Athletics | 2/24/2021 5:39:00 PM
By
Paul Suellentrop
Lester Foust played football in 1926 for the University of Wichita and his presence attracted attention because of his race.
Like many pioneering Black athletes – including Wichita's own Linwood Sexton and Cleo Littleton – Foust had to carry burdens and expectations his teammates did not.
"It's hard to be a gentleman on the football field," wrote the Wichita Beacon. "There are moments when the primitive instincts of battle overcome the thin veneer of civilization. But those moments felt by most every football star, must never come to Foust. He must endure insults and grin. He realizes the handicaps he works under and just keeps on playing as hard as he can."
Foust and Herbert King, both of whom played football and competed in track and field in 1926-27 for the University of Wichita, are recognized as the school's first Black student-athletes.
Over time, their stories as leaders of Black students and athletes at the university became overshadowed. Faculty member Joe Jabara, a member of the President's Diversity Council, believes it is important to give their journey attention. He has compiled a presentation titled "The Black Student/Athlete at Wichita State: A History and Social Impact Review 1926-1981."
"They're both really cool stories and they endured a lot," Jabara said. "It's a labor of love. I love history, the university and the city and I think it's fascinating, the history of Blacks in Kansas."
Athletics and the university's historic mission as a place for students of all races is intertwined. Nathan Morrison, first president of Fairmount College, Wichita State University's predecessor, wrote that "Fairmount College is for all races, as well as all creeds and both sexes. We must never go back on that principle . . ." In 1928, John Wesley Hayes and Lotta Hayes became the university's first Black graduates.
The university's early openness to minorities and women come from Fairmount College's roots as a Congregationalist church college.
"This is a world of segregation, but for the time Fairmount College is pushing the envelope," said Dr. Jay Price, chair of the department of history. "The Congregationalist are known for being education-minded, they come from New England, so there is going be much more of an openness compared to a religious denomination that comes from a much more openly segregated part of the society."
King held the university's record in the 100-yard dash with a time of 9.7 seconds, according to a story in the Wichita Beacon. He also earned All-Central Conference honors as a defensive end in 1929.
King transferred to Tuskegee Institute in 1930, according to the Beacon, before becoming a successful high school football coach in Lawton, Okla.
Foust spent 32 years as a fire fighter in Wichita after leaving the university.
"They both endured, obviously, some hatred and some prejudice, but appeared to welcomed by teammates, welcomed and encouraged by the media," Jabara said. "It got people's attention that there was a placed for integrated sports teams and integrated schools. What really stands out to me is both of these guys became very loyal public servants."
College athletics, with its ties to a community, can help broaden perspectives and help clear the way for new attitudes and thinking.
Schools in the Missouri Valley Conference recruited Black athletes earlier than universities in the southern United States. Stars such as Littleton, Cincinnati's Oscar Robertson and Paul Hogue, Bradley's Chet Walker and Louisville's Wes Unseld led the MVC's rise to basketball prominence in the late 1950s and 1960s. Wichita State, as an MVC member, made Black athletes such as Littleton and Dave Stallworth, from Texas, prominent figures representing the university during those times.
"People root for a team even if they've never set foot on a college campus," Price said. "If a sports team is open to people of color, for example, even at a point the larger society might not be, that is pushing the envelope to a degree a lot of other areas in the community just couldn't achieve."
Sexton became the university's first prominent Black student-athlete when he enrolled in 1944. He earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors three times as a halfback and also ran track for the Shockers. Sexton, who attended East High School,often sat out games in places such as Tulsa and West Texas State because of his race. On some trips, Sexton could not stay in the hotel or eat with his teammates.
"He explained to me, 'You cannot retaliate against players or fans who abuse you. You just have to suck it up and keep going,' " Littleton told The Wichita Eagle. "If Linwood can do it, I can do it. I patterned my life after him and thank him for his guidance and words of wisdom."
Littleton, who remains the school's career scoring leader, followed East High coach Ralph Miller to the University of Wichita in 1951. With his Shocker teams drawing capacity crowds at the Forum in downtown Wichita, the university opened its on-campus fieldhouse with a capacity around twice as much in 1955. In the 1960s, star Black athletes such as Gene Wiley, Ernie Moore, Nate Bowman and Stallworth packed the arena and led Shocker basketball to new heights of popularity.
"The athletic department. . . did the right thing, but at the time it seemed like a risk in fear of alienating the fan base," Jabara said. "It turned out to be more galvanizing than anything and opened the eyes of the fan base that this is only logical and the right thing to do, morally and ethically."
Most college campuses reckoned with race in the 1960s and 1970s and Wichita State went through its own problems. After the 1968 football season, Black Student Union members accused the coaching staff of prejudice and held a 90-minute meeting with the university and athletic administration, Jabara's presentation shows. In 1967, several Black student-athletes from different sports threatened to boycott practices when no Black women were selected for the cheer squad, a situation remedied by the expansion of the squad by four women, one of whom was Black.
Terry Benton, who played basketball from 1969-72, remembers the uproar at East High in 1968 as news of the assassination of Martin Luther King swept through the cafeteria.
When Benton arrived at Wichita State, he encountered a tense atmosphere on campus. Being a basketball player granted him status in the community. On campus and in the locker room, however, he sometimes felt pushed to take sides.
"It was a turbulent time," he said. "I was not a militant person. I had opinions, but I wasn't going to be an outspoken person carrying a flag or a banner. That's just not my personality. I had some difficult times, as much as inside with other Black students and athletes as I did outside with the general population."
Levitt Arena provided a refuge and he said he felt supported by the Shocker coach Gary Thompson and felt a bond with assistant Ron Heller.
"The haven, honestly, was basketball," Benton said. "You could focus on that."
Cal Bruton came to Wichita State from New York and played for the Shockers from 1972-76. Some of the neighborhood racial divisions in Wichita surprised him. He remembers a road trip in the South early in his time as a Shocker when a restaurant refused service to the Black athletes. Bruton said the team left the restaurant.
He credited White teammates such as Greg Boxberger and Bill Lang providing strong leadership during that time that kept the locker room together.
"The team always had our back," Bruton said.
Wichita State continued to take the lead in 1978, when it hired Willie Jeffries as football coach, making him the first Black head coach at an NCAA Division I school. Jeffries coached five seasons at Wichita State and went 21-32-2. Wichita State's 8-3 record in 1982 represented the program's highest win total since the 1961 season.
In 2008, Wichita State named Eric Sexton athletic director. Sexton, a former Shocker golfer, held that job for seven years, and was the first Black athletic director at a Kansas NCAA Division I school. In 2020, Wichita State named
Isaac Brown interim head coach. He became the first Black men's basketball head coach at a Kansas NCAA Division I school.
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
