Forty years ago, BYU and Wyoming met at War
Memorial Stadium in Laramie, Wyo., for a football game that turned out
to be much more than a game.
It was October, 1969 — a turbulent time in American history, with
demonstrations and protests abounding around the country, sparked by
the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War.
So when 14 black Wyoming football players decided to wear black
armbands for the game against BYU — to protest what they considered to
be "racist practices" of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, which owns and operates BYU — and when then-Cowboys coach Lloyd
Eaton decided to boot those 14 players, which included seven starters,
from the team for that decision, it touched off a maelstrom of
controversy and it immediately became a national story. The following
week, reporters from media outlets like the New York Times and Sports
Illustrated descended upon Laramie to chronicle the episode.
And the ramifications of the "Black 14" incident have since resonated for decades.
During the week of the 1969 BYU-Wyoming game, the Black Student
Alliance at Wyoming announced it was planning to stage a demonstration
outside the stadium against the LDS Church because it did not allow
blacks to hold the priesthood (it wasn't until 1978 that blacks were
granted that opportunity). The Black 14 insisted on being part of that
protest by wearing black armbands as a symbolic gesture, but Eaton
rejected that plan and meted out a severe punishment against those
players for violating team rules prohibiting players' involvement in
protests.
Marc Lyons, who was BYU's starting quarterback in 1969, remembers
staying at the Holiday Inn in Laramie the night before the game and
hearing people throw bottles at the hotel. On game day, the Cougars
encountered protestors as they arrived at War Memorial Stadium.
"It was definitely a strange atmosphere," said Lyons, a longtime
color analyst for KSL Radio who will be in Laramie when BYU visits
Wyoming on Saturday (noon, The mtn.). "It was hard to understand. A lot
of our players weren't LDS. It was odd that this was happening at a
football game.
"We were the news. ... It was the first time we encountered
protesters. People were holding signs as we got to the stadium to play.
We walked through those people and they were badgering us a little bit.
"There was a girl who had a sign, something about the Mormons, and
she misspelled the word 'Mormon.' It was a little bit unnerving, a
little bit comical," Lyons said. "The strangest part was that it didn't
seem at all like a game that day. There was a lot of other stuff going
on. It was a different atmosphere, that's for sure."
At that time, Wyoming was a dominant team in the Western Athletic
Conference while the Cougars were perennial also-rans. Yet going into
that contest, BYU was confident about its chances for victory because
it knew the Cowboys had lost seven starters.
"We were kind of excited. We thought, 'Man, we're going to beat those guys,' " Lyons recalled.
Instead, the incident, at least on that day, galvanized the rest of Wyoming's team.
"Once the game started, man, they got all over us," Lyons said. "I was surprised about that. They beat us pretty good."
Indeed, the Cowboys, who were unbeaten and ranked in the top 10, crushed the Cougars, 40-7.
From there, however, the two programs started courses in opposite
directions and Wyoming football was never the same. From 1966-1968, the
Cowboys had won 27 games, but over the next seven seasons, they won
only 24 times and suffered six consecutive losing campaigns. After
playing in the 1968 Sugar Bowl, Wyoming didn't play in another bowl
game until 1987.
BYU, on the other hand, went on to become the WAC's dominant team
from the late 1970s through the 1990s. Through the years, many Wyoming
fans saw BYU as being responsible for the Cowboys' demise.
Kevin McKinney, a Cheyenne native and Wyoming graduate, is the
senior associate athletic director at Wyoming. He's also the longtime
color analyst for Cowboy radio broadcasts. McKinney, who was on the
school's sports information staff in 1969, said the Black 14 incident
had a long-lasting influence that went far beyond football.
"It had an incredible impact on the football program and it had an
incredible impact on those kids (who were kicked off the team),"
McKinney said. "They had a terrible time going to school anywhere. It
was a tragic thing, really. It impacted a program, but it impacted a
lot of young men, too. That was the sad thing. The wins and losses were
the shallow part of it. The real crux of it was the impact it had on
those kids and their teammates."
Like many Wyoming fans, McKinney had a difficult time coming to terms with the incident.
"I live and die Wyoming. I was born there, I was raised there, I
went to school there," he said. "It's hard for me. It was amazingly
bitter because Wyoming football was everything to the fans and the
students."
It wasn't until years after the incident that McKinney met up with
one of those Black 14 players and they talked about what happened in
1969 and its aftermath.
"He told me how he couldn't go to college anywhere because nobody
would take him," McKinney said. "I got a real perspective on what
courage it took to stand up for what he believed in. Those kids loved
the game. They gave that all up. So I kind of changed my mind about it."
Just this week, a symposium was held on the Wyoming campus about the
Black 14 incident. McKinney was among those on the panel. The
auditorium was packed with students eager to learn about that painful
time in the school's history.
"People need to know about it," McKinney said. "It was 40 years ago.
That's a long time. But I was amazed at the turnout at this
(symposium). It was very interesting to be part of that. I didn't know
that, 40 years later, we'd still be talking about it. But it was as big
as anything."
Cougars on the air
No. 25 BYU (6-2, 3-1 MWC)at Wyoming (4-4, 2-2)
Saturday, noon
War Memorial Stadium, Laramie, Wyo.
TV: The mtn.
Radio: 1160 AM, 102.7 FM