Cowboys to honor duo that broke color barrier
Breaking the OSU baseball color barrier was not monumental to Freddie Moulder in 1965.
“It was kind of natural or common, really,” Moulder said. “As far as being the first and everything, it wasn’t that big deal to me. I was first on a lot of things.”
Blacks hadn’t played Little League baseball in Guthrie until Moulder. Blacks hadn’t made all-state in both basketball and baseball until Moulder. Blacks hadn’t played baseball at OSU until Moulder and Don Kuykendall in 1965.
But they broke the barrier, and both will be honored May 15, before the OSUBaylor game at O’Brate Stadium.
Kuykendall changed his name to Donkor Khalid and now lives in Oklahoma City, after retiring from a career in education. He was a three-year standout for the Cowboys, playing on their 1966 and 1967 Big Eight championship teams. The ‘66 team made the College World Series championship game. Both Moulder and Khalid said they were treated well during their OSU days. Moulder said it was much worse later, in his minor-league baseball days.
“We might have had problems, but there wasn't anything you could do about it,” Moulder said. “Someone called you a name, you said, ‘OK, see how far I can hit that ball.'”
Both Moulder and Khalid hit it far in their OSU debuts.
Moulder said long-time Cowboy baseball coach Toby Greene had made it clear he was uninterested in integrating his program. But Greene was retiring, and when legendary basketball coach Henry Iba recruited Moulder out of Guthrie, Iba promised Moulder he could play both sports.
Meanwhile, Khalid was recruited out of Anadarko by OSU assistant athletic director Moose Johnson. And when Chet Bryan of Norman High School was hired to replace Greene, the stage was set for OSU baseball to integrate.
Khalid and Moulder had met in high school and have been friends for almost 60 years. Their bond was sealed when the 1965 Cowboys opened at the University of Houston.
“Freddie and I, our first time at-bat, we hit home runs,” Khalid said. “We opened up our college career hitting home runs.”
The racism they experienced in Stillwater was not overt.
“I'm from Anadarko,” Khalid said. “I played football, baseball and basketball. Had a lot of experiences (in high school) to maybe go into eat, and they wouldn't serve us. Had to stay in different facilities. But didn't experience any of that in college.”
Khalid does wonder if he was omitted from the 1966 all-Big Eight team because of race.
He was the leading hitter on a team that made the national finals.
“Left me kind of a question mark,” Khalid said. “Could it have been racially motivated or what?”
Moulder figures he experienced less racism in Stillwater than at most other points in his life — Guthrie, minor league baseball, working in Oklahoma.
“I grew up in Guthrie, where I had to sit in the crow's nest to go to the movie, had to eat in the kitchen, had to wash in the Black bathroom and drink at the Black fountains,” Moulder said.
After professional baseball, when Moulder was a salesman for LeeWay Freight and called on towns in southern Oklahoma, “I made sure I got out of town before dark,” Moulder said.
But sports had given Moulder an outlet. Growing up in Guthrie, Moulder worked at basketball. Practiced a lot. Baseball came natural.
"That's all I ever did," Moulder said. "I had two big brothers. So I started playing baseball, against grownups really, when I was 11-12 years old. Back in the day, everybody played baseball. If you were little and you had big brothers, you could play. But you'd get roughed up a little."
Moulder is one of the best all-around athletes in OSU history. In 1965, he led OSU in home runs (seven) and runs batted in (20) in a 32-game season. He also was the sixth man on Iba's only Big Eight basketball championship team, in 1965.
“There's no way we could have done it without Freddie,” said Gene Johnson, Iba's center on that team. “He always provided a spark off the bench, and truth be known, he was probably one of the two best players on our team, including James King.”
Moulder left OSU in summer 1965 when he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Moulder made the New York-Penn League all-star team in 1966 with the Jamestown Dodgers. That all-star team included Amos Otis, Cito Gaston, Jerry Grote and Jerry Koosman, future majorleague notables all.
Moulder was a shortstop who thought he had a chance to succeed Maury Wills in Los Angeles. But in 1967 with Albuquerque of the Texas League, where the manager was Duke Snider. Moulder started off 1-for-20. “Never struck out, but everything I hit went to somebody,” Moulder said.
Moulder was demoted to Kennewick, Washington, of the Northwest League, and thus began an odyssey. Rocky Mount, North Carolina, of the Carolina League, where Moulder had difficulty even finding a place to stay. Toledo and Louisville of the International League. San Antonio of the Texas League, where Moulder played all nine positions in a single game.
The Milwaukee Brewers talked to Moulder about coaching on the minorleague level. But he decided to come home.
Moulder entered the business world — for years, he worked for fellow baseball alum Dale Mitchell in the banking business, even became the first AfricanAmerican officer for First National Bank downtown.
Khalid was an Oklahoma City Public Schools counselor and eventually worked for the State Department of Education.
Now, almost 60 years into their friendship, and 56 after each homered down in Houston, they are the guests of honor next week at O'Brate Stadium.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.