The History of Major Sports in the Southwestern Negro Athletic Conference from 1920 to 1947

Author

Edgar Lee Vernon Sadberry, Prairie View A&M College

Date of Award

8-1947

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Degree Discipline

Physical Education

Abstract

Although hundreds of books have been published concerning the achievements of colored men and women in various fields, almost nothing is in book form to record the exploits of our Negro Southwest Athletic heroes. Not only is there a dearth of published books, but periodicals literature dealing with Southwest Negro contestants is sparse. Yet there is no more stirring racial history than the story of the adventures of southwest Negro boys and girls in sports.

Among the few books on Negro athletics discovered on library shelves are an excellent treatise on football by William H Lewis, and four volumes of the Spalding Athletic Library recording the beginning of organized school and club athletics entitled "Official Handbook, Inner-Scholastic Athletic Association of Middle Atlantic States, for the year 1910-13", edited by the author of "The Negro in Sports," E. B. Henderson, little is mentioned about the southwest Negro athlete. There are a few articles of interest appearing in the files of Negro publications, "The Crisis", "Opportunity", "The Messenger," and a number of extant magazines.

In the last (40) years, numerous stories of sports have appeared in current periodicals written by "Ghost" Penmen, and other feature writers. Although authors of other races have paid tribute to heroic southwest athletes as well as Negro athletes from other sections of the globe, some like the compilers of "Who's Who in Athletics," a publication of the National Society containing four thousand sketches, completly ignore all references to not only the southwest Negro athlete, but Negro athletes in general who have won fame on athletic fields. The complete records of Southwest Negro athletes lie buried in the tons of news print volumes that repose in stacks in libraries or in newspaper morgues.

This thesis is hopefully a beginning of a serious effort to put before the Negro youth the story of how major sports have developed in the southwest over a period of twenty-seven (27) years, various changes and improvements made, outstanding athletes, and is also intended to encourage young people to maintain the racial vigor and health handed down to them by our ancestor s who have survived the vigors of a severe civilization. Too often in the attempt to secure the luxuries of advanced civilization, races of men have neglected the fundamentals. We must learn to put great value on our heritage of strength, speed, endurance, and respect these activities that were the Glory of Greece and Rome before their people lost grace and vitality in a life of contentment, of ease, and of culture.

Committee Chair/Advisor

J. M. Drew

Publisher

Prairie View A&M College

Rights

Date of Digitization

9-13-2021

Contributing Institution

John B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

Recommended Citation

Sadberry, E. L. (1947). The History of Major Sports in the Southwestern Negro Athletic Conference from 1920 to 1947. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pvamu-theses/413