This is a story I'd not known before. In 1965, the All-Star Game for the American Football League was to be played in New Orleans. Upon arrival in New Orleans, the 21 black players in the game quickly realized that the city was especially hostile to them, so they took a stand and refused to play. The game was moved to Houston, and the fallout had an impact on the efforts to start an NFL franchise in New Orleans as well as the eventual AFL-NFL merger. Read about it here.
Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 16, 2005 to Other sports | TrackBackHuh. I never knew that either, and I was a pro football fan (sorta) back then in DC.
Posted by: Linkmeister on January 16, 2005 11:42 PMGreat story; thanks for the pointer.
It was a far different world back then, I guess. A lot of very angry, very fired-up liberals took this country a lot further along toward the more perfect union touted in our Constitution, and hooray for them.
Posted by: Greg Morrow on January 17, 2005 9:45 AM