Timeline

Sports Integration Highlights

• 1950s
• Brown v. Board of Education

  May 17, 1954

  U.S. Supreme Court delivers its decision in Brown v. Board of Education, eliminating the “separate but equal” policy in American public schools, sparking the civil rights movement.

• 1960s

• Men's Track and Field

  1961

  Phillip Edwards becomes the first African-American student-athlete at WVU, participating in men's track and field.

• Football

  1962

  Dick Leftridge and Roger Alford become the first African-Americans to receive football scholarships at WVU.

• Men’s Basketball

  1964

  Jim Lewis, Ron Williams, Ed Harvard, and Norman Holmes make WVU sports history as the first four African-American players listed on the freshman basketball team.

• Men’s Soccer

  1965

  George Woods, Jr. becomes the first African-American student-athlete to play men’s soccer at WVU. A goalkeeper, Woods helped WVU win a Southern Conference championship that year.

• Wrestling

  1965

  Norman Hill becomes the first African-American student-athlete to wrestle at WVU.

• 1970s

• Football

  1970

  Garrett Ford becomes the first African-American men’s assistant coach at WVU, coaching running backs.

• Football

  1971

  Jim Braxton is drafted by the Buffalo Bills and becomes the blocking weapon for star running back O. J. Simpson. As Simpson remarks, most of his 11,236 career rushing yards were due to Braxton.

• Title IX Passed

  June 23, 1972

  Title IX of the U.S. Education Amendments is passed, prohibiting discrimination based on sex in educational institutions.

• Football

  1973

  Ben Williams is named the starting quarterback for the Mountaineers, the first African-American to do so.

• Men's Basketball

  1974

  Jackie Joe Robinson becomes the first African-American men’s basketball graduate assistant coach.

• Men's Basketball

  1974

  The first all-African-American starting five in men’s basketball is fielded – Levi Phillips, Eartha Faust, Warren Baker, Jerome Anderson, and Larry Carr.

• Women’s Track

  1976

  Cheryl Nabors helps found first varsity Women's Track and Field team at WVU, becoming one of the first African-American female student-athletes at WVU.

• Baseball

  1976

  Bruce Clinton accepts his scholarship offer to become WVU’s first African-American baseball player.

• Men’s Tennis

  1977

  Harry Moore becomes the first African-American student-athlete to participate in men’s tennis at WVU.

• Athletic Administration

  1977

  Garrett Ford becomes WVU's first African-American athletic administrator.

• 1980s

• Women's Tennis

  1981

  Shirley Robinson becomes the first African-American student-athlete to participate in women’s tennis at WVU.

• Women's Basketball

  December 21, 1984

  Georgeann Wells becomes the first woman to register a dunk in an official college basketball game. She did it with a men’s-sized ball.

• Olympic Wrestling

  1985

  Nate Carr becomes the first African-American Olympic sports assistant coach, coaching wrestling.

• Men's Basketball

  1986

  Ron Brown becomes the first African-American full-time men’s basketball assistant coach.

• Gymnastics

  1987

  Yvette Clark was the first African-American student-athlete to participate in women’s gymnastics at WVU.

• 1990s
• Women’s Basketball

  1993

  WVU welcomes its first African-American women’s basketball assistant coach, Regina Woods.

• 2000s

• Men's Soccer

  2006

  Marlon LeBlanc is hired as the head coach of men’s soccer at WVU, becoming the first African-American to be named as the head coach of a WVU sports team.

• Women's Basketball

  2006

  The first all African-American starting five– Ashley Powell, Britney Davis-White, LaQuita Owens, Chakia Cole and Olayinka Sanni.