Spring Break
The best accomplishments don't occur during the game
Tommy Wright
Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Still Standing Tall
The 1951 University of San Francisco football team went undefeated during the regular season. The team was invited to bowl games, but with the caveat that it leave its two African-American players behind. The team stood together and chose not to attend.
But when you want to single out one particular moment, it is the protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City that stands out as the most courageous event that transcended sports.
Smith and Carlos considered a boycott as well. The boycott of the '68 games was called off in place of a different form of protest.
By choosing to attend the Olympics, Smith and Carlos were able to participate and receive medals for their performance. But after they raised their fists in defiance, the two were suspended from the team and sent home. When they got back, they were denounced by the media, received death threats and struggled to find work.
Their silent protest for equal rights transcended sports. It is fitting that they are memorialized here at SJSU. Their protest was in the same vein of Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez, who both have structures named for them on campus as well.
Activism in sports is not completely dead. Joey Cheek, a U.S. speed skater, organized Team Darfur to protest conditions in Sudan. But Cheek had his visa revoked before he could attend the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
So the hope is not over for someone else to take a stand as Smith and Carlos did in 1968. But until then, their protest stands above the 1980 U.S. hockey team's upset of the Soviet Union, Lou Gehrig's farewell speech, and any other event as the most important, heroic and courageous moment in the history of sports.
But when you want to single out one particular moment, it is the protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City that stands out as the most courageous event that transcended sports.
Smith and Carlos considered a boycott as well. The boycott of the '68 games was called off in place of a different form of protest.
By choosing to attend the Olympics, Smith and Carlos were able to participate and receive medals for their performance. But after they raised their fists in defiance, the two were suspended from the team and sent home. When they got back, they were denounced by the media, received death threats and struggled to find work.
Their silent protest for equal rights transcended sports. It is fitting that they are memorialized here at SJSU. Their protest was in the same vein of Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez, who both have structures named for them on campus as well.
Activism in sports is not completely dead. Joey Cheek, a U.S. speed skater, organized Team Darfur to protest conditions in Sudan. But Cheek had his visa revoked before he could attend the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
So the hope is not over for someone else to take a stand as Smith and Carlos did in 1968. But until then, their protest stands above the 1980 U.S. hockey team's upset of the Soviet Union, Lou Gehrig's farewell speech, and any other event as the most important, heroic and courageous moment in the history of sports.
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