The 1949 Sun Bowl Football Game Controversy involved faculty and student protests at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, in response to the Lafayette Leopards football team being banned from participating in the Sun Bowl Football game against the Texas College of Mines (now the University of Texas, El Paso) Miners. The Sun Bowl Committee invited Lafayette College to play in the Sun Bowl, but only if its African American player, David Showell, was barred from the game.
In 1948, the Lafayette Leopards had a successful 7-2 regular season record led by captain Danny Kovacs and David Showell, an African American running back and World War II veteran who was a member of the famed Tuskegee Airman. As a result of their regular season success, the Sun Bowl Committee invited the Leopards to participate in the Sun Bowl against the Texas College of Mines. However, the Sun Bowl Committee would not allow Showell to play because of his race.
On November 23, 1948, the Lafayette College faculty voted to turn down the Sun Bowl invitation because of Showell’s ban. Lafayette College’s students, however, protested the faculty decision. On the day the faculty vote was announced, nearly 1,000 student protesters held a bonfire demonstration.
The students marched on the home of the Lafayette College President, Ralph Cooper Hutchison. Upon their arrival, Hutchison told the students that Showell was not allowed to play in the Sun Bowl game because he was Black. The protesting students responded by asking for a conditional acceptance to the Sun Bowl committee, provided Showell was allowed to play. Athletic Director Bill Anderson arrived at Hutchison’s home later that evening and called C.D. Belding, the chairman of the Sun Bowl Committee, to ask for a reconsideration of Showell’s ban.
Despite the call, Belding and the Sun Bowl Committee refused to let Showell play. Upon hearing Belding’s answer, the students marched to Centre Square in downtown Easton, where they held a protest rally against racial intolerance. Several students went to the local Western Union office to wire telegrams about the news of their protests to prominent individuals, including President Harry Truman. The telegram to Truman read: “Denied Sun Bowl game because we have a Negro on our team. Is that democracy?” After sending telegrams, the students resumed their protests the next day at Lafayette College’s Pardee Hall.
Controversy regarding the Sun Bowl Committee decision reached the national media, including the New York Times. The West Virginia University Mountaineers football team, which had no Black players, accepted the Sun Bowl bid following Lafayette’s rejection. The game was played as scheduled on January 1, 1949, where West Virginia defeated the Texas College of Mines 21-12.
Because of the controversy, on October 27, 1950, the Sun Bowl committee voted to end its ban on Black players. On January 1, 1952, the Sun Bowl hosted its first racially integrated team, the College of the Pacific (Now University of the Pacific), which played still segregated Texas Tech University.
