IU

IU reconciles with 1969 football players who boycotted over racism

Zach Osterman
zach.osterman@indystar.com
President Michael McRobbie, Fred Glass, Coach Tom Crean, Coach Kevin Wilson with 1969 football players.

BLOOMINGTON — For nearly five decades, Mike Adams felt an "emptiness."

He was proud of his university, proud to carry an IU degree. But as one of 10 African-American players who left the 1969 IU football team, boycotting against unequal treatment because of their race, Adams and his teammates shared that feeling, as their alma mater did little to recognize the stand they took.

"It's a situation that has haunted me for over 45 years," Adams told The Star. "I just felt that there should be some kind of reconciliation that needs to take place."

That changed Thursday, when Indiana and several members of that group, known as the "IU 10," announced the results of a lengthy reconciliation process, meant to welcome those players back into the IU athletics community and honor their courage.

Adams initiated the process, and of the eight living members of the IU 10, four others joined him. Indiana greeted them with a group of high-ranking university officials, including President Michael McRobbie, Athletic Director Fred Glass, former IU football star and current athletics administrator Anthony Thompson, and several others. IU football coach Kevin Wilson and IU men's basketball coach Tom Crean were both pictured alongside those five former Hoosiers, Glass and McRobbie, in a photograph attached to Thursday's press release announcing the news.

"The sharing, listening, and understanding that occurred over the three days was nothing less than extraordinary and is one of the great experiences of my professional life," Glass said in the release. "The reconciliation we were able to achieve is a testament to what can be accomplished when people of good will, come together in good faith, to address even the most sensitive and complicated issues."

Just a year removed from a Rose Bowl appearance, Indiana football was a strong program in 1969. Adams remembers starting that season well.

But he and several of his African-American teammates had tried to voice concerns over "discrepancies about how we were being treated" by their coaching staff, including snide or racist remarks, and uneven medical treatment.

"If one of us got hurt, we would have to practice if at all possible, where our white counterparts didn't have to," Adams said.

So, Adams said, he and his teammates boycotted practice the week after a win at Michigan State. Coach John Pont told them they would be kicked off the team if they didn't return to practice. The 10 had already walked away. Pont honored their scholarships — Adams said it's a point of pride that all 10 graduated — but their college careers were over.

Four-plus decades later, Adams approached Indiana about the reconciliation process, and he was met with overwhelming support.

"I really wasn't trying to have a soul-searching intervention-type happening, but Fred Glass was really touched," Adams said. "That, to me, said there was really some importance in what we did and this coming back together, to bring this to some closure."

Five members of the 10 — Adams, Charlie Murphy, Don Silas, Benny Norman and Clarence Price — came to Bloomington in April. Together with IU officials, they opened the door to reconciliation.

All 10 will be reinstated onto the 1969 team retroactively, and receive the "letterman's blankets" they would have gotten had their careers not been cut short. They have been made lifetime members of the IU Alumni Association. The university plans to establish "permanent displays" at the Henke Hall of Champions inside Memorial Stadium, and at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center on campus, "identifying the IU 10 and describing the role they played — among others — in drawing awareness to race relation issues at Indiana University."

IU will establish a for-credit class "studying the circumstances surrounding the 1969 boycott and what it can teach students about race relations, conflict resolution, and similar themes."

Glass said in the release that the "process is not complete." For Adams, that emptiness is filling back up again.

"The IU 10 have placed ourselves in the history of Indiana, in a good place," he said, "and we'll finally get our recognition for our input in human rights."

Follow Star reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.