Spring Break
LeVias tells story of overcoming racial discrimination at SMU
Nicole Jacobsen, Editor-in-Chief, njacobse@smu.edu
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: News
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As conditions improved, LeVias began to appreciate the opportunity given to him by SMU, but it was not always easy when it came to roaming the campus and playing segregated schools.
"Being the first of anything is like being the bug on the windshield," LeVias said. "You catch all the mess. Under the circumstances you look back and it was amazing at the things I did and accomplished at the time."
LeVias, the first African-American to receive an NCAA athletic scholarship in the Southwest Conference and second African-American football player to join a team in the SWC, helped lead SMU to their first Cotton Bowl appearance in nearly 20 years, among several other notable achievements.
Born in Beaumont, Texas, LeVias, upon graduating from Hebert High School, received more than 100 scholarship offers, but none from the historically black college football powerhouses he expected to play for. Receiving no offers from the likes of Grambling and Prairie View because of his small 5-foot-7-inch and 140-pound frame, LeVias, now 63, accepted an offer to play under head coach Hayden Fry in 1965.
"I came to SMU because Coach Fry was one of the only coaches that talked to me about education," LeVias said. "[Fry] was more interested in me as a person and getting a good education than as a football player."
According to smumustangs.com, Fry made one request before accepting the coaching positionat SMU. The only coach to sign an African-American athlete, Fry, according to LeVias, took a risk no other Texas coach would take.
"I made a deal with them. Let me recruit a black player, and I'd be interested in the job," Fry said.
LeVias, describing himself as "wide-eyed" and naive, did not recognize the impact of his decision to sign with SMU.
"Going to SMU was nothing about being a pioneer," LeVias said. "I would have changed my mind because being a young man and going to school, I had no idea about breaking the barrier."
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