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

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Is Kansas Sincere In Protesting Clint Ross?

How Can Kansas Justify Her Contentions?

1. Was there a gentlemen's agreement among conference representatives? The evidence does not prove it.

2. Was there any official action? Each representative says there was not.

3. If there had been such an agreement, has the Missouri Valley Conference ever made a rule retroactive? Never.

4. Is Coach Stiehm afraid to play Kansas? Let the past and the following statement from the coach tell the story:

"Nebraska will play Kansas any time and asks no quarter, but she does not propose to allow herself to be crippled thru the petty and mean tactics of the Kansans."

The latest mine in the internal warfare of the Missouri Valley Conference has been exploded by the Kansas management. From somewhere out of the dust and confusion of the representatives of the conference the Kansas athletic board has collected a jumble of words and ideas on the color question and woven together a wonderfully vague statement of a "gentlemen's agreement." This flimsy affair is claimed to set forth a united stand by the conference to the effect that a color line will be unofficially maintained in all conference teams. As a matter of fact, the very sources from which these ideas were culled do not seem to be able to recollect a "gentlemen's" agreement. And on this very unstable platform the Jayhawker athletic board authorizes its manager to make the statement that Nebraska is afraid to play Kansas - that Stiehm is afraid to risk his reputation in the game of the 15th. And all because Nebraska refuses to recognize a color line in her athletics, believing that "a man's a man, for a' that."

The following statement from Chancellor Avery expresses the way the university would view the question:

Chancellor Avery has received a communication from Kansas University in regard to our playing Clinton Ross on the football team. He announces that after having gone over the matter very carefully and not having expressed any opinions as to whether or not there was evidence of a gentlemen's agreement, commencing at the conference at Columbia, Missouri, that negroes should not play in Conference games, he will request the Board of Regents at their next meeting to pass a rule that the right of students of the University of Nebraska to participate in any athletic contest, intercollegiate or otherwise, shall not be abridged on account of race or color. And, furthermore, that Nebraska will not remain in any athletic association or conference where such right is abridged.

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Kansas Protests Ross

Manager Hamilton Officially Notifies Guy Reed That Jayhawkers Object

Coach Says Ross Will Play

Southerners Become Personal in Accusing Stiehm of Fear to Meet Kansas - Past Scores Tell the Tale.

The efforts of the Kansas athletic board to have its protest against the playing of Clinton Ross, the burly Cornhusker guard, sustained became officially evident yesterday. Guy Reed, the Nebraska manager, received a letter from Manager Hamilton of the Jayhawks stating his grievances and asking for immediate consideration. He stated that there was a "gentleman's agreement" that negroes would not be played in the conference games, despite any claim to the contrary. Enclosed in this letter were copies of letters fro the faculty representatives of the universities in the conference, purporting to prove that such an unwritten agreement actually was arrived at.

This is the culmination of a newspaper war of words which the Kansas manager has been waging against Nebraska for several weeks. The Kansans claim that owing to the so-called "agreement" Nebraska is showing a lack of professional honor in presenting Ross in the lineup. The question was first raised before the Washburn game, but the Kansas authorities quickly hushed the rumor that such a protest had come from their headquarters. It was thot that after a satisfactory explanation was made to Washburn, the matter was dropped. But recently the southerners have come out openly in demanding that Ross be retired.

At the last meeting of the Missouri Valley Conference Missouri and Washington universities were strenuously active in bringing up the question of the color line in athletics. Dr. Clapp, the Nebraska representative, objected and no official action was taken. The Kansans claim, however, that an agreement was arrived at, and that Nebraska is now evading the spirit of the agreement.

"The whole matter is an underhanded attempt on the part of the Kansas management to humiliate Nebraska to such an extent that she will withdraw Ross," said Manager Reed yesterday. "There was absolutely no agreement, and Ross will be played against Kansas on the 15th. Coach Stiehm has been publicly humiliated in a statement authorized by the Kansas athletic board, when Hamilton stated that "Stiehm is getting a little bit afraid to risk his reputation in meeting Kansas and is looking for some loophole to avoid the calamity which is sure to follow."

Coach Stiehm smiled grimly when asked for a statement and gave the following message to the Nebraskan: "Nebraska will play Kansas any time and asks no quarter, but does not propose to allow herself to be tactics of the Kansans."

Said Dr. Clapp, who was present at the conference: "The matter of, the color line was discussed, and several of the representatives were in favor of it, but no agreement of any kind was arrived at."