On Monday, January 20, we will observe the birthday of Martin Luther King. This day will always be a special day for me.
I had a dream and that was to go to college and play baseball. I just didn’t have the grades for a Big Time School. I received a call one day from my former coach at St. Peter’s High School in New Brunswick. His name was Bud Murphy. He said, “How would you like to go down South and play for the University of Alabama?” Murphy said, “You have the G.I. Bill and some extra money in your pocket, plus you will have the greatest athletic director in the U.S.A. and his name is Paul Bear Bryant.”
I was on my way to a place called Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Things were much different when I was down there. The players from Alabama or any other state could care less about what color you were. The problem was the cities and towns and Governor George Wallace didn’t help.
I saw Martin Luther King Jr. once after a demonstration in Birmingham. I gave him the victory sign and he returned it with a smile and a wave. Paul Bear Bryant was football coach and also the athletic director while I was there. He was far ahead of the game. He wanted black players and he got them. He scheduled a good Alabama team against a great U.S.C. team. The game was played at Legion Field in Birmingham before a full house. U.S.C. was loaded with great black players. U.S.C. defeated Alabama and the game wasn’t even close. Bryant got his point across to the press.
Meanwhile Martin Luther King Jr. was laying the ground work for his dream but tragedy struck on April 14, 1968. Martin Luther King was assassinated. I sent a sympathy card to Coretta Scott King. She sent me a program from the funeral at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and a picture of her husband. That picture still hangs in my den. I used to get a Christmas card from Coretta every year until she got very sick and lost her battle with cancer. Could Martin Luther King Jr. have become President of the United States? I don’t think so, but he laid the foundation for Barack Obama so forty years later his dream came true.
College sports was moving forward, too, my friends. Rutgers had one spot left at the end of their schedule. In 1978 Frank Burns called Bear Bryant and asked him to come up and play before a full house. The game was on and an undefeated Bama team almost lost that game. I had a sports club at that time in East Brunswick in East Brunswick. I asked both coaches to speak at our meeting after the game. Frank Burns spoke at that meeting but Bear Bryant couldn’t make it. He sent me a wire. It said, “Sorry I can’t make it to speak at your club, but I have to go back and prepare for our Bowl Game.” He also said, “Say hello to Frank for me!!!! I think that Frank Burns is the greatest football coach that Rutgers ever had,” signed Paul Bear Bryant.
Yes, my friends because over the years, I’ve had the privilege of meeting some of the greatest and nicest people in the world.
-Thomas Francis Clark
