CHARLOTTE – A month ago, pioneering Wake Forest football coach Bill Tate passed away at age 93. His legacy was he stood up to the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow in the South while his colleagues waited on time.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. admonished good White southerners who remained silent and waited on time to solve the South’s racial problems.
But do Gen Z football athletes throughout the South understand where their school was on the 1960s timeline of college football integration?
Do Wake Forest player know their school was at the forefront in 1964 as the first major southern conference school to desegregate? Although it’s true Maryland played Darryl Hill in 1963 as the ACC’s first Black player, Hill was a senior transfer from Navy. He was a polished product. Wake Forest recruited Black talent out of high school and developed players. Maryland, which was then an ACC member, didn’t recruit another Black player until later in the decade.
Considering Tate’s recent death, I informally surveyed the four Wake Forest players invited to the ACC Kickoff media days Wednesday at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown. I wanted to learn what knew about Tate and their alma mater.
Three of the returning players, Nick Anderson, Demond Claiborne and Devaughn Patterson, said they arrived on campus not knowing Wake Forest’s history, but former coach Dave Clawson taught it to them. The trio as well as newcomer Devin Kylany added new head coach Jake Dickert, who arrived from Washington State, has picked up the torch.
“We learned there’s a reason why Wake Forest helped make it so White person could sit next to a Black person,” said Claiborne, a senior third-team All-ACC running back last year from Aylett, Virginia. “These are things Coach Clawson instilled in us and Coach Dickert continues to teach us. Wake Forest gave (Black players) an opportunity to change their lives. To have all this history tied to this university as a Black man, it is very special to me.”
I stressed to the players these weren’t “gotcha questions.” I understand Gen Z Black and White kids alike don’t understand Jim Crow segregation is recent history, not ancient.
After all, how can they learn the legacy of Tate, who died on June 23, when there wasn’t a word written in the national media outlets. Nothing on ESPN’s website or Sportscenter, in the New York Times sports page run by The Athletic or Sports Illustrated.
The first drafts in history got it wrong in 1964 when the sports media avoided race and recording pioneering milestones such at Wake Forest and Houston, both in 1964. And the national media continues to fumble history.
“The more I learn, the more I realize it’s not that long ago – this was from my grandparent’s time,” said Patterson a returning starter as a redshirt sophomore defensive back from Jacksonville, Florida. “I think it’s important for our generation to learn more and that includes myself.”
Senior defensive back Nick Anderson, a third-team All-ACC pick a year ago, arrived at the Winston-Salem campus from Centreville, Virginia,
“Wake Forest has always been a trailblazing school,” Anderson. “Our history is storied. I like having something like (Tate’s legacy) to take pride in and be happy to call him one of our own.”
In 2021, Wake Forest presented its inaugural Trailblazers Award to Bob Grant and Butch Henry, who were freshmen in Tate’s 1964 recruiting class. He recruited Grant out of Jacksonville, N.C., and Henry out of Greensboro.
Of the foursome, redshirt senior Devin Kylany is the newcomer. He followed Dickert from Washington State through the transfer portal.
“I didn’t know anything about it when I got here, but around our building you see a lot of things about the change that Wake Forest has led. I’m extremely proud to be part of the university that wasn’t scared to take the initiative to incorporate everyone into this great game.”
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