Razing of statue not point for McElroy
COLLEGE STATION — Hugh McElroy, the first black player to start a football game for Texas A&M in 1970, is proud of his family’s rich military history. His grandfather, Hugh George McElroy, was highly decorated and fought in the Spanish-American War and World War I.
“My people fought in wars and fought for people to have rights and certain freedoms,” McElroy said. “My people fought for rights they knew they couldn’t enjoy.”
The right to attend A&M, for instance.
“I’m the first person in my family to go to A&M,” said McElroy, who enrolled at the university in 1967. “But then I’m the first person in my family who could go to A&M.”
A&M, once an all-male military institute, began allowing African Americans and women to attend in 1964, a mere three years before McElroy enrolled. In the past week, an on-campus statue of Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross, considered by many an Aggie hero, has been vandalized, and an on-campus protest was held over the weekend calling for the statue to be removed, in part (but not solely) based on Ross’ allegiance to the Confederacy during the Civil War of 1861-65.
Another side showed up to the protest, too, in support of A&M’s keeping the statue of Ross, a Confederate general and former A&M president who did plenty for the school in the late 1800s. That strident group caught the eye of Aggies senior quarterback Kellen Mond.
“If one side is protesting racism, the other side is counterprotesting racism,” Mond posted to Twitter. “Prairie View A&M was created to obtain federal funds from the second Morrill Act (1890). Instead of integrating the TAMU campus, PVAMU was created. (Ross) killed and disenfranchised blacks.”
Alex Caruso, a Los Angeles Laker and former A&M player, also checked in via social media concerning the combative chatter around the Ross statue after a KBTX-TV posting of a video
showing the side in support of keeping the statue singing “The Spirit of Aggieland” in trying to drown out the statue’s detractors.
One sign from the side in support of the statue also read, “AGGIE TRADITIONS MATTER,” a dreadful takeoff of Black Lives Matter.
“The aggies, the aggies are we …” Caruso posted, reciting the song’s most memorable lyrics.
He added: “You sure aren’t being very inclusive … sit yall’s ass down somewhere and just listen … the people across from you are AGGIES trying to be heard. It’s embarrassing.”
Former A&M defensive tackle Daylon Mack, now with the Baltimore Ravens, also chimed in via Twitter: “Disappointing to see counter protests against racism … especially from a place I attended and called home. Embarrassing. We have to do better.”
McElroy, 70 and retired from a widely respected career at A&M spanning multiple fields, vows the university can do better by following through with a statue on campus of former slave Matthew Gaines, Washington County’s first black state senator and a proponent of a bill that led to the founding
of A&M.
A&M chancellor John Sharp this week pledged $100,000 toward a Gaines statue, estimated to cost $350,000. McElroy said a statue of Gaines is a step in the right direction.
“I love Texas A&M, and people need to understand how much I love the university, but that doesn’t mean the university is perfect,” said McElroy, a receiver who made a gamewinning touchdown catch at LSU 50 years ago this fall. “It’s kind of like your kids. Sometimes you spank your kids, not because you don’t love them but because you expect more of them. (It’s) tough love.
“Erecting a statue of Matthew Gaines, to me, is more important that pulling down a statue of Sully.”
McElroy, a graduate of Worthing High, added that he’s been “drained” by the nationwide strife following the death of fellow Houstonian George Floyd under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek
Chauvin on May 25.
“I don’t know what justifies putting your full weight on somebody’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds in a very cavalier manner,” McElroy said.
One of the solutions moving forward, he added, is everyday people expanding their social circle to include those of other races and ideals.
“What I really hate is people not having someone in their life who does not look like them, someone they can reach out to and have a conversation,” McElroy said. “We’ve gotten so far off into our individual silos, and our immediate circle probably thinks and feels the same way we do.
“That’s a problem. Somebody has got to open their hands so somebody else can put something in them. Understanding that when you open your hands, some of what you have is going to leave, too.”