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Show ATHLETIC PROTESTS events afterwards to Delbert Stapley, Wilkinson was surprised to hear Stapley say “we ought not to recruit any Negroes at the ‘Y’.” Wilkinson reminded the LDS apostle that “the opposite direction had been made at the last meeting of the Board [of Trustees] at which [Stapley] was not present, and I would proceed in that direction.”103 Wilkinson had also heard that a “special committee” was preparing to report to top LDS leaders on “the Negro situation.” If such a report concerned BYU, Wilkinson told N. Eldon Tanner, he “wanted to . . . be in on the discussion.”104 (Wilkinson was not invited to help compose the new statement.) Several days later, Wilkinson formally approved construction of a nine-million-dollar athletics center. “If, in the years to come,” he recorded, “our athletic program should be seriously curtailed either because of refusal of other teams to play us or because we ourselves decide to withdraw from inter-collegiate competition . . . this building will probably be known as ‘Wilkinson’s Folly’.” He also huddled with a public relations team “to discuss a national campaign in which we take the offensive in public attitudes toward” BYU.105 Neither the church’s December 15 statement nor the end of the 1969 football season slowed the pace of protest, which in January 1970 shifted to BYU basketball. University of Arizona administrators rebuffed a call by the NAACP to cancel January 8’s game and ban all future relations with BYU.106 The game was delayed ten minutes when a “free-for-all” broke out at the entrance to the gym; nine Arizona students were arrested. Ironically, Arizona’s coach led a local LDS congregation. During the game, Arizona’s three black starters wore black armbands. After the game, Arizona student officers called for the resignation of their university’s president.107 Groups of Arizona students protested sporadically throughout the semester, including picketing local LDS worship services.108 The student body officers of Utah’s combined colleges and universities countered that “only the innocent student or athlete suffers as a consequence of any such action.”109 BYU’s 103 Ibid., December 3, 1969. Wilkinson, memorandum of a Conference with N. Eldon Tanner, December 3, 1969, Wilkinson Papers. For more on the statement, see Goates, Harold B. Lee, 379–80; Sheri L. Dew, Go Forward with Faith: The Biography of Gordon B. Hinckley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1996), 295–96; Gary James Bergera, “Tensions in David O. McKay’s First Presidencies,” Journal of Mormon History 33 (Spring 2007): 222–41. 105 Wilkinson, Diary, December 13, 1969. 106 “NAACP Seeks Cancellation of BYU–AU Game,” Provo Daily Herald, January 7, 1969; “Arizona U. Denies NAACP Demands; President Issues Statement Supporting BYU,” Provo Daily Herald, January 8, 1970; “Arizona Pres. Kills Y Ban,” Daily Universe, January 9, 1970. 107 “UA Students Arrested on Riot Charges,” Provo Daily Herald, January 11, 1970; “Arizona Faculty to Discuss Riot,” Provo Daily Herald, January 13, 1970; “Student Senate Calls for Resignation of U. of A. President,” Provo Daily Herald, January 13, 1970. The account in Richard Dahl, BYU’s Stan Watts: The Man and His Game (Bountiful, UT: Horizon, 1976), 166, differs slightly. 108 “30 Remain at Sit-In Against Y,” Salt Lake Tribune, February 14, 1970; “Students Ask Arizona to Cut Y. Links,” Salt Lake Tribune, February 17, 1970; “Pickets Halt LDS Service,” Daily Universe, February 24, 1970; “Arizona Negroes Protest BYU; Arrests Made at Fort Collins,” Provo Daily Herald, February 25, 1970. 109 “Utah Council Opposes ‘Using’ of Athletes,” Daily Universe, January 16, 1970. 104 221 |
