While most Syracuse football fans were surely aware the Carrier Dome celebrated its 25th anniversary last weekend, a more important SU athletic anniversary regrettably passed almost completely unnoticed.

Mere yards from the pregame activities on the Quad on Saturday, six of the nine black SU football players who boycotted the 1970 season under racial protest held a forum at Shemin Auditorium in the Shaffer Art Building.

Syracuse University should be ashamed 35 years passed before inviting the players back to discuss their heroic struggle. While the forum was a start in raising awareness – it was part of ‘Coming Back Together 8,’ a weekend-long event honoring black and Latino graduates of SU – more needs to be done to ensure their effort is never forgotten.

It appeared nearly everyone in the auditorium were family members, friends or former players who knew about the boycott. But it’s the current locals, students, faculty and, not to be overlooked, the athletes themselves who most need to learn their story.

Fortunately, SU Director of Athletics Daryl Gross plans to use his public relations machine to educate people on a larger scale. Recognition by the athletic department is the only way for the players to receive the level of acknowledgement they deserve.

Gross had a chance this weekend. Perhaps the Syracuse-Virginia football game could have been dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the boycott instead of the 25th anniversary of the Carrier Dome. The six players who attended Saturday’s event hail from across the country. It will be difficult to find another weekend where at least the same number can come again.

When nobody from the athletic department introduced the players or was even present at the forum, I contacted SU Athletics media relations immediately, asking to talk to Gross. He responded to me via e-mail shortly after the game ended, ensuring me he is planning a grand appreciation day.

‘The forum was (Saturday) before the game, which did not allow me to be there,’ Gross wrote. ‘(Former SU wide receiver and NFL star) Art Monk, who was at the forum this morning, wished it could have been (Friday) when there was no conflict with the game. (Then) I would have been able to participate fully.

‘Monk sat in the press box with me during the game, and we had a great exchange regarding the boycott and we plan to recognize it big-time. We have a lot of ideas how we are going to recognize this particular history, so stay tuned.’

Yes, I will stay tuned. I’m a sophomore and I want to see the athletic department recognize the players on a large scale before I graduate. Please, don’t let many more years pass. Their struggle was too important.

It began in the spring of 1969 when nine players, including the six present Saturday – Greg Allen, John Lobon, Clarence ‘Bucky’ McGill, Alif Muhammad, Duane Walker and Ronald Womack – submitted a series of requests to head coach Ben Schwartzwalder. Along with their primary wish that Schwartzwalder hire a black assistant coach, they also wanted merit-based playing time, equal medical treatment and stronger academic support.

When their requests went unfulfilled for a year, the players boycotted spring practice in 1970 and promised not to return until a black assistant was hired. Under pressure from Chancellor John E. Corbally, Schwartzwalder did hire a black assistant in the summer.

The black players returned to practice for only one day, though. Schwartzwalder suspended them for skipping spring practice. In order for the players to return, the university ordered them to sign a statement justifying their suspension by Schwartzwalder.

The players didn’t yield to that ludicrous demand and sat out the season, sacrificing their football careers for their cause.

They felt vindicated on Sept. 21, 1970, 35 years ago tomorrow, when an independent committee commissioned by Corbally to study their accusations concluded their accusations were true. But suspect language in the report demonstrates SU wasn’t ready to accept full responsibility.

‘Racism in the Syracuse University Athletic Department is real, chronic, largely unintentional and sustained and complicated unwittingly by many modes of behavior common in American athletes and long-standing at Syracuse University,’ the report said.

Phrases such as ‘largely unintentional’ and ‘complicated unwittingly’ are excuses. But at least the committee agreed with the players. Corbally eventually lost his job because he supported the document. Schwartzwalder, who led SU to its only national title in 1959, was that powerful.

It may be surprising to learn racial discrimination was an issue at a university that prides itself on its progressive nature. And it was not only a problem in 1970, but years before when the likes of Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Floyd Little, Jim Nance, John Mackey and many other black athletes in all sports were treated poorly at SU.

It’s not just a condemnation against Syracuse University, but the entire country. Discrimination against blacks was prevalent across the nation in that era, and while race relations have improved in today’s age, there is still a long way to go, including at SU.

Incredible as it sounds, it appears the boycott wasn’t even major news on campus.

Larry Elin, who was a sophomore at SU in 1970 and is currently a professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, attended the forum because he didn’t remember much about the boycott.

‘Nobody really knew what the issues were,’ Elin said. ‘Nobody knew how to behave. White kids didn’t know how to react. We didn’t know what side to take.’

Elin said white students were primarily concerned with protesting the Vietnam War. He attributed his lack of knowledge about the boycott to an age without advanced media like the Internet. What would seem like the best on-campus source of information – The Daily Orange – was operated by the university, which was partially in denial on the issue until 1971.

So if the majority of people at SU didn’t know about the boycott at the time, then most people today certainly don’t have a clue. It’s up to Gross and the athletic department to honor the players and tell the story of their courageous effort on a much grander scale.

With most of the players in town, an opportunity was missed last weekend. I commend Gross, in only nine months on the job, for realizing a large tribute is long overdue and for planning to do something about it. I’ll stay tuned, and I hope all of you will, too.

Ethan Ramsey is an Asst. Sports Editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Tuesday. E-mail him at egramsey@gmail.com

Published on September 18, 2005 at 12:00 pm