1956 Eaglets results

Video touchdowns from the 1950s

History of integration

Opening doors

Transforming history

Making college home

Greek life

A team united

Pride and tradition

Remembering the early days

"Get them n*****s off the field" were the only words Leon King could hear coming from the stands at Corsicana's Navarro Junior College.

The North Texas freshman football team was playing its second game of the '56 season. Even today, almost 50 years later, King ('62, '72 M.S.) says it was the scariest moment of his life.

Things changed

		From left, back row, Gordon Salsman, Frank Klein ('61), Abner Haynes ('62), Raymond Clement ('61, '61 M.Ed.); front row, Bob Way ('61, '63 M.Ed.), coach Ken Bahnsen ('53, '53 M.S.) and Leon King ('62, '72 M.S.) reunite to remember their days with the 1956 freshman football team.

When King and Abner Haynes ('62) joined the team that fall, they became the first African American North Texas student athletes and among the first to integrate any college team in the state.

Their intention wasn't social change — they just wanted to play. But that day in Corsicana, they saw in the faces of the white spectators the depth of the opposition to the change they represented.

"The crowd was angry and the bleachers seemed so close that people could just reach over the fence and grab you," King says.

Haynes says the angry people weren't aware of the good they did for the team that day.

"If they'd have left us alone we might have ended up fighting amongst ourselves," he says. "But by attacking and terrorizing us — that kind of adversity brought the whole team together, black and white."

Bob Way ('61, '63 M.Ed.), today a UNT kinesiology instructor, was a linebacker on the team. He says every North Texas player resented what was happening.

"To me, Abner and Leon were just two more players on the team, and I didn't have any feelings at all beyond that," he says. "But things changed at Navarro College. I have a real respect for them."

What to expect

Before the season, no one on the team knew what to expect or how to treat Haynes and King.

Varsity player Charlie Cole ('58, '61 M.Ed.) remembers helping his younger brother, Vernon — the freshman quarterback — talk through his uncertainty.

"I told him, 'Son, they're people just like we are — the only thing we need to worry about is if they can play football,'" Charlie says.

Ultimately, Vernon decided simplicity was the best approach — Haynes and King were greeted with handshakes the day they arrived for tryouts.

But true friendship only came with time as the two African American players repeatedly proved themselves in practice and on the field. In Corsicana, the friendships deepened.

"I was scared that day, but it didn't bother us as much as it bothered our white teammates," King says. "The crowd just seemed to lump them in with us as n***** lovers. My teammates got angry, too.

"We were angry that people could be so cruel to any person."

The team played harder because of it.

Teammates rally

Early in the game, Haynes butted heads with a Navarro College player. Haynes had a slight concussion, but the other player was carried off the field on a stretcher, which angered the fans more and increased the taunts from the stands.

Haynes remembers no one doing anything about the jeers from the crowd.

"Police grinned like it was funny, and the adults didn't care," he says.

But for King and Haynes, this was fuel for success. North Texas, down 0-14 at the half, defeated the favored Navarro team 39-14 as Haynes ran for four touchdowns and King caught a pass for a score.

King says North Texas tackle Joe Mack Pryor ('66) went out of his way to avenge any wrong done on the field.

"The more they'd pick on me, the madder Joe Pryor would get," King says. "We'd make up plays just to nail a guy who tried to do something to me or Abner."

Even before the game, teammates stood up for the dignity of Haynes and King. They refused food at the hotel unless the team could eat as a group, and they stuck together when local residents approached them to express their views that it was wrong for black and white players to be on the same field.

All for one

After hearing threats as his team arrived at the stadium, North Texas coach Ken Bahnsen ('53, '53 M.S.) told the bus driver to park close by. He told his players to run for the bus the moment the game ended.

"I said, 'When that whistle blows I want to be the last one on the bus — don't shake hands, don't do anything,'" Bahnsen says.

As soon as the game was over, the players made a tight formation around Haynes and King and headed for the bus.

"Me and Leon went to the back of the bus, and George Herring — he used to call me Butch — came back with me and said, 'Butch, I didn't know y'all go through stuff like that,'" Haynes says. "'I didn't know they could treat white people with black people like this.'"

They cried together, Haynes remembers.

King says all the players were affected by the events of that day.

"We became blood brothers," he says. "What affected one of us, affected all of us."

The team won its next three games, finishing the season with a perfect 5-0 record.

It was hailed as the first team at North Texas ever to go undefeated.