News
February 5
There have only been three ECAC men's basketball champions in the history of Tufts, one under Bob Sheldon during the 1999-2000 campaign and the other two under coach Tom Penders in '72-'73 and coach John White in the '81-'82 seasons. This weekend during the halftime of the men's basketball game against Colby, the '72-'73 team, which had a record of 22-4 (best Tufts winning percentage of all-time) and the '81-'82 team, which went 19-6, will be honored.
What is even more special for those players is the 30th anniversary of the '72-'73 squad, and the 20th reunion of the senior members of the class of '83 on the '81-'82 team. In celebration of the reunion, Professor of history Gerald Gill is leading a panel of guests to discuss race issues and their relation to Tufts University during the 1970's, '80's, and '90's, on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 in Pearson 106. The panel includes five to six athletes from each decade, each giving five to seven minute presentations. The panel is composed mainly of African-American alumni because the members of the championship basketball teams of '72-'73 and '81-'82 were mainly African-American. In fact, there were eight blacks to four whites on Penders' team and an equal distribution of blacks to whites (six and six) on White's '82-'83 team. Each individual will speak about what it meant not only to be an African-American at Tufts during his particular decade, but also how it felt to be a black athlete during that time.
Throughout the history of Tufts' men's basketball, African-Americans have had lasting effects on the court and in the record books. Six out of the top ten all-time scorers in Jumbo basketball history are blacks, all of them making the list without the benefit of the three point line, which was not put into play until the season of '86-'87. Also, seven of the top ten all-time rebounders are African-American.
"The purpose of this panel is to provide a chance for alumni to recall their experiences at Tufts," Gill said. "Also to see the importance of black male and female athletes to Tufts history. To illustrate that sports develop friendships that go across racial lines and to celebrate athletic excellence at a Division III school."
1970's
During her freshman year, Sandra Leek (Jackson College, '76) was a member of the predominately African-American cheerleading team for the men's championship team of '72-'73. With eight of ten cheerleaders being black, Leek experienced a great amount of black pride with African-Americans leading both the basketball team and the cheerleading squad.
"At least in the African-American community, there was a lot of pride," Leek said. "With any championships or victories there was a lot of school pride. This was also the same year (the African-American student organization) sponsored Stevie Wonder in the Boston Garden for our homecoming in '73 with Tufts students having priority seating."
Leek described the early to mid 1970's as a melting pot of African-American culture and American culture in general because of events such as the Vietnam War draft, black nationalism, the black power movement, and the fact that Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. had both been recently assassinated. Even with all of these outside events, students still wholeheartedly supported the team.
"You didn't miss a game," Leek said. "We were really hopeful we were going to make it to the ECAC championships."
Leek and the rest of the cheerleading squad provided an energetic ambiance to basketball games; with the squad itself representing a melting pot of cultures in its own rite. According to Leek, the team combined styles of cheers from the Midwest and East coast while also combining some black cheers with white cheers. She said the Midwest region was known for tumbling and pyramids and the East was known more for stomping, so the team incorporated both.
"So many black females became cheerleaders," Leek said. "Who ever associated with us was allowed to. It was a bridge that gave me a psychological support and comfort as I dealt with a fully integrated society and being in the minority. I had never been in the minority before because I came from a segregated society in Gary, Indiana."
Leek believes the basketball team provided not only a winning team for Tufts to brag about, but also a tight-knit group of African-Americans who attended Tufts at the time.
"We just enjoyed and cherished relationships with each other," Leek said. "There were a lot of social, political, and academic stresses. For a predominately black basketball team to be winning gave us pride."
Leek was a cheerleader from '72-'75 and was selected as captain for two of those years. Although she was a fixed member of the Tufts cheerleading squad, she recognized that she was at Tufts for an education. During her time at Tufts, a report known as the "Q report" was released saying that most minority students at Tufts were admitted because of affirmative action. According to Leek, this caused some blacks to be treated as inferiors.
"Personally I didn't care how I got there," Leek said. "I had to work hard and get a degree."
As far as racism during the early '70's at Tufts, Leek feels it is relatively objective.
"I think most people valued the academic experience and recognized the quality of academic experience," Leek said. "But there was still some. I know a couple of students who dropped out because they saw racism among students and the faculty and others who saw none at all."
Recalling the championship team of '72-'73, Leek felt everybody had pride in their accomplishments. She feels Tufts is known among certain circles as an intellectual school, but everybody likes winners.
"I recall attendance at Cousens Gym would be full," Leek said. "You wanted to get there early so you could get a seat. Somebody described the team as engineering jocks, they were geek jocks and we were very proud of it."
1980's
The headline across the March 12, 1982 issue of the Tufts Observer reads, "We're No. 1! Jumbos conquer Amherst, take ECAC title." This headline is referring to the championship team of the '81-'82 season, led by Troy Cooper, Charlie Neal, Bill Ewing, and James Young _ all of whom are African-American.
Cooper (18.5 points per game), Neal (15.5 PPG), and Ewing (14.2 PPG) all averaged double figures in scoring with both Cooper and Ewing averaging over ten rebounds per contest. The team boasted two (Cooper and Ewing) of Tufts top nine all-time leading scorers. According to Cooper, the Jumbos could have been the most talented team as well as most diverse ever to don the Brown and Blue.
"We had players that were from the inner-city," Cooper said. "Our first eight players who entered the game were all capable of scoring 20-30 points a piece. We were able to rely on each other's strengths, make some sacrifices, and play off each others strength."
The demographics of the team were actually six blacks to six whites. Cooper was emphatic in describing the raw talent and ability of most players on the team, but that teamwork was the key to the championship.
"Bill Ewing was an All-American, but he made a big sacrifice by giving up most of his offense," Cooper said. "He played within himself and that helped catapult us to become champions."
Other players such as Young had to adjust to a new position to fit into the defensive minded game plan coach John White implemented in order to open up easier offensive opportunities.
"I played center in prep school, there were quite a few differences in playing small forward at Tufts," Young said. "I enjoyed the camaraderie that seemed to exist, the coaching style, first and foremost that it was a lot of fun. It was a very pleasurable experience for me."
Both Cooper and Young felt that the '81-'82 basketball team was all about business, mixed with some fun, but no racism was exhibited amongst teammates.
"Being on that team in the '80's, when involving sports or any type of team aspect, the players view each other as being colorblind," Cooper said. "We were all about winning. Didn't experience racism while we were playing and didn't experience any from members of the team. We didn't see black or white; we were a cohesive unit trying to have positive co-existence."
Phil Stanley, was a member of the basketball team from '82-'85, missing the championship season by one year, but still experienced the essence of early 1980's basketball at Tufts.
"One of the things it did was it gave me an opportunity to meet more students," Cooper said. "I think that it certainly brought a cross section of students together. The majority of students I played with were African-American, but I had a greater opportunity to meet white students than blacks who did not play."
Of the major issues brought up by Cooper, Young, and Stanley there was the fact that many African-American students came from different neighborhoods and socioeconomic backgrounds than many of the white students of that time.
"There were quite a few blacks at Tufts and from a wide range of backgrounds (people who grew up in upper-middle class, different parts of country)," Young said. "I grew up in a ghetto type neighborhood and I was quiet, being at Tufts helped me open my eyes to things by having people around me who were more outgoing in their lives."
Cooper, who was raised in Boston, Massachusetts, was familiar with predominately white environments, but not the difference in economic backgrounds.
"Where I was born and raised, most were not well to do," Cooper said "But when I came to Tufts I was surrounded by well to do families. But that didn't mean any of those families have something on me morally. I didn't feel overt racism, but that may be because of the status of being on the basketball team."
Stanley felt that his coaches, John White and Rod Baker did an excellent job recruiting African-Americans by going to the inner-city and finding African-American students who could succeed athletically as well as academically. By touting the academic as well as the athletic importance of each candidate, the black athletes recruited had more in common with their white counterparts as well as having the luxury of being able to relate to the black students.
"It was a very close group of students," Stanley said, referring to his fellow group of African-American students. "Students were fairly active in terms of participation, around the time of Apartheid. There was also a strong presence of black frats and sororities that fostered a tight knit environment."
Cooper, Young, and Stanley all enjoyed their time spent at Tufts and feel they grew as people through being members of the basketball team as well as students. All recognize their time at Tufts has long passed and now focus on the present of the University and especially its African-American students.
"I look back on it and clearly see experiences of black frats, sororities and activism," Stanley said. "I see how that benefited me as an adult. I hope that 15-20 years from now students derive some of the experiences I had. I hope they don't look back and feel that they missed out."
