‘MORE OF SAME’
Former SMU great Jerry LeVias has seen protests before, but he’s waiting for action
Few have felt racism with as public a backdrop as Jerry LeVias.
In recent weeks, hundreds of sports organizations, franchises and leagues have issued statements vowing to put resources and funding toward fighting police brutality against black people and social injustice.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver vowed the league will “create programs and build partnerships in every NBA community that address racial inequity and bring people together.” MLB says it is “committed to engaging our communities to invoke change.” The NFL condemned the systematic oppression of black people.
To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., there is revolt all over the sports world against racism.
As has been the case in many instances in the past, sports can lead society in this.
Right now, sports leaders are talking a good game. We won’t know that a change has come until the actual change has come.
Proclamations, promotions and promises are like New
Year’s resolutions. The words sound good, but without action the words are just sounds.
Press releases, web posts, statements on social media, videos and tweets will not change the world.
“It is good to see organizations are speaking out, but they can say all they want … faith without works is useless,” Jerry LeVias said. “People have to take a look at themselves and realize there is some work that has to be done on their souls.
“Then, you ask yourself,
‘What works are you going to do?’ ”
The man who wore No. 23 on his football jersey in a nod to the 23rd Psalm knows that sounds like preaching. We would all be wise to listen.
Few have dealt with racism with as public a backdrop as LeVias, the first black man to receive a scholarship to play football in the Southwest Conference.
What he sees in athlete activism today is encouraging. He has seen some of it before.
“It’s more of the same,” LeVias said. “Like Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Their protest was about injustice, and you see what happened to them. They weren’t disrespecting the flag of the United States. (Colin) Kaepernick was protesting the same thing: injustice and inequality. They fired him.
“We’ve had these conversations and protests for far too long. I agree with the protests, but I don’t agree with the violence. I like what’s going on, but I’d like to see it go further into real change, real action.”
LeVias’ coach at SMU, Hayden Fry, advised him not to get involved in destruction during protest marches after the assassination of King.
Despite being an academic All-American and an eloquent speaker, LeVias said he “did all my protesting and speaking with my performance on the field.”
Save for the time the star receiver climbed atop the student union and tore down a Confederate flag.
The racist symbol was hoisted yearly as part of a fraternity’s Old South Week celebration, during which white students dressed up like Confederate soldiers and pulled on others who were in blackface with ropes around their necks.
“What they were doing was just wrong,” LeVias said.
What was done to LeVias when he arrived on SMU’s campus in 1965 was worse. The blatant racism he saw left lasting scars.
In many ways, LeVias was a man alone.
Assigned roommates moved out because they didn’t want to share a dorm room with him. He was harassed on campus, students scattered like roaches when he sat in classrooms, and football team trainers wouldn’t touch him, not even to tape his ankles for practices and games.
His Mustangs teammates, some of whom had no problem calling him the N-word, refused to shower in his presence.
Death threats from opposing fans, who brought nooses to stadiums in Austin and College Station and elsewhere, and an endless barrage of racial epithets were as much a part of LeVias’ football career as touchdowns.
He endured with an amazing grace, lashing out only once, when a TCU player tackled him, spat in his face and said, “Go home, n _ _ _ _ _.”
LeVias has told this story before. Time has not erased the pain, nor embarrassment.
Reliving the incident, which took place a few days before Smith and Carlos raised Black Power fists at the Mexico City Olympics, takes LeVias back to his mindset, not that of the TCU linebacker.
When LeVias left the field, he “lost it,” threw his helmet to the ground and told Fry that he quit. Of course, Fry didn’t accept his best player’s resignation and encouraged LeVias to go back onto the field a few minutes later to return a punt.
LeVias was so angry that he first ran onto the field without his helmet. He returned that punt 89 yards for a touchdown.
But he didn’t celebrate the score.
“I did it out of hate,” LeVias said. “I ran out of hate. Not for the love of the game; pure hate. I dared anyone to touch me.
“If I had had a gun … I didn’t like that feeling. It hurts you more than it hurts them.”
One of the reasons LeVias was so cool despite the mistreatment was advice he received from King in a private meeting arranged by SMU president Willis Tate in 1966.
King told LeVias, then a freshman, to always control his emotions.
Later that day, the civil rights leader’s speech included a call to action that resonates to this day.
“There is a need for all people of goodwill in this nation to become involved participants,” King said. “For all too long, we have had silent onlookers.”
Fifty years later, perhaps that message has been received.
That you would never (insert racist act here) isn’t good enough anymore.
“Good people” did nothing when others were enslaved.
“Good people” have enjoyed life in the “other America” King described. They have made homes in neighborhoods where blacks were not allowed to live, sent their children to schools that blacks couldn’t attend and looked the other way when police killed unarmed blacks with impunity.
“Good people” sat in the stands and cheered for teams on which black athletes were not allowed to play.
“Good people” watched LeVias be abused because of the color of his skin.
To some, those were the good ol’ days. You know, before sports became all about race.
We have come very far, thankfully, and we will never go back.
If sports organizations live up to their promises of recent weeks, tomorrow’s sporting days will be even better.
“I am hopeful, because I’m a child of God and I know from which we’ve come,” LeVias said.
Amen.