A Stadium at Iowa State Says His Name: Jack Trice (NYT)

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/sports/Iowa-State-Jack-Trice-Stadium.html

A Stadium at Iowa State Says His Name: Jack Trice
Iowa State is the only major college football team to have named its stadium after a Black man, a player named Jack Trice who died from injuries sustained in a game in 1923 and whose story resonates amid today’s social justice movement.
By Jeré Longman
July 20, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ET

Of the 130 universities that play major college football, only one — Iowa State — has a stadium named after an African-American person.

The namesake is Jack Trice, Iowa State’s first Black athlete. Mr. Trice played tackle on the football team at Iowa State in the 1920s. And he majored in animal husbandry with the intention of heading south to help Black farmers just as the university’s first African-American student, the prominent scientist George Washington Carver, had done three decades earlier.

Instead, Mr. Trice died tragically on Oct. 8, 1923, two days after being trampled during a game against Minnesota and sustaining severe bruising of his intestines and inflammation of his abdomen. It was only the second game of his varsity career. He was 21.

Scholars have long debated whether he was targeted for his race and his skill as a lineman at a time when football was overwhelmingly white and Black players regularly were singled out for rough treatment. Or whether his death was a terrible accident as Mr. Trice, feeling pressure to succeed, hurled his body with abandon into a game during an era when rules permitted especially violent play and deaths were not uncommon.



Mr. Trice was not permitted to eat with the team, said Steven L. Jones, the author of “Football’s Fallen Hero: The Jack Trice Story. Iowa State Athletics


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As a result of his death, Iowa State did not renew its contract to play against Minnesota for 66 years. The teams would not play again until 1989.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Trice

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Outstanding OP of the day

Thank you, my friend.

[Blecht]

2. Thanks for sharing this

Interesting story.

[marble falls]

3. Football was brutal sport in a day where ther wasn't much padding. There were formations ...

like the "wedge" that were designed to run over people, actually maimed and killed people, and were banned.

[murielm99]

4. My daughter is an Iowa State alumna.

I will have to ask her if she knows about this.

[KS Toronado]

5. Sounds like a very unique man who was going to be remembered by everyone he touched.

For a black man to even get into college in the 1920's was a major accomplishment. Shame his life was cut short.