‘We got to tell our story’: The IU 10’s fight for racial justice in ’60s Indiana
There’s a perfectly snapped photo from the next quarter for the 1968 Rose Bowl that presents two Indiana defenders colliding into the history as O.J. Simpson squeezes past them for the second of his two touchdowns in a 14-3 USC success.
Among the Hoosiers is Ebony, one other White, an image that is fitting a school that produced the first African US player drafted into the NFL – George Taliaferro in 1949.
Unbefitting of this program and maybe unknown during the time, there was growing anger and resentment on campus that will stop the Hoosiers from returning to Pasadena under mentor John Pont – this system tripped up by racial unrest that resulted in a 10-player walkout, perhaps not unlike those seen this year across the united states. Towards the IU 10, whilst the boycotting players had become known, 2020 has some noteworthy similarities next to 1969.
In 1969, the Vietnam that is wildly unpopular War the narrative. Now, it is COVID-19 and a human body politic that can be fractured as ever, the floor moving beneath us into the wake for the horrific killing of George Floyd and other individuals of color. A country’s very threatening that is fabric unravel.
Even during the 1969 period, the IU 10 weren’t alone in taking a stand. There have been protests and walkouts by Black football players through the entire national country, including at the University of Wyoming, Michigan State and elsewhere. Those were the days. Protest and dissent had been in the air. The status quo had been imperiled. Business as usual would no further be appropriate to people who got the end that is short of stick. Then as it is currently.
In Bloomington, the actions of this IU 10 left a mark that is indelible the college. The players’ refusal to participate in the last three games ruined an once-hopeful season, the Hoosiers losing all three games and falling far short of returning to the Rose Bowl. More crucial, though, it created an uncomfortable but awareness that is necessary all had not been well and equitable in your community of battle relations – in recreations or elsewhere in the country. It might probably have fallen on deaf ears during the right time, but decades later, particularly 51 years later on, those voices of dissent nevertheless echo in the actions of today’s athletes.
The guys whom took a stand at Indiana paid a price that is significant their life, from personal chaos to lost opportunities to play into the NFL. Sure, there was clearly no Rose Bowl for the Hoosiers that season — in fact, no Indiana group happens to be back in to Pasadena since ’68 — but also for the IU 10, there is no longer football. Not that period, and not once again. Yet they say it would be done by them yet again.
“No regrets, none at all,” said Clarence Price, a senior end that is defensive Indiana in 1969. “I stood up for the inventors on my group. Most of the others suffered the maximum amount of or higher than I did (in the aftermath regarding the walkout), but the way I view it, if my brother is suffering, I’m suffering. Our hearts had been within the place that is right. I’d do it all over again. I would.”
Charles Murphy, a senior tackle that is defensive 1969 and another person in the IU 10, remembers the moment clearly. The Hoosiers had just finished a grueling exercise whenever he approached Pont with a request. He knew Pont did not allow hair that is facial but still, he asked the head coach if he could develop a mustache. Pont sharply declined and Murphy stepped away crestfallen. Not as a result of Pont’s refusal to let him grow a mustache, but because of the comment that is insensitive coach made as he responded: “Why? You want to mask that top lip?”
Another time, Murphy asked a coach that is assistant he wasn’t receiving more playing time.
