Oklahoma hasn’t forgotten Gautt’s legacy

[milesl]

Here is another article about Oklahoma that the KC star did. They are doing a number of stories of the big 12 at 10 years

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/colleges/big_12_conference/14741257.htm

Posted on Mon, Jun. 05, 2006



Oklahoma hasn’t forgotten Gautt’s legacy

By RANDY COVITZ
The Kansas City Star


1957 PHOTO
Prentice Gautt


NORMAN, Okla. | - NORMAN, Okla. | The enlarged photograph of freshman Prentice Gautt, smiling from behind a stack of a dozen textbooks, greets student-athletes entering the Prentice Gautt Academic Center in the north end of Memorial Stadium.

The same black-and-white photo also adorns the foyer of Evans Hall — the school’s main administration building — as well as a main hallway in the Oklahoma Memorial Union. In all, his picture hangs in at least a half-dozen buildings on campus.

Gautt, more than anyone else, symbolizes the University of Oklahoma’s commitment to diversity, and the ubiquitous photos all over campus honor the man who broke the color barrier at Oklahoma and later became a leader in intercollegiate athletics.

This fall, the university will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gautt’s arrival in 1956 as the first black athlete at Oklahoma. Gautt, who died March 17 in Lawrence after a brief illness, led the Sooners in rushing in 1958 and 1959 and changed the culture of sports in Oklahoma.

“Dr. Prentice Gautt is probably one of the most inspiring and important leaders in University of Oklahoma history,” said Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione. “Everything he experienced, the wonderful achievements, he did with such humility, with such dignity, with such grace.”

Oklahoma had begun admitting black students on a nonsegregated basis in 1950, and final restrictions on undergraduate enrollment were lifted for the 1955-56 academic year. A group of black Oklahoma City professionals raised the funds for Gautt to enroll at Oklahoma, and he played on the Sooners’ freshman team before receiving a scholarship from coach Bud Wilkinson.

“It was a notable change for this area of the country,” Castiglione said. “It took quite a few other schools a long time before they thought about offering an African-American an athletic scholarship.”

By the time Gautt graduated, he was a fan favorite, a two-time All-Big Seven running back, an academic All-American and MVP of Oklahoma’s 21-6 win over Syracuse in the 1959 Orange Bowl. After Gautt spent 1960-67 in the NFL with Cleveland and St. Louis, he embarked on a career in higher education.

In the spring of 2005, Gautt received an honorary doctorate degree from Oklahoma.

“When I think about any of the accomplishments for the initiatives in diversity that have been put in place here, I think back to Prentice Gautt, the person who really helped more than just the University of Oklahoma,” Castiglione said.

[sooneron]

I agree that Gautt has a great place in OU history as far as race relations are concerned, but no higher than Ada Lois Sipuel. She was the ****, as well.

[King Crimson]

http://www.oksenate.gov/senate_artwork/ada_lois_fisher.html

the pic at the link is among the senate art at the capital:


http://www.oksenate.gov/senate_artwork/ada_lois_fisher.html

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher (1924–1995) was represented before the United States Supreme Court by attorneys Thurgood Marshall and Amos T. Hall in efforts to break the racial barriers in higher education in Oklahoma.

Ada Lois Sipuel was born in Chickasha and married Warren Fisher in 1944. She earned a degree from Langston University in 1945 and was chosen by the Oklahoma delegation of the NAACP later that year to serve as plaintiff in litigation to contest Oklahoma’s segregation laws.

In January 1946, Ada Lois applied to the OU law school and was denied admittance because of race. Litigation followed in Cleveland County and the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The case of Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma was successfully petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court by a writ of certiorari, and attorneys Hall and Marshall argued the appeal in January 1948. In a swift decision, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that entitled Ada to secure a legal education afforded by a state institution and that it be provided for her as soon as it would for any other class of citizens. However, it did not rule segregation unconstitutional.

In January 1948, the Langston College of Law was created in the Oklahoma State Capitol with three part time instructors and one potential student. Ada refused to attend. Instead, further litigation was initiated to prove the two law schools were not equal.

Ada Lois was finally permitted to attend classes at the University of Oklahoma law school in 1949, although under segregated conditions. She graduated in 1951 and passed the State Bar examination the same year. She practiced law in Chickasha and later became head of the Social Studies Department at Langston University. She earned a master’s degree in history at the University of Oklahoma in 1968.

In April 1992, more than 45 years after she was denied admission to the law school, Governor David Walters appointed Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher to the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents. Her son, Bruce Fisher, now works for the Oklahoma Historical Society, and her daughter, Charlene Factory, works for the Oklahoma City Public School District. Ada’s sister, Helen Huggins, lives in Oklahoma City.