June 2020 will go down as the month of college football activism ... and social change
At a time of college football uncertainty because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sport is coming off a remarkable month.
Remember June 2020 as the period when college football, more than any sport, stood up to racism.
The stories didn’t stop. They just moved from campus to campus. Iowa, Texas, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State and Kansas State have been among those in the spotlight since the killing of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25.
Protests continued in many cities and towns, but the activism by college athletes has also taken the shape of specific calls to action.
The athletes, mostly Black but with plenty of support from white teammates and coaches, have used their influence to take visible stands against racial injustice.
If the month had a defining moment, it occurred on June 15, when Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard, the nation’s leading rusher in 2019, took exception to a photo of his coach, Mike Gundy, wearing an OAN (One America News) T-shirt. OAN has belittled the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I will not be doing anything with Oklahoma State until things CHANGE,” Hubbard tweeted.
A day later, Gundy issued a virtual apology and Hubbard called it a “step in the right direction.”
Gundy and all coaches who have openly supported their players stand on the right side of historical change. Also, there’s no choice if they want to continue to hold jobs worth millions annually. Try recruiting top talent to your program by staying silent.
Currently, Kansas State sits at the center of attention. Football players said they won’t participate in any team activities until the school creates a policy that will allow a student to be expelled for displaying “openly racist, threatening or disrespectful actions” toward fellow students.
The forceful statement is a reaction to a tweet posted by a student last week that said, “Congratulations to George Floyd on being drug free for an entire month.”
Mississippi State running back Kylin Hill said he would leave the program if Mississippi didn’t remove a Confederate emblem from its state flag. Later, Bulldogs coach Mike Leach and Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin joined dozens of coaches and administrators from eight public universities in the state in asking the state legislature to change the flag.
Last Sunday, a bill to change the flag passed in the Mississippi House and Senate.
University of Iowa football players took to social media to allege racial bias against the school’s 21-year strength coach, who later stepped down from his position.
In a letter posted on social media, University of Texas football players said they would no longer participate in recruiting or donor-related events unless some buildings on campus were renamed and the traditional “Eyes of Texas” song was dropped because of its racist overtones.
Athletes are realizing their power as change agents. They recently won the right to monetize their name, image and likeness, and have turned their attention to social issues.
College football has been here before. Racial tensions were raised at Missouri in 2015, and a Tigers game — scheduled for Arrowhead Stadium — was threatened by a boycott until Missouri system president Tim Wolfe and chancellor R. Bowen Loftin resigned.
Five years later, Mizzou football players engaged in another type of movement: Joined by coaches and school administrators, they marched from campus to the Boone County Courthouse, where 62 players present registered to vote.
In 2015, Oklahoma football players walked out of a spring practice to protest a video that had posted of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members chanting racist insults. The frat was closed the school severed ties with the organization.
In 1970, Black players at Syracuse announced they were boycotting the season’s home opener against Kansas because of discriminatory policies practiced by coach Ben Schwartzwalder. Instead, the players were dismissed from the program and became known as the “Syracuse 8.” Those players were honored by the university during halftime of a 2006 game.
For today’s college football players, there is no waiting for judgment. Even the NCAA threw its support behind the activism in a June 12 statement:
“We encourage students to continue to make their voices heard on these important issues, engage in community activism and exercise their Constitutional rights.”