UW's apology to the Black 14

There’s an art to making a sincere apology. Most are not very good at it. Clueless politicians and disingenuous corporations find themselves in more trouble, making a clumsy attempt saying something like, “I’m sorry if you were offended by my offensive behavior.”

Tom Burman could teach them what a genuine apology sounds like.

Tom Burman was a three-year-old when football coach Lloyd Eaton created a stain on Wyoming that lasted half a century. That stain was ignored for nearly four decades before Tom became UW’s Athletic Director in 2006.

Tom was vaguely aware of the Black 14 incident but not many of the underlying facts. He listened to those who had been around in 1969. Some were uncomfortable with what Eaton did to those 14 young men so long ago.

In a brief interview Burman granted me last week, he said he started thinking about what it must have been like for those black kids. The 60s were intense. Civil rights protests blazed across the country. These student athletes were rightly concerned about the racially-discriminatory policies of the Mormon church.

Indeed, Mormons were concerned enough themselves that those policies were reformed a few years after these 14 lost their college careers for raising the subject to their authoritarian coach.

For merely asking to be heard, they were kicked off the team, losing scholarships and other opportunities while being ridiculed by teammates, much of the UW fan base, and many of Wyoming’s political leaders.

The more UW’s new AD learned, the more convicted he became. The University had to make it right.

In 2016, Tom learned the University of Central Florida was hosting these former Wyoming football players in a ceremony honoring civil rights heroes. He traveled to Florida to meet them. Nearly half of the 14 attended the ceremony and were pleasantly surprised that someone from UW had made the trip.

On the long flight home, Tom made up his mind. UW needed to re-establish a relationship with the Black 14. Tom started making regular contact with them. It wasn’t long before there were monthly conference calls and frank conversations. The University had a lot of work to do to establish trust between the school and these men. Tom Burman was determined to make that happen.

And he did. Gradually. Mel Hamilton, Tony McGee, and John Griffin were among the first to come to believe the AD’s sincerity. Their confidence caused others to believe. They were invited to a 2018 basketball game at the Arena Auditorium. Well-founded concerns about whether Wyoming folks would welcome them quickly disappeared when the crowd gave them a standing ovation as they stood courtside. That opened the door to what happened this month.

The surviving members of the Black 14 spent several days on campus. They held a panel discussion, visited classrooms teaching young students about their history, a plaque honoring them was unveiled, and they were celebrated during halftime at the UW-Idaho game.

It was a Friday night dinner where Burman read an apology that should be archived alongside some of the most important papers in the history of the Equality State.

Standing before most of the surviving members of the Black 14, Burman read a letter signed by him and former UW president Laurie Nichols. They called the story of the 1969 incident “heart-wrenching,” and spoke of how important it is that UW reflect on it. Burman acknowledged these young men had been deprived of a college experience that should have been “one of the best of a young person’s life.”

Burman applauded them for “rising above” what happened to lead productive lives, while remaining “faithful to your convictions.”

Burman asked, “Please accept this sincere apology from the University of Wyoming for the unfair way you were treated and for the hardships that treatment caused you.”

The moment gave meaning to UW’s slogan, “What the world needs is more Cowboys.” What the world really needs is more Cowboys like Tom Burman and the members of the legendary Black 14.