The Chronicle On Duke’s First African-American Football Players

The Chronicle has a really fine article up on the experiences of Ernie Jackson and Clarence “C.G.” Newsome, the first two African-American players to play football for Duke.

It’s an eye opener in many ways and something we really recommend everyone read. These two men shared a lot but came away with very different feelings about their experiences at Duke.

There is one mistake in this column though: UCLA’s Lew Alcindor never played in Cameron. There were two games scheduled in North Carolina during Alcindor’s freshmen year when freshmen were not eligible for varsity play.

John Wooden was upset about how (at least) one of his players was treated but it was not Alcindor who could not travel with the varsity. We seem to remember reading that Wooden was angry about how Kenny Washington was treated but can’t find verification of that.

Duke won both games in North Carolina then traveled to LA the following year and played twice there, losing by 34 and 20.