BY KELSEY JONES/Special to Cougfan.com
IT’S PRINTED ON a long piece of thick and weathered photo paper about two-feet long. The edges are frayed from wear and it bears the tell-tale musty yellow color of an old document. At first glance it looks like any other old photograph of a football team. The photograph is dated from 1926 and depicts 30 young, fit men standing in a line on the field in Martin Stadium. But one player in the middle is African American.
In the present day, such a photo would be noticeable for the lack of diversity.
But less than 100 years ago, as racially charged riots split conversations of race across the United States open, it was rare to see African Americans on college teams outside of HBCUs (Historically Blacks Colleges and Universities).
The man in the middle if that 1926 Washington State College team photo is Munro S. Wilson. His name is on the t-shirt WSU teams are wearing in honor of Black History Month, along with five others well known to Cougar Nation.
According to admission records, he attended WSC from September 21, 1925 until June 16, 1926 and then again from September 27, 1926 until February 5, 1927. He lived in Ferry Hall.
But until retired WSU sports information director — and WSU Hall of Fame inductee — Rod Commons’ extensive research, the color line in Washington State football had been thought to be first crossed by Duke Washington, Bill Holmes and Howard McCants in the early 1950s. But the photograph points to a groundbreaking athlete a quarter century earlier. For perspective, consider that when Duke Washington was the captain of the Cougars in 1954, he became the first Black athlete ever to step on the field at University of Texas’ Memorial Stadium … and that the University of Alabama was still 17 years away from integrating its football program.
Born on Dec. 16, 1904 in Topeka, Kansas, Wilson attended Topeka High. WSU archivist Mark O’English found an address in an old Seattle Directory that placed Wilson in the Emerald City from 1924 to 1925. His occupation was listed as a porter. It’s not conclusive that it’s the same Munro Wilson but if it is, he most likely moved to Seattle for work and then decided to go to school at WSC shortly thereafter.
A photo from WSU’s 1926 Chinook Yearbook:
Athletic records show a Munro Wilson as a freshman award winner in 1925. According to The Daily Evergreen archives, Wilson played right halfback and right guard.
WILSON’S CASE IS a curious one, there remains a lot of missing information after he left WSC. It is difficult to know why he left, how he was treated while he was at WSC or what sorts of obstacles he faced on a day to day basis as an African American.
Research of various census records in Kansas, California, Seattle and King County in 1910, 1920, 1930 and 1940 yield tantalizing clues, but ultimately can’t be deemed conclusive.
A Seattle Times article from December 2, 2008 outlines the work that a Leahe Wilson did throughout her lifetime with schools and her church. That same article lists her husband as Munro Wilson, who is stated to have died in 1977. Seattle Times obituary archives and Washington State archives both list Munro S. Wilson’s death as April of 1977.
Although it could not be confirmed, the Munro Wilson that played football and became the first African American football player at WSC was most likely the husband of Leahe Wilson.
Leahe Wilson was active in Seattle’s Mount Zion Baptist Church, which lent another small detail. Reverend Dr. Phyllis Beaumonte’s father knew Munro Wilson, but he passed away leaving just a few stories of Wilson. Beaumonte mentioned a trip her father talked about involving an extended stay for Munro Wilson in Alaska, but little other information was present. The article states that Munro Wilson was a Boeing engineer.
But in the book Chips off the Old Block, Marguerite Seymour Lewis writes that after his time at WSC, Munro Seymour Wilson traveled around the world as a merchant seaman, before embarking on a 28-year career with Puget Sound Bridge and Ship Building Company (Lockheed). Is it possible Lockheed and Boeing were confused for one another? The book goes on to state he was married to Leahe, and an active member of Seattle’s historic Mt. Zion Baptist Church.
And so from when he left WSC up until his death, concrete details about Wilson are cloudy. The majority of his life remains unknown. History doesn’t always lend itself to an explanation. The fuller story about the life of the man in the photograph that made history remains a mystery.
But Munro S. Wilson lives in that old photograph as a timeless reminder of the racial divides that existed and the repercussions that are still reverberating through society today.
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