quarterback in modern pro football history. Carolina’s Cam Newton and Seattle’s Russell Wilson have both considered Briscoe’s past as they contend for championships. Doug Williams, the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, counts Briscoe as one of his most important inspirational figures.
“I know the little bit that I had to go through, so I can imagine what he had to go through,” said Williams, who won the 1988 Super Bowl with Washington. “People were a little more accepted when I came through than when he came through.”
GETTING ON THE FIELD
Though Briscoe starred at Omaha University and eventually landed in the College Football Hall of Fame, he was drafted By Denver as a cornerback in the 14th round. Briscoe started last among eight quarterbacks during his tryout.
Helped by injuries and erratic play, Briscoe eventually stepped in for the Broncos as a reserve on Sept. 29, 1968, and nearly led a comeback against the Boston Patriots. He earned the next start against the Cincinnati Bengals, making him the first black quarterback to start a game in the AFL.
Briscoe started five games that season and was runner-up for AFL rookie of the year, attracting strong crowds and energizing a franchise that had yet to establish a winning tradition.