More than 70 years later, that game in October 1951 is still remembered as the 'Johnny Bright Incident.'
Earlier in the day, before Bright took the stage, a teammate had gone for a haircut at the local barbershop and heard the rumblings. Drake's game the next day against Oklahoma A&M in Stillwater was going to be brutal. Bright would be the first Black player to take the Aggies' field.
"You could cover a lot of racism with the brutality of the game," William C. Rhoden, sports journalist and author, says in"The Bright Path.""'Well, we weren't being racist. We were just being brutal.'" Smith goes after Bright's face, a forearm to the jaw. Bright is knocked down. But everyone is watching the ball, including the officials. No penalty is called.
More than 70 years later, that game in October 1951 is still remembered as the"Johnny Bright Incident."Wilbanks Smith, who died in 2020, always contended his hits on Bright had nothing to do with him being Black.. In fact, Smith said, on the first play of the game, he delivered an identical blow to Drake's kicker, who"was absolutely white."
"While a lot of people define Johnny Bright's career by that incident," Harkness said,"he didn't allow it to be defined by that incident." The family of six lived in a working class neighborhood with their own property and the determination to break through any barriers that came their way. Bright wasn't recruited by Notre Dame, which didn't allow Black players, and Indiana and Purdue had no interest, according to Daniel P. Finney, a Drake alum, reporter, writer and historian.
The first football game of the season, Bright didn't get to start but, as the game played out, coach Warren Gaer decided to put Bright in and give him a chance. "He just had an ability that transcended everyone else," said teammate Dippel. And he transcended while battling prevalent racism.
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