Wyoming
BYU To Honor Wyoming’s ‘Black 14’ At Football Game
PROVO, Utah – Tonight’s BYU/Wyoming soccer recreation will function a particular second within the pregame.
BYU will honor the Black 14 as “Y Lighters” for tonight’s matchup. All through the week, Mel Hamilton and John Griffin, two members from the Black 14, have been on BYU’s campus for this week’s matchup. They’re additionally in Provo for BYU’s Faculty of Communications, debuting a student-produced documentary movie that tells the story of the Black 14.
Tonight would be the first time the 2 males have been on BYU’s discipline in over 50 years.
In 1969, BYU and Wyoming squared off for a soccer recreation in Laramie. Wyoming was an undefeated staff and among the many greatest squads within the nation. College students at Wyoming used the sport as a possibility to protest a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints coverage that didn’t permit Black males to carry the priesthood.
Fourteen Black Wyoming soccer gamers needed to indicate their assist to fellow college students by sporting black armbands on their uniforms. However, as a substitute of being allowed to put on these armbands, Wyoming coach Lloyd Eaton kicked all 14 gamers off the staff.
Wyoming nonetheless defeated BYU, 40-7 in that recreation. However the impression of Wyoming’s Black 14 went past the enjoying fields.
The next season, BYU soccer made it a degree of emphasis to recruit minority athletes. In consequence, BYU coach Tommy Hudspeth signed BYU’s first black soccer participant, Ron Knight, the next yr.
In 1978, the revelation of the priesthood ended the ban on Black males holding the priesthood within the Church.
Three years in the past, on the fiftieth anniversary of the sport, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and members of the Black 14 had come collectively to supply meals to insecure communities. The 2 teams have offered truckloads of meals for much less lucky folks.
No. 19 BYU vs. Wyoming
Kickoff: 8:15 p.m. (MT)
TV: ESPN2
Radio: KSL NewsRadio (102.7 FM, 1160 AM)
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports activities Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Observe him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.