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In a well-written essay using appropriate structure and word choice, compare and contrast Jackie Robinson and Willie Heidelberg. Proofread and revise accordingly before submitting. Good luck!

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WDAM report on Willie Heidelberg Nomination 2014

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WDAM report on Willie Heidelberg Nomination 2014

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A group of Purvis Middle School students recently took a trip to Jackson, Mississippi to nominate the late Willie Heidelberg for the impact he made during the Civil Rights Movement.

Seventh graders at Purvis Middle School are studying the Civil Rights Era.

"Our history students wanted to bring that period of history into the history classroom," said Carolyn Spiller, seventh grade social studies teacher.

Spiller, staff, and students are working to let it be known that one of the men who changed the course of history in American sports started his career in Lamar County.

"And we discovered that a man named Willie Heidelberg who played high school football here at John Jefferson was the first African American football player in a predominantly white college in the State of Mississippi," Spiller said.

Heidelberg showed his grit in 1970 when The University of Southern Mississippi defeated Ole Miss 30-14 in one of the biggest upsets in Mississippi sports history.

"Mr. Rick Cleveland from the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame recommended that we nominate him to hall of fame," Spiller added.

The group of seventh graders went to Jackson to hand over nominations from Heidelberg's former coaches and peers to Cleveland himself.

One student says she has learned a lot lately, and that she appreciates everything she's learned about Heidelberg.

"And the thought that he broke the barrier and paved the way for others, that's just, it's huge, it really is," said Shelby Reyer, 7 th grade.

Heidelberg was the first black football player to receive a football scholarship at Southern Miss. Heidelberg died in October of an apparent heart attack. He was 63 years old.

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Purvis students nominate Heidelberg for MS Sports Hall of Fame

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A group of Purvis Middle School students recently took a trip to Jackson, Mississippi to nominate the late Willie Heidelberg for the impact he made during the Civil Rights Movement. Seventh graders at Purvis Middle School are studying the Civil Rights Era.

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Use this checklist to insure that you have all of the elements of a great essay.

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Desegregating college football in the South. 

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Desegregating college football in the South. 

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Southern football was reserved for white players only, but when USC's Sam Cunningham ran over, and right by them, Southern whites knew that they needed black athletes to compete.

By Jason Lewis
Sentinel Sports Editor
jasonl@lasentinel.net

"Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!" -George Wallace, Alabama Governor-1963

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) has dominated college football since the inception of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in 1998. Their dominance was most prominently displayed earlier this year when two of its teams, Alabama and LSU, played for the championship.

Looking at the players on the field, a viewer could think that it was the Bayou Classic, played between black colleges Grambling State and Southern.

Just about everybody on the defensive side of the football on both teams are black, and most of the offensive players are as well. But these black athletes are not playing at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), they are playing for programs that are intertwined with the regions that their universities are in.

Less than 50 years ago none of these players would have been allowed to play for either of these football teams, and black fans were not even allowed in the stadium to watch the games. Blocks away from the stadium that Alabama played in was the church that was bombed, killing four little black girls, and also in that area Bull Conner ordered attacks on black protesters with water hoses and police dogs.

During the era of segregation, college football in the South mirrored society, as blacks were unable to eat at the same restaurants as whites, they were unable to drink from the same water fountains, they were unable to obtain good education or jobs, and they were unable to play college football in the SEC, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), or the Southwest Conference (SWC- an all-Texas conference which has disbanded.)

College football had a deep tradition in the culture of the South, which was a culture that did not include blacks. The South was dominated by whites who had not gotten away from their past, which included the institution of slavery.

White Southerners wanted to keep their schools separate from blacks, and they wanted to keep their college football the same way.

In 1954, the Brown vs. The Board of Education declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional, which overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which allowed state-sponsored segregation, as long as the separate facilities for separate races were equal.

The fight to integrate schools had begun, but that fight did not extend to the football field. The Civil Rights Movement had their sights set on the state of Alabama, but Alabama was not ready to allow blacks any sense of equality.

In 1959 Alabama played in the Liberty Bowl against Penn State. Members of their Board of Trustees threatened to boycott the game because Penn State was an integrated school, and they used black players on the football team.

During those times the only thing nationally relevant in Alabama was their football team, and that team was a form of racial pride. The fight to keep the schools segregated was also a fight to keep the football team segregated.

In the North and West, college football had been integrated years before, with the first black player at USC in the 1920s. In the 1939 UCLA had an all-black backfield, which featured Kenny Washington, Jackie Robinson, Woody Strode, and Ray Bartlett. But in the South, even though they had a great talent pool of black athletes to select from, they chose to continue with segregation. Black athletes had to leave home and travel to the North or West to have an opportunity to play and further their education.

That approach hurt Southern schools, as they watched black athletes excel at schools outside of the region. Sports is about winning, so it was only a matter of time before some school brought on a black player.

That school was Maryland, who recruited Darrell Hill in 1963. Hill said that he did not want to be like Jackie Robinson, he just wanted to play football, but he endured the same treatment that Robinson did. He was subjected to racial slurs and taunts, spit on, and physically abused by not only his opponents, but his teammates as well.

Signing Hill made waves in the ACC, as there were bylaws and agreements between schools not to use black players. South Carolina and Clemson threatened to leave the conference because Maryland had a black player.

When Maryland traveled to Clemson for a game, Hill received death threats and he was concerned that there would be a sniper in the stands. In the stadium he heard chants of "Kill the nigger" from the 50,000 white fans in attendance.

Blacks were not allowed in the stadium, so they had to watch the games from outside of the venue on a dirt hill that was called "Nigger Hill." Hill had a great game in his debut for Maryland, and the black fans on the dirt hill cheered loudly after every big play that he made.

Hill opened the floodgates, as a number of Southern schools started to sign black players. But all of those schools were in the ACC. By 1966, half of their teams had black players, but there were still no blacks in the SEC and SWC. Half of the schools in the SEC had been integrated by that point, but the football teams were still all white.

The SWC followed the ACC's lead when Baylor and SMU started to sign black players, but the SEC was still holding on to their white traditions.

In 1967, five black students walked on to Alabama's football team, but none of them made it. Head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, who had coached black players while coaching at Maryland, indicated that he wanted to recruit black players, but the administrators and the fan base would not have any part of it.

That all changed in 1970. Alabama was unable to play a number of teams from the North because many of those schools did not want to play a team that was still entrenched in segregation. So Bryant looked out west, and USC agreed to travel into the Deep South for a match up of two of the best programs in the nation.

When game day arrived the black population in Tuscaloosa was rooting for the road team. They wanted to see USC, who featured black athletes, whip up on a team that did not allow them to play, who played for a school that did not want to grant them admission. When USC's bus drove through the black communities, people lined the streets to root them on.

As game time neared, Alabama players and fans were surprised to see the amount of black players on USC's roster. USC had an all black backfield, which included Jimmy Jones, a black quarterback.

Alabama players and fans were even more surprised to see running back Sam Cunningham, who is black, run right over and right by Alabama defenders as if they did not belong on the same field with him. The all white Alabama defenders were no match for the size, strength, and speed Cunningham possessed. On only 12 carries Cunningham rushed for 135 yards, and he had two touchdowns in the first quarter alone.

The final score was 42-21 in favor of USC, but that game was over from the first half, and the all white crowd at the game could only sit there in shock, watching what black athletes were capable of doing.

In a roundabout way, Cunningham single handedly ended segregation on Alabama's football team. After the game was over, Bryant said to USC head coach John McKay, "I can't thank you enough for what you did for me today."

Bryant was alluding to his desire to recruit black players, and that getting blown out at the hands of black players would change the culture at Alabama.

It looks like Bryant was right, because a white Alabama fan was overheard the next day saying, "We need a Sam Cunningham."

The very next year Alabama had a black player on their roster, and now 40 years later, nearly their entire team is black.

Governor George Wallace was correct when he said, "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow..." But he was wrong when he said, "Segregation forever." Seeing that Alabama has won six national championships since they brought in black players, the folks in Alabama should be thankful that he was wrong. Well, at least in terms of college football.

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Black History Month: Desegregating college football - Los Angeles Sentinel

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Southern football was reserved for white players only, but when USC's Sam Cunningham ran over, and right by them, Southern whites knew that they needed black athletes to compete. By Jason LewisSentinel Sports Editorjasonl@lasentinel.net "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!"

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This story was written about Willie because our students got him nominated for MSSHOF.

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Chris Marquette

Picayune Item

Imagine pulling up to a college football game you are about to play in and seeing your number on a dummy hanging from a noose in the late 1960s in southern Mississippi. That was reality for Willie Heidelberg.

One of Heidelberg's sisters, Janice Stevens, lives in California and recalls fondly how determined and humble Heidelberg was to get an education.

"When I think about Willie, I think about him being a man of his word. If he said it, then he's gonna do it, and you can consider it done," Stevens said. "He said even though there are a lot of things happening at college, like people getting up when he sits down, he said he was going to school for his education, that's what he made up his mind to do and he wasn't going to let other people affect him."

Balancing collegiate football and a full course-load can be a trying experience. For Heidelberg, being the first black football player to play NCAA Division I football in the state of Mississippi brought out a lot of hatred towards him.

According to his sister Janice, Heidelberg battled unrelenting racism while leading the University of Southern Mississippi past the No. 4 ranked football team in the country-the Archie Manning-led Ole Miss Rebels. For these reasons Heidelberg was recently announced as an inductee of the 2016 Class of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

He died on Oct. 15, 2013 from a heart attack. Purvis Middle School Principal Frank Bunnell said he read Heidelberg's obituary in the newspaper and wondered why Heidelberg wasn't a household name. He assigned his 7 th graders to do a research project about Heidelberg because he said the man had a huge impact on the state of Mississippi and needed to be recognized. The kids talked to many of Heidelberg's former coaches. Now 9 th graders at Purvis High school, they began the nomination process in 2013. They submitted an application by May of 2014 recommending Heidelberg for induction into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

The Lumberton native, known as "Wee" Willie Heidelberg because he stood 5 foot 5 inches tall and weighed 143 pounds, graduated from John Jefferson High School in Purvis. Jefferson was the black high school before schools were integrated.

After excelling as a running back in high school, Heidelberg went on to attend Pearl River Community College in 1968 and 1969 where he was the first black football player. In 1969 he led the team to a 9-0 record and a MACJC State Championship. He rushed 140 times for 910 yards that year said Stan Caldwell, director of sports information for PRCC.

It was when he transferred to USM in 1970 that he gained widespread fame for his role in the Golden Eagles' enormous 30-14 upset over Heisman hopeful Manning and Ole Miss in 1970.

Rick Cleveland, who was a freshman at USM and was assistant sports editor of the Hattiesburg American, covered the game in Oxford. Cleveland said he had three carries for 38 yards and scored on two, 11 yard touchdown runs.

"At the time they just thought they needed to use him sparingly so he wouldn't get hurt. Willie showed courage on two fronts breaking the color barrier and simply playing Division I football at 140 pounds. He faced both physical danger in the sport and racism," Cleveland said.

Hamp Cook, who was the offensive line coach at USM, told Cleveland he couldn't wait to see how well his line blocked on Willie's two touchdowns. When Cook actually saw the film Cleveland recalled Cook said "We didn't block anybody. Willie just dodged them all." Cleveland said it could have been touch football and they wouldn't have gotten him down on his two touchdown runs.

When Cleveland talked to Heidelberg after the Ole Miss game, he said Heidelberg was just happy to play Division I football and to receive an education.

"To remain so humble all these years is remarkable to me to achieve what he achieved. It was the mark of a true gentleman," Cleveland said.

Michael Tatum, who played football in high school and at PRCC with Heidelberg, spoke to Purvis Middle School about the racial adversity they faced. Tatum recalled they were in the lunchroom at PRCC and a guy spilled a milkshake on Willie intentionally where Willie just got up cleaned himself and walked away.

Tina Holder, one of Heidelberg's youngest sisters, still lives in his native Lumberton. She recalled a story about how her brother came back to his dorm at USM and saw the letters "KKK" carved into his door. He took an ink pen and wrote "King Kennedy King," she said. King standing for civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and Kennedy standing for President John F. Kennedy, also a proponent of civil rights.

Holder echoed her sister's sentiments of Heidelberg's determination saying "he was a very quiet person, but had great character and if he said he was going to do something, he would follow through on it."

Often, people still tell Holder how much they looked up to Heidelberg in Lumberton.

After his playing days were done, Heidelberg spent 1973-1998 as a teacher and coach at Murrah High School in Jackson. In 1998, he became an assistant football coach at Belhaven College until his death. He was 63.

He will be inducted into the 2016 Class of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame on July 30, 2016 at the Jackson Convention Complex.

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Football star Heidelberg recognized | Picayune Item

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Chris Marquette Picayune Item Imagine pulling up to a college football game you are about to play in and seeing your number on a dummy hanging from a noose in the late 1960s in southern Mississippi. That was reality for Willie Heidelberg. One of Heidelberg's sisters, Janice Stevens, lives in California and recalls fondly [...]

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MS Sports Hall of Fame: Willie Heidelberg

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MS Sports Hall of Fame: Willie Heidelberg

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Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum

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RIP: Wee Willie Heidelburg, a 143-pound giant

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Willie Heidelburg, a tiny, kind, mild-mannered man who never sought the spotlight but flitted into it nonetheless in October 1970, has died. Heidelburg, an assistant coach at Belhaven, was the only...

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As it does seemingly every year, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame announced a stellar class of inductees Monday at its museum.

There's Wesley Walls, the two-way All-American star at Ole Miss who was a four-time All Pro in the NFL. Jackie Sherrill led Mississippi State to the 1998 SEC West championship, took the Bulldogs to six bowl games overall and won 180 games at four schools. Larry Smith was maybe the finest basketball player Alcorn State has ever produced and averaged 9.2 rebounds a game during a 13-season NBA career. Kay James won 488 women's basketball games in 27 years as a head coach, 22 of them at Southern Miss. Sean Brewer was a three-time Division III All-American at Millsaps and, like Walls, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame earlier this year.

But no one had the story that Willie Heidelberg did, because who else became the first black player at one of the major college football programs in Mississippi when he enrolled at Southern Miss in 1970? Who else was nominated by a group of students who learned about him as part of a Black History Month project? Heidelberg was.

It was after Heidelberg's death on Oct. 15, 2013, at the age of 63, that Purvis Middle School assistant principal Frank Bunnell got interested in this project. They were teaching a class of accelerated and gifted students about how to conduct real, non copy-and-paste research when, in coordination with Black History Month, they started learning about Heidelberg (who was from Purvis and attended segregated Jefferson High School). The kids found out that even though Heidelberg was 5-foot-5 and 143 pounds, he had played two years at Pearl River Community College, went to Southern Miss and in the Golden Eagles' upset of then-No. 4 Ole Miss in 1970, Heidelberg had run for two touchdowns. He finished up his career, then coached at Murrah and Belhaven up until his death. They also found out this: Not only was he not in the Hall of Fame, he was not even nominated.

"We were blown away by the kind of character he had, and the impact he had on people," said Bunnell, who is now the principal. "It became a passion of ours to see him on this list of nominations. We had no idea he would even be inducted so soon. It was just get him on this list to honor his family and honor what he means to everybody, anybody who has faced obstacles or gone against monumental odds."

So the class got to work. They collected oral histories from everyone they could find that knew Heidelberg and played with him, and then brought all of that information to the Hall of Fame. It became a project for the entire grade of students, which are now high school freshmen. The five who did the heavy lifting were in attendance Monday to see Heidelberg's sister, Tina Holder, stand and be honored on his behalf. Heidelberg and the other six nominees will be officially inducted on July 30.

"None of this would really be possible without them," Holder said.

Said Allen Cameron, one of the students: "It was very exciting, just to have that feeling of everything we worked for to get him recognized as the person he was paid off. It was something he deserved."

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Purvis students get Heidelberg into Hall

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As it does seemingly every year, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame announced a stellar class of inductees Monday at its museum. There's Wesley Walls, the two-way All-American star at Ole Miss who was a four-time All Pro in the NFL.

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"Willie was humble. He was caring. He was thoughtful. He was loyal. He loved young people and cared deeply about the young people he taught and coached ... Above all else-and this goes back to his days as a 140-pound halfback-Willie was courageous," Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum Director Rick Cleveland said this morning at the funeral of his friend, Willie Heidelberg.

Heidelberg died Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Jackson of an apparent heart attack. In some ways, Heidelberg's courage is best exemplified by an event in 1970 when the University of Southern Mississippi defeated Ole Miss 30-14 in what stands to this day as one of the biggest upsets in Mississippi history.

It had been a tumultuous season up to that point. San Diego State University thrashed Southern Miss the week before, and Mississippi State University tore the team to pieces the next week. Heidelberg and Southern Miss managed to beat Archie Manning and the No. 4-ranked Rebels.

The then-20-year-old Heidelberg was the only black player on either team. In fact, he was the first African American football player at any of the Mississippi's three historically white major college football programs.

Heidelberg eventually moved to Jackson and took a job coaching at Belhaven College. Many Jacksonians will remember him as the official scorekeeper for the high school basketball championships at "the big house."

"Willie Heidelberg was a football pioneer," Cleveland-who spoke at Heidelberg's funeral-said. "He paved the way for others, for future generations. He showed white and black folks alike that they could play and work together and be better off for it."

Dr. Roger Parrott, president of Belhaven University-where Heidelberg was the running back coach for the Blazers-said in a press release that it would be hard to imagine Belhaven football without Heidelberg.

"He's been there since the beginning, and has been a voice of significance in the life of every Belhaven football player," Parrott said. "I always knew we could lean on Willie because he honored the Lord in everything he did as he cared for our players. He was a winner every single day."

Rick Cleveland said he once asked Heidelberg, forty years after the big game against Ole Miss, whether he understood the kind of history he made that day in Oxford.

"No," Heidelberg replied. "All I wanted was a good education and a chance to run the football."
Tyler Cleveland-Rick Cleveland's son-contributed to this story. Correction 10/21/2013: This story has been updated to reflect a correction. A previous version incorrectly stated that Rick Cleveland delivered Willie Heidelberg's eulogy. Heidelberg's pastor, Joseph Taylor, gave the eulogy. The Jackson Free Press apologizes for the error.

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"Willie was humble. He was caring. He was thoughtful. He was loyal. He loved young people and cared deeply about the young people he taught and coached ... Above all else-and this goes back to his days as a 140-pound halfback-Willie was courageous," Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum Director Rick Cleveland said this morning at the funeral of his friend, Willie Heidelberg.