In decades past, sports were outlet
As I’ve been glued to the television, houstonchronicle.com and the internet, what I’ve witnessed took me back to 1968 when I was a sophomore in high school.
That tumultuous year of anarchy ignited a three-year period of rebellion, starting with Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis and ending with the 1970 massacre at Kent State, where national guardsmen opened fire on a group of student protesters. Four were killed and nine wounded, prompting Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to record “Ohio,” written by group member Neil Young and one of the most haunting protest anthems ever.
It seemed like every day there was a protest somewhere in our country that ended up with riots that included police and national guardsmen beating and shooting protesters of all races. The Vietnam War,
the Civil Rights movement, the Cold War and gender equality erupted in protests across our nation.
Back then, there was no social media with live recordings going viral, no president inflaming confrontations on Twitter, nor any celebrities or politicians providing instant analysis.
We depended on network television, newspapers, magazines and radio stations to bring us the news. Media reported from the front lines, with many reporters getting beaten, shot and arrested, as they did this past weekend in the fallout from the death of Houston native George Floyd, who apparently was choked to death by a policeman in Minnesota in an incident captured on video.
As a 15-year-old high
school sophomore, I was young, naïve and impressionable. Fifty-two years later, I’m just sick at what I’ve seen and heard and at how so little progress has been made in race relations when it comes to many members of law enforcement — not all, of course — and their treatment of African-Americans. The social injustice continues to be reprehensible.
Since Colin Kaepernick took a knee for the first time, I’ve been amazed that no matter how many times it’s been explained why he did it — to protest social injustice like the police brutality of AfricanAmericans — so many refuse to believe it or even try to understand it.
During my years in high school in Waco, I could step away from the reality of the world and focus on sports because the games always would go on. Now I can’t turn to the world of sports, because the games
aren’t going on. The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to shut down our major sports.
In 1968, I remember Major League Baseball delaying the start of the season for two days after King was shot to death in Memphis by James Earl Ray, a white supremacist. After the season began, Detroit pitcher Denny McLain won 31 games, and the Tigers beat St. Louis in the World Series.
Earlier in 1968, Vince Lombardi coached his last game with Green Bay, and the Packers pounded Oakland in Super Bowl II in January. One year later, Joe Namath engineered one of the biggest upsets in football history in the Jets’ victory over Baltimore in Super Bowl III.
USC won the 1968 national championship, and O.J. Simpson won the Heisman Trophy. American tennis star Arthur Ashe became the first and only African-American to
win the U.S. Open. Led by Lew Alcindor, who would become Kareem AbdulJabbar, scoring 34 points, UCLA won another national basketball championship with a victory over North Carolina.
King’s death sparked riots across the country. Thirty-nine were killed, with more than 2,600 injured and more than 21,000 arrested.
At the Democratic National Convention, police and national guardsmen beat and tear-gassed hundreds who were protesting the Vietnam War. Protesters, bystanders and members of the media were beaten.
Muhammad Ali was stripped of his heavyweight boxing title for refusing to be drafted. Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Los Angeles during his presidential campaign.
The My Lai massacre in which American soldiers killed innocent South
Vietnamese civilians — more than 500 children, women and old men — was covered up until 1969, when it was disclosed by the media.
But no matter what ugliness happened in America and to Americans — the constant clashes between police, the national guard and protesters — we could count on sports for a muchneeded outlet.
In Houston, the Astros provided comic relief with their 72-90 record. The Oilers were a mediocre 7-7. The Rockets? There were no Rockets in Houston in 1968. They were still the San Diego Rockets.
I believe one of the most powerful and enduring images in the history of sports photojournalism came during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos, United States gold and bronze medal winners in the 200-meter dash, stood at the podium during the playing of the national anthem. In what many called a black power salute, they wore human rights badges and raised a fist in the air — wearing black gloves — to protest violence and poverty among African-Americans.
Smith and Carlos were vilified around the world, stripped of their medals by the International Olympic Committee and sent home early.
Decades later, many still don’t understand or refuse to acknowledge what Smith and Carlos were protesting — the same thing African-Americans are protesting today. And it’s not going away any time soon, including when sports return and so many professional athletes will continue to have strong opinions about what they believe.