Project Editor: Bradley Earley, History 470: Digital History, Spring 2008

The 1913 Protests by Kansas State and Kansas

Why then was there a protest of Clinton Ross from the Kansas State College Aggies and the Kansas University Jayhawks? This we can see by examining the articles found concerning the issue. According to the Lincoln Daily Star and the Daily Nebraskan from October to November of 1913, the return of Clinton Ross was a great boost for the football team because he was a solid lineman (Ross Dons Uniform Tuesday, Scrimmage Yesterday). Although the articles do refer to Ross as a colored player, there was no denigrating of his character. These articles show the enlightened and progressive attitude of the students, faculty, and people of Lincoln in a time where many people in the United States were prejudiced because of skin color. Ross' play was the first to be protested, since that of Flippin's by Missouri in 1892. In 1913 the two schools to protest Ross' play were, Kansas State College (now Kansas State) as well as Kansas University under the tutelage of Coach Guy Lowman (Kansas Aggs Protest Ross, Kansas and Aggs Draw Color Line). So was the protest by Kansas sincere or were they trying to raise a fuss over nothing (Is Kansas Since. . ., No Conference Rules), according to this article, Kansas thinks that there was a 'gentlemen's agreement' in the Missouri Valley Conference over the participation of an African-American player. The article states that there was no such agreement in the conference. Even through the protest Coach Stiehm states that Ross will play in the game against Kansas (Coach Says Ross Will Play). Not only did Coach Stiehm support Ross' right to play but the Athletic Board at the University also upheld his right to play stating that there was nothing that barred his play in athletics at the University (Ross Will Be In Line-up, Board Says No to Color Protest, Ross Controversy Over). Therefore, the athletic board at the University did not uphold the protests by Kansas and Kansas State. Both contests were won by Nebraska and Ross was praised for his play against Kansas. After the dust settled on the whole protest debacle Nebraska went on to finish the season with a perfect record. Looking back on the protest it is funny to see that Kansas protested the play of Ross from Nebraska but when they played Washburn in the same season there was no protest by them there because of the participation of an African-American player (Gaps In The Color Line). So was the protest just because Kansas was playing a greater foe in Nebraska?