Scoreboard, Baby fumbles boycott
Book is unfair to memory of Lee Brock
Rich Linde, 26 July 2011

After mangling its description of Gil Dobie's tenure at the University of Washington, Scoreboard, Baby misstates some facts, while leaving out others, pertaining to the coaching period (1957-1974) of Jim Owens, in what appears to be another lame attempt at revising the record. [Armstrong, Perry].

For example, one of the incidents involving racial unrest at Washington concerned the 1969 boycott of the UCLA game. A UPI story, printed in the Ogden Standard Examiner, described the trip to Los Angeles for Washington's next game with UCLA as follows: Washington's team flew to Los Angeles Friday, minus (12) black members (four who were suspended plus (eight) who skipped the trip because of threats against them and their families).

Specifically, the story goes on to say, "Four (black) players were suspended Thursday by coach Jim Owens for failure to express 'a 100 per cent commitment to Husky football.' Joe Kearney, director of sports programs at the university, said the remaining (eight) black players wanted to make the trip to Los Angeles for Saturday's game with UCLA. But he and assistant coach Carver Gayton, himself a (black), decided the (eight) should remain behind in the interest of their safety. 'The threat not only was implied, it was overt,' Kearney said. He said nearly 200 persons, mostly blacks, had gathered at the Crew House, where the football squad lives. 'There were rocks in some of their pockets,' Kearney said. 'There were threats against the families and the black athletes themselves.'" [UPI].

The eight black players returned to practice on the following Monday.

Scoreboard, Baby's revisionist history: "Washington's next game was at UCLA. When the Huskies left for the airport, the team's eight remaining black players elected to stay behind to boycott the game."

Besides ignoring the turbulence at the Crew House and the directives of Kearney and Gayton, while misstating the intentions of the eight black players -- making no mention of them returning to practice on the following Monday -- the book is unfair to the memory of the late Lee Brock.

As one of my cohorts wrote to me, "All the authors (Armstrong and Perry) had to do was look in their own newspaper (The Seattle Times, on October 31, 1969) to see that the eight wanted to play but were 'encouraged' by the local black community not to play. Lee Brock, a Garfield High School grad, said, 'There's no way I can go down there. We have to come back here and live in this community.' He also said, 'I don't know about the offense but the defense is ready to play.'

"They were not boycotting the game!"

At the presentation ceremonies of the Jim Owens' statue, Brock criticized those who blocked the team bus 34 years ago, saying protesters showed disrespect by failing to consult him, a team leader and co-captain of the team.

Brock was the 1969 winner of Washington's most coveted award, "The Guy Flaherty Most Inspirational Award." He passed away in 2009.

References:

[Armstrong, Perry]. Armstrong, Ken; Perry Nick, "Scoreboard, baby: A story of college football, crime, and complicity," Bison Books, 2010.

[Borland]. Reference the press release written by biographer Lynn Borland for a critique of Scoreboard, Baby as it applies to legendary Washington coach Gilmour Dobie.

[UPI], "13 Blacks, Assistant Coach Don't Make Husky Grid Trip," Ogden Standard-Examiner, Saturday, November 1, 1969.