Starting in 1968 and again in 1969, Black football players at Syracuse University expressed concerns about racial discrimination within the football program. They cited instances of unfair treatment, ranging from differences in disciplinary action for Black and white teammates to the coaching staff’s intolerance of Black student-athletes’ civil rights activism elsewhere on campus. The student-athletes also repeatedly requested that head football coach Ben Schwartzwalder hire a Black assistant coach, whom they hoped could advocate for them to the coaching staff and ensure they would be treated equally and with respect. Schwartzwalder promised to hire a Black coach in March 1969, and the Black student-athletes played that fall season with the understanding that this would happen, but the head football coach failed to follow through. In the spring of 1970, he arranged for Syracuse football great Floyd Little ‘67 to visit spring practice under the pretense of an assistant football coach. The alumnus provided scant support to the Black student-athletes and publicly expressed doubt about their concerns. Little stayed only for a few days, and Schwartzwalder had still not kept his promise to hire a Black assistant coach.
The Student-Athletes
The University Archives holds very few original photographs of the Black student-athletes and their boycott of the football program in 1970. Their activism mainly took the form of their absence from the football team and in their written words to University administration. It is difficult to document in photographs all the private meetings with administrators, coaches, and among the athletes themselves. However, there were student demonstrations in support of the boycott, and members of the Syracuse 8 did appear at student rallies, but the few images of these events primarily appear in the Daily Orange. On the other hand, the University Archives holds many photographs of the May 1970 Student Strike, where (mostly white) students shut down campus in protest of the Kent State shootings and the United States’ invasion of Cambodia. Those images were taken by University staff and even local newspapers. While the Student Strike was a larger occurrence, the lack of photographs of Syracuse 8 protests may speak to institutional racism inherent on campus and beyond at the time.
1969 photograph of [standing left to right] Tom Smith (not part of Syracuse 8), Duane Walker, A. Alif Muhammad, Clarence “Bucky” McGill; [kneeling left to right] John Lobon, Dana “D.J.” Harrell, Greg Allen, John Godbolt. Syracuse 8 Collection, University Archives. Gift of John Lobon.
Photograph of members of the Syracuse 8, [left to right] Clarence “Bucky” McGill, Richard Bulls, Dana “D.J.” Harrell, John Lobon, circa 1970. The Syracuse Football Story, Ken Rappoport (1975). Syracuse University Football Collection, University Archives.
Yearbook photograph of Ron Womack, 1971. Syracuse University Yearbook Collection, University Archives.
Ron Womack was not on the team roster by spring practice in April 1970. In 1968, after he met with Coach Schwartzwalder to ask why he wasn’t getting more playing time than a less talented white teammate who shared his position, coaching staff labeled Womack a “troublemaker”. At the beginning of practice that following spring, he was suddenly declared ineligible to play due to a long-term medical condition that Schwartzwalder knew about when he recruited him and despite the fact that Womack had played the 1968 season with no issues.
Womack’s unfounded ineligibility was deeply concerning for the other Black student-athletes. “I felt this was a blatantly racist act to punish me by excluding me from the team for what I had said,” he told author David Marc in an interview. The situation was especially egregious because Schwartzwalder had recruited Womack with the promise, “I will be like a father to you.”
Womack proved to be a strong supporter of the Syracuse 8, and in 2006 he was recognized as a member when, along with the rest of the group, he was awarded the Chancellor’s Medal for Extraordinary Courage.
Leading to the Boycott
After spring practice begins in April 1970, Black members of the football team sent their grievances in writing to Coach Schwartzwalder. When he didn’t respond, Greg Allen, Richard Bulls, John Godbolt, Robin Griffin (who only boycotted in the spring), Dana “D.J.” Harrell, John Lobon, Clarence “Bucky” McGill, A. Alif Muhammad (then known as Al Newton), and Duane Walker began their boycott of spring football practice. They then sent a letter with their grievances to Chancellor John Corbally. The student-athletes stated they would not return to practice until the University hired a Black coach and addressed racial discrimination in starting assignments, bias in academic support, and substandard medical care for all players. They boycotted knowing that their actions threatened their scholarships as well as potential careers in professional football.
Corbally and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Jim Carleton met with the boycotting players that spring and committed to hiring a Black assistant football coach before fall practice. But because that promise already had been made and broken repeatedly, the student-athletes decided to not return to practice and instead hold their own practice for the time being.
Memorandum from Jim Carleton, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, to Vice Chancellor and Provost Frank Piskor, March 20, 1969. Syracuse University Academic Affairs Melvin A. Eggers Files, University Archives.
Before the summer of 1970, Coach Schwartzwalder agreed – but failed – to hire a Black assistant coach more than once. He would then later imply he was joking or being sarcastic at the time these promises were made.
On the right side of the photograph are several Black team members who boycotted the football program the following spring. In 1967 six of them (Godbolt, Harrell, McGill, Muhammad, Walker and Womack) made up the largest group of Black student-athletes recruited for Syracuse University football at the time.
The Black student-athletes first sent their grievances to Coach Schwartzwalder, though that document does not exist in the University Archives. They then approached the Office of the Chancellor.
