The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Bolden blazed trail before sad ending
Harvey standout shed 1930s society’s worst tendencies to make history
Even while being praised, Lentie Bolden couldn’t elude the insensitivity of 1930s America. Then a junior at Harvey, Bolden was being honored as a 1936 first-team all-Lake Shore League left tackle.
The Painesville Telegraph listed notes for each firstteamer. For Bolden: • Junior at Painesville • 190 pounds • Played in backfield last year
• Outstanding on offense and defense • He is a fine student • Admired and well-liked by his teammates • Is a Negro As reprehensible and vile as such phrasing is regarded today, it also provides needed context to the struggle Bolden faced.
Society labeled Bolden not primarily by athletic prowess, but by skin color. Perhaps the silver lining to such cruelty, though, is it allows a window for a forgotten trailblazer at Harvey and in area high school football to get his due.
Retrospect shows he deserved that much — and delving deeper indicates he deserved a better ending.
Growing up
Corinthus Lentie Bolden was born in 1919 in Savannah, Georgia, and moved with his family to Painesville in 1928.
“Lentie is strong and husky and one of the most powerful of the players when he breaks into action.” Painesville Telegraph on Sept. 10, 1935, describing Lentie Bolden
According to the 1930 United States Census, Bolden lived in a house rented for $30 a month on the city’s long-gone East Eagle Street. There were seven other residents of the home in addition to 10-year-old Lentie: His father John Sr., a foundry chipper, mother Minnie, three siblings and two boarders.
Painesville was a town of less than 11,000 in 1930 and was not yet the celebrated beacon of diversity it later became when Bolden was a freshman in the fall of 1934.
The district — which put freshmen in the junior high because of “crowded conditions” — averaged nearly 600 students in grades 1012 from 1934 to 1937. An average of eight per year were African-American.
Through extensive research of editions of the Anvil, the Harvey yearbook, and Telegraph accounts, it appears Bolden was the second African-American varsity football player since Harvey opened in 1922.
He was preceded by Lorenzo Gordon, a 1929 graduate who played three years for the Red Raiders in the backfield. Gordon, nicknamed “Ghost” for his sharp open-field runs, enjoyed moderate success before going on to play in college at Wilberforce.
When Gordon broke long gains, he was not once identified by the Telegraph for anything but on-field actions. Bolden was regularly.
Early grid career
Bolden started mostly at right tackle on Harvey’s unbeaten 1934 freshmensophomore squad. He received one mention for a standout play in the Telegraph that season after a shutout of Mentor:
“Lentie Bolden, colored freshman halfback, blocked a punt on the Mentor 35yard line to pave the way for (Johnny) Lengyel’s final run.”
As the Red Raiders entered 1935, Bolden’s sophomore year, it was decided he would move to fullback.
“One youth who is expected to get into the regular backfield position at fullback, if he continues to show well and work hard, is Lentie Bolden, the team’s only colored boy,” the Telegraph wrote in a cringeworthy account Sept. 10, 1935. “Lentie is strong and husky and one of the most powerful of the players when he breaks into action.”
Harvey went 7-4 with two late-season losses to Fairport in the teams’ LSL and Thanksgiving Day games.
Bolden battled all fall with Laslo Kuhn to be the team’s starting fullback.
His season low point was a four-fumble afternoon in a Week 4 loss to Niles. The high point came the next week in a 24-0 rout of Geneva, when Bolden scored the first and only two touchdowns of his career.
The Telegraph chronicled Bolden’s year — and the wording was abhorrent.
• After a Week 1 win at Erie Tech (Pa.): “Lentie Bolden, husky Negro member of the team, ripped off nice gains through the line.”
• After a Week 2 loss to Lorain: “Lentie Bolden, Painesville’s husky Negro fullback, plunged through the line consistently for gains.”
• After Kuhn subbed in for Bolden during that Geneva win: “Laslo Kuhn went to fullback for a fine-playing colored youth, Bolden.”
• And after the season: “Bolden has two more years of play ahead and should develop into another star fullback. Until a few weeks ago, when Kuhn regained his old stride, Bolden threatened to drive him to the bench. The battle between the two youths for a starting berth has been waged all season, and the husky Negro boy is still a threat to Kuhn’s job.”
Through the unforgiving and ugly lens of retrospect, it was noteworthy Bolden was the only Harvey player of the era to have his ethnicity mentioned in reporting.
Breakout campaign
In the fall of 1936, Harvey had a new coach with quite a background. Paul Moss was a two-time All-American end at Purdue, a unanimous selection as a senior in 1932. Moss shifted Bolden from the backfield and returned him to left tackle.
“Lentie Bolden, former backfield man and letterman, is tops as a tackle,” the Telegraph wrote before Harvey’s opener against Madison. “The husky Negro youth is an outstanding lineman and promises to make things tough for opposing 11s this fall.”
Bolden had bulked up to 190 pounds by the start of the season for his new role and changed to No. 76 from the No. 45 he wore as a fullback. The Telegraph reported part of the rationale for Bolden’s move was “defective eyesight.” Given what was to come, that wording is unfortunate.
Harvey went 6-2-3 that season, sharing the LSL title with Fairport. Bolden played the final game of his junior year against his neighbors to the north, a 0-0 tie on Thanksgiving.
Bolden took the aforementioned all-LSL honor and the knowledge a bright senior year could be had out of that successful team year.
Then it all changed.
Life-changing event
Approaching midnight on July 23, 1937, a 17-year-old from Fairport Harbor was reported to have taken a car without consent from a garage on New Street in Fairport Harbor and embarked on a joyride, according to a report in the Painesville Telegraph, citing a police report.
A sheriff’s deputy spotted the car weaving in and out of traffic and began his pursuit to cite the 17-yearold for reckless driving. He sped down Mentor Avenue at speeds the deputy estimated approached 65 mph.
Around 11:40 p.m., Bolden was a passenger in a car driven by 30-year-old Clarence Anderson, who lived with the Boldens on Mathews Street in Painesville, going westbound.
The 17-year-old veered over the center line around a railroad bridge and struck Anderson’s car head on.
Anderson, Bolden and the 17-year-old were rushed to Lake County Memorial Hospital. Anderson was killed.
Bolden was in critical condition with a concussion, facial and neck lacerations and a devastating right eye injury.
“Bolden is held by his physician to be almost certain of losing sight of his right eye,” the Telegraph wrote.
“The young man, a member of Harvey High School’s championship football team for two years, was named an all-Lake Shore League tackle last year. He was expected to play a prominent role on the squad this coming season.”
Not only did Bolden not return to the team — he didn’t return to Harvey for his senior year.
According to the 1940 U.S. Census, Bolden hadn’t finished school and had since moved in with August and Millie Spaller and was listed as the Spallers’ son.
Bolden was said to be a soil erosion laborer for “public emergency” work.
He later went to work for Nickel Plate Railroad, which had a depot in Painesville, and moved back in with his mother Minnie in a home on Stevens Boulevard in Willoughby.
Bolden died April 5, 1951 after a “brief illness,” the Telegraph reported at the time. He was 32.
His mother died in 1950, and his lone surviving relative was younger sister Rachel, who died in 1976.
Bolden’s resting place is Division 28 in the northeastern corner of Evergreen Cemetery in Painesville.
Lot 123, Grave 726B sits unmarked and forgotten in the middle of the division.
In two consecutive points in that 1936 all-LSL football review, the Telegraph showed the best and the worst of what Bolden faced in his day — admired and well-liked, but judged in part by his skin color.
But by being subjected to that, Bolden can be discovered and be judged by much more, with his place as a trailblazer and standout for his school and community secure for all time.