[ARETE] Blood, Sweat, & Tears

Fri Sep 20 10:17:04 CDT 2019

All,*.*
 Please find below and attached my review of Derrick White's *Blood, Sweat,
& Tears:  Jake Gaither, Florida A&M, and the history of black college
football.*
Thanks,
Duncan

White, Derrick E.  *Blood, Sweat, & Tears: Jack Gaither, Florida A & M, and
the history of Black college football*. Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 2019.  Xi + 303 pp.  Illustrations, Tables, Notes,
Bibliography, Index.

Reviewed by Duncan R. Jamieson, Ashland University

Dabney Coleman played the boss, Franklin Hart, in the 1980 comedy “9 to 5.”
In one scene he explained to the women who worked for him they would never
rise to managerial positions because they didn’t play football, which
taught men teamwork and resilience, key leadership traits.  Legendary
football coach Jake Gaither (1903-1994) at Florida Agricultural and
Mechanical University (FA&MU), would have wholeheartedly agreed.

In post-Civil War America the freedmen and women sought political
integration for the resources that might accrue and racial autonomy for
self-determination.  As dejure segregation developed in the 1880s South, it
did have one positive impact, and that was to encourage black
autonomy.  Founded
in 1887 as Florida’s State Normal College for Colored Students, the
institution benefitted financially from the Second Morrill Land Grant Act.  The
funds awarded allowed the school, soon to become FA&MU, to purchase the
former plantation of ex-governor William D. Duval, located on a hilltop
overlooking Tallahassee.  During the 1920s Florida’s economic woes limited
funds for the university and it limited employment for black high school
graduates, who as a result decided to continue their education.

One of the Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Florida A&M
rose to dominance in football, which had been introduced to the school in
1899 by mathematics instructor, George M. Sampson. The sport was largely
student led until 1926 when Frantz “Jazz” Byrd was hired as Athletic
Director and head football coach.  As a star player at Lincoln University
(PA), Byrd was known as “the black Red Grange” and “the Phantom of the
Gridiron.”  Unfortunately the team, the Rattlers, did not turn around its
losing record under Byrd.

In 1933 Florida A&M’s I. R. E. Lee organized the Orange Blossom Classic, a
bowl game for the HBCU teams.  Then in 1937, the same year Gaither earned
his Master’s Degree at Ohio State University, FA&M hired him as assistant
football coach, head basketball coach and athletic director.  Gaither had
several years’ experience playing football in both high school and college,
during the era when play between high school and college teams was a common
occurrence.  The year before Gaither’s arrival head football coach William
Ball began what became one of the most popular and successful football
coaching clinics in the South.  Taken over by Gaither, coaches both black
and white came from far and near to attend the annual event.  Thus began
the decades’ long phenomenal success of its football program.

In 1937 FA&MU went 6-1-1, won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference title as well as the Orange Blossom Classic.  Their rise to
prominence came at the same time football at the University of Florida was
posting losing seasons, as well as being beaten by its arch rival, the
University of Georgia. Looking for positive news, Florida’s sports writers
latched on to FA&MU, publicizing the athletic prowess of the Rattlers.  The
HBCU’s excelled during segregation because black athletes were not welcomed
on the predominantly white institutions (PWI) teams.  Generally the PWI’s
refused to play HBCU’s until integration strengthened the former while
weakening the latter.  Still, FA&MU beat the University of Miami just as
integration began to take hold.  FA&MU never repeated that success.

FA&MU’s hope for the future, however, was tempered when Gaither developed a
brain tumor. While coaching Florida’s equally successful basketball team,
Gaither began suffering debilitating headaches which revealed the
tumor.  Despite
segregation and limited opportunities for blacks to receive competent
medical care, Gaither went to Nashville where the tumor was removed
successfully, though the recovery was slow.

With the outbreak of World War II the number of male students on all
college campuses plummeted, but FA&MU continued its athletic prowess.  Travel
restrictions led to military teams playing college squads.  The war created
the Double V campaign: defeat the enemies of democracy abroad and defeat
the enemies of democracy at home—segregation and racism.

Despite being appointed interim head football coach just before the 1945
season, which meant Gaither did not have an opportunity to do much
recruiting, his team went undefeated in the regular season, putting his
Rattlers atop the Black college polls.  Gaither created “the sporting
congregation, which combined athletes, fans, sports writers, coaches and
administrators to further black achievement.  At the conclusion of the war
Gaither took over as head football coach, began his generation long winning
dominance as he became one of the highest paid black coaches.  Between 1957
and 1964 the team won outright or shared five national titles.  The team
motto, “Blood. Sweat, and Tears, which dated from 1945, came to symbolize
his three platoon coaching strategy; Blood was a mostly offensive unit,
Sweat went both ways, and Tears was predominantly defense.

The G.I. Bill of Rights brought new talent to FA&MU, but the civil rights
movement of the 1960s began to dismantle segregation at the collegiate
level, creating opportunities for talented black athletes at predominantly
white Division I schools, but progress was exceptionally slow in
Florida.  Gaither
did not approve of what he saw as more radical and confrontational
activities, which made him appear as an Uncle Tom, an appellation he
received when he agreed with FAMU’s president and other administrations who
refused to sponsor Stokely Carmichael speaking on campus.  He also opposed
the Black protest at the 1968 summer Olympics in Mexico City.

Derrick White, visiting associate professor at Dartmouth College, has
written an engaging biography of Jake Gaither.  White analyzes succinctly
the role of the HBCU’s, focusing on Gaither and Florida A&MU.  White
connects these schools with the impact civil rights had on their athletic
programs.  Rightly or wrongly, Jake Gaither believed in the positive role
of football at black colleges and universities.  Until now this has been an
understudied aspect of sport history.

Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past

Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.
Professor of History
Book Review Editor
*AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature*
Ashland University
Ashland, OH  44805
USA
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