Black players help integrate county, towns

Murphy – When the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, it caused great turmoil across the United States. Although there wasn’t much in the mountains of far-western North Carolina as it was implemented, there were challenges – especially when it came to sports.

In the Smoky Mountain Conference, four schools had African-American students and athletes that first hit the field during the mid-1960s – Sylva-Webster, Murphy, Franklin and Andrews.

Murphy’s first African-American players were Phil Blackwell and Roscoe Hall, who is better known for his musical talents. Leslie and Clayton McKinney were Andrews’ first African-American football players, while J.T. Nicely holds that distinction in Hayesville. The player who made the biggest splash in the conference was Sylva’s Tommy Love.

As a small child, I was admitted into C.J. Harris Hospital in Sylva after having a tough bout with a virus. My father came into my room all excited with a black gentleman, who was an orderly at the hospital in tow.

My father was a Baptist preacher, but he was also a huge football fan. The gentleman with him was Tommy Love’s dad, Sylvester Love.

I could tell dad was excited about this, but at 6 years old I didn’t realize why. Well, he had good reason to be.

Tommy Love led Sylva to back-to-back state championships in 1965-66. He was a Parade magazine All-American, Shrine Bowl star and one of the most coveted recruits in the land.

Love went on to play at Michigan State. At that time, the Southeastern Conference and most Southern schools were not recruiting black athletes.

Love’s career was tragically cut short, as he suffered a heart attack at age 22. He rushed for 1,764 yards during his senior season at Sylva and led all rushers at Michigan State as a sophomore.

The first year North Carolina had black players in the Shrine Bowl was 1966, when Love rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns. It was the first win for the North Carolina team over South Carolina in six years, as they won 34-14.

Murphy’s next black player showed up in 1966, when Maurice “Mo” Kincaid donned the black and gold. I was personal friends with Mo years later, so I have a lot of stories about him.

These players were stars in their hometowns, but they were not always welcome on some of the opposing teams’ fields. They faced racial slurs, an extra hit or two in the piles and other aggressive acts that usually went unnoticed by the referees.

On one occasion, Murphy received a letter from another school in the conference telling them not to bring their black football players. Coach Terry Postell handed the letter to Mo after a Thursday practice.

Postell told Mo that nobody would think less of him if he didn’t want to play. “Mo, those folks don’t like black boys over there,” he said. Kincaid’s response was, “Us black boys don’t like them, either.” Needless to say, he played, compiling more than 200 yards rushing with a couple of touchdowns as Murphy won 25-12.

Mo also told of a bad loss to Hendersonville. As he described it, “We went over there for a football game, and a track meet broke out.”

Mo had a son, Lamont, who played years later, and every time Lamont didn’t meet dad’s standards in the game, Mo would chew him out. After witnessing this a couple of times, I told Lamont every time dad gets on you just say, “Hendersonville.”

Murphy saw its first female African-American athlete in 1967, when Cynthia Blount became a Lady Bulldog. More black athletes showed up in Willie Bush and Jeff Jackson.

Jeff was co-captain on the football team in 1968. He also scored three touchdowns against Sylva Webster, plus scored 20 points and had 137 yards against Cherokee, while facing hostile and sometimes drunk crowds yelling racial slurs.

At Swain in 1970, after Willie Bush had been getting punched after being tackled and listened to racial slurs all night, he came up swinging after a play late in the fourth quarter. Mitch Myers picked Willie up and carried him back to the huddle, but not before some Swain fans had come onto the field and a melee ensured.

It got so bad that the game was called, and Murphy’s players had to be escorted to their bus by law enforcement officers. Note: The Bulldogs won their first state championship that year.

Murphy’s first back lineman showed up in the early 1970s in the person of Ray Smith, who was big. A buddy who played for West Fannin tells the story that it was his job to take Ray out on a kickoff, so he went as hard as he could and collided with Ray. My buddy said the next thing he remembered, he was waking up with Ray standing over him, laughing.

There are three retired jerseys in the trophy case at Murphy, and two of those belong to African-American players. The first one that was ever retired was that of Willie Brown.

In Willie’s senior year, he broke Charlie “Choo-Choo” Justice’s state rushing record and led the Bulldogs to their first outright state 2A championship. He was recruited by almost every major college program, but chose to play at Appalachian State.

Even in 1974, Willie faced racial slurs in many places where the Bulldogs played, but he seemed to use them as fuel. On one occasion, a few fans were yelling racial taunts during warmups.

In response, Willie rushed for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns to lead Murphy to a 42-14 win. The Bulldogs went 14-0 and were 2A state champs.

Other African-American athletes made major contributions to Murphy athletics in 1986-87. The son of J.T. Nicely, Mel Nicely, was on those two teams. Mel was one of the fastest players I have ever seen on the football field.

Making the 1986 team even more dangerous was a 200-pound fullback named D.J. Cox. Another player on this team made Murphy history. His name was Carl Pickens, who is the second of those three jerseys in the school’s trophy case.

Carl was the state high jump champion, broke the season receiving record at Murphy, was a Parade All-American, as an outstanding basketball player and had several major Division 1 college offers. He went on to play at the University of Tennessee and was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals, where he became a Pro Bowl receiver. He remains the most successful Smoky Mountain Conference player in NFL history.

African-American athletes have been a big part of Murphy’s success and, in the years since then, even the schools that were unfriendly to them eventually had black players on their teams.