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The Transformation of BYU Football: How does a Religious University Repent of Racism?

The Transformation of BYU Football: How does a Religious University Repent of Racism?

Last updated on: September 29, 2022 at 4:56 am by Margaret Blair Young

The Transformation of BYU Football: How does a Religious University Repent of Racism? 2022-09-29T04:56:09-07:00 Margaret Blair Young

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I remember the events of 1969 well. I have written about them here.

1969 was a year of initiation for me. At age fourteen, I encountered racism from my seminary (religious classes for Latter-day Saint youth) teacher and consequently dropped out of seminary–after talking with him about it directly and being directly and publicly rebuked. I remember hearing false prophecies spouted about masses of armed black men who would come into Salt Lake City, invade the LDS temple, and rape the women. This was the “fake news” of 1969, and it didn’t take long for me to recognize it as fake. But the church I belonged to and its official university, BYU (which employed my dad), had recently declared that “From the beginning of this dispensation, Joseph Smith and all succeeding presidents of the Church have taught that Negroes, while spirit children of a common Father, and the progeny of our earthly parents Adam and Eve, were not yet to receive the priesthood, for reasons which we believe are known to God, but which He has not made fully known to man.”

I was part of research which eventually showed that Joseph Smith did not originate the ban and that the origins were more nuanced and culturally-based than we had understood. In 2013, the LDS church stated in an essay on race and priesthood,

“Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects unrighteous actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.”

In that same year (1969), fourteen black men at the University of Wyoming were summarily dismissed after asking to wear black armbands in protest of BYU during a game. After a lot of research, my co-author, Darius Gray, and I described the dismissal of the fourteen in the third book of our Standing on the Promises series. (The LDS Church had sent Darius, a black Latter-day Saint, to talk with the Fourteen at Wyoming University, so he had strong memories of the event and the players.)

From our book, The Last Mile of the Way:

It started on October 15, 1969, when Willie Black, a graduate student and head of Wyoming’s Black Student Alliance, brought a letter to the administrators. That letter spoke to the race issue, the Mormons, and the priesthood restriction. It suggested that Wyo- ming’s players and students protest BYU during a game scheduled for three days later.

The day before the game, the team walked to the athletic complex wearing black armbands. This, they had decided, would be their sign of protest.

Wyoming’s head football coach didn’t care for the idea. In fact, he ordered them to the bleachers, where he said far more than “no” to their suggested protest. He swore he’d dismiss any team member wearing armbands at the BYU game. He called them rabble-rousers who should no longer get taxpayers’ support but go back on “Negro relief.” That coach said some ugly things, which revealed much more about him than about them. If those players hadn’t come to Wyoming, he declared, they’d certainly be hustling on the streets.

When one of the athletes tried to ask a question, the coach told him to shut up and kept repeating “shut up” when anyone inter- rupted. He vowed that every person who protested the game would be sliced off the team, and it would be a permanent cut.

Fourteen players—the best ones, the key to their team’s success— decided it was time to stand up for something besides football. Those fourteen refused to comply or to bow. They said the only way they would play would be with the armbands.

Without so much as a blink, the coach revoked the scholarships of the “Wyoming Fourteen” and stripped them from the team.

Probably few of those fourteen players realized how notorious they would soon become. Some folks would show support for the coach by holding up a confederate flag at the BYU game—as if such was a fit tribute. Most would find ways to show support for the Fourteen. Didn’t take long at all for Wyoming to be threatened with a mess of boycotts. Those strong football players appeared to be lambs on the altar of justice. Even national news shows paid them some attention. They were front page, headline material, but the backdrop was the Mormon Church and its priesthood policy.

One of the most attractive doctrines of my religion is its belief in eternal evolution. We may perpetually become better and different, and there are no limits to our progress.

Darius and I attended the University of Wyoming tribute to the Black Fourteen in 2019, the fiftieth anniversary. The “priesthood restriction” had been reversed in 1978, and the seminary and Institute students of the LDS Church were making black armbands in recognition of the bravery and of the unjustice meted to the Fourteen.

Clearly, some evolution had happened. Darius looked at the ballroom where he had addressed the crowds and marveled at the changes.

Now, in a time where the events I witnessed in 1969 have uncannily resurfaced and conspiracy theories (many with racist presumptions) have returned, the LDS church’s behind-the-scenes work with the Black Fourteen is miraculous to me. With the help of Gifford Nielson, himself a former BYU quarterback, and with several of the Fourteen, the LDS Church has started a charitable organization to directly address poverty. The surviving Fourteen were asked to identify needs for food in their communities, and truckloads of canned goods were sent to the identified areas. The documentary I saw last night at BYU’s Varsity Theater showed the specifics of the effort–which will continue in perpetuity and be augmented. Today, September 24, 2022, the Fourteen will be honored at the football game between the University of Wyoming and BYU.

Mel and Carey Hamilton were present at the documentary screening, as was John Griffin and his family, and we saw footage of other members of the Fourteen who were working with the LDS church AND with their own congregations to get food to the poor. A glimpse of the beginning of this charitable program is here.

Mr. Griffin alluded to even greater plans ahead.

For me, as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this philanthropy is a sign of what I most love about my religion. We did badly in 1969–and the University of Wyoming also did badly. But repentance, metanoia, CHANGE, is always possible for institutions and for individuals.

As it happened, my husband and I were in the choir which sang during LDS General Conference in 2019, when the Church hosted Mel and Carey Hamilton. Mel came to greet us as we left the stage and gave us big hugs. We could not have known that after Conference, Mel and Carey would meet my classmate Gifford Nielson, himself a rather famous football player, and the conversation would begin about how the church could do something significant with the Black Fourteen.

Some in my religion have left it because of the “race and priesthood” issue. Others are determined that an official apology is due from the church. I am firmly in the church and far prefer repentance which undoes mistakes by infusing love and service into lingering wounds. As an individual who has made mistakes, I declare that the person I am now is not the person I was in my younger days. As a Latter-day Saint, I choose not to pay much attention to the ever-growing pile of complaints about the church’s past. I know enough to understand that all church leaders are flawed and bring their own world views into their callings. As we grow, our perspective must change. It must become godly, viewing every creature as holy. Any belief which has justified denigrating others must be completely transformed by love and service. We are tasked with finding sacred ground where we can meet and fully see one another.

We all have a long ways to go to reach that sacred ground, and those of us who have received prejudicial teachings must undo them even as we walk forward. So much of life is shedding any encumbrance which keeps us static.

BYU had encumbrances in 1969, and still has many in race issues. It is still overwhelmingly white. Mel Hamilton challenged BYU students yesterday to live their religion. “My students see you as privileged, elitist,” Mel said. “I don’t see you that way, but they do. So I want you–each of you–to find one poor child and help them. Mentor them. Change the way you’re perceived.” (Paraphrased)

I find that direction inspired.

I also love these words of Gifford Nielson from General Conference 2021.

Our Heavenly Father wants us to love ourselves—not to become prideful or self-centered, but to see ourselves as He sees us: we are His cherished children. When this truth sinks deep into our hearts, our love for God grows. When we view ourselves with sincere respect, our hearts are open to treat others that way too. The more we recognize our divine worth, the better we understand this divine truth: that God has sent us right here, right now, at this momentous time in history, so that we can do the greatest possible good with the talents and gifts we have. This is our time!

I frankly don’t care who wins the football game today, but I am thrilled that the Fourteen will be honored at Brigham Young University.

A conversation between Mel and Carey Hamilton and Darius Gray with Margaret Young can be found here.

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