MHS football player Harold Robinson signed to play at Kansas State in 1947 as the first black player in the
(then) Big Seven conference. Welcomed as a player, but not granted a scholarship for his first year, he worked
two jobs that first year and played on the unbeaten Wildcat Freshman team. Earning the Varsity center position
as a sophomore, Coach Graham awarded Robinson a scholarship, making him the first black person to be awarded
financial aid for athletics in Big 7 history. Harold Robinson's story occurred six years before Rosa Parks’
ride and the Montgomery Bus Boycott that heightened Martin Luther King Jr.'s involvement in Civil Rights. The
United States Supreme Court was still five years away from the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision, and segregation
laws were still in effect in many places.
Some coaches and some players from other schools objected
to his presence. But in Harold Robinson’s words, "The whole team, they all protected me.…
At the time I didn't realize how important it was. All I wanted to do was play ball." Jackie
Robinson, who had broken baseball’s racial
barrier in 1947, sent Harold a letter of congratulations on his Scholarship achievement, which was a testament to
the rights of all, regardless of sex, race or creed. Robinson earned All-Big Seven honors in 1950. He was
inducted into the Kansas State Athletics Hall Of Fame in 2004. Harold Robinson passed away in 2006.
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