What is UCLAs significance in the history (and historiography) of college football integration?
From 1938-1941, UCLA’s football team sparked significant dialogue about race in the national press (and not just the sport pages). The team featured Kenny Washington and Woody Strode, who would go on to reintegrate the NFL in 1946, as well as Jackie Robinson, who excelled at four sports and later integrated Major League Baseball in 1947. The team was successful on the field (ranked among the top ten in the nation) and African American sportswriters anointed them “black America’s team,” insisting that the gentlemen’s agreement could not possibly apply to a squad so reliant on black athletes. (Two other African Americans were on the team, and between the five at least one was involved in nearly every play.) If segregated schools wanted to face UCLA, they would have to play against black athletes, regardless of where the game took place. As a result, no Southern schools invited the Bruins to the South in those years, although some segregated teams visited Los Angeles (including Texas Chri
