Photo: Associated Press

PARTING SHOT

Game Changer

Lou Montgomery ’41 was the first Black student-athlete in ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ history. 

Lou Montgomery ’41, the first Black student-athlete in ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ history, was an outstanding running back on the ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ football team. But because of the era’s Jim Crow laws, Montgomery was barred from playing games in the South, including the 1941 Sugar Bowl, in which ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ played the University of Tennessee in New Orleans. At the urging of his teammates, however, Montgomery traveled by train with the team to New Orleans anyway, pictured here. Montgomery was posthumously inducted into the ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1997, and his jersey was retired at Alumni Stadium in 2012. To learn about other significant Black figures from ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ history, read Mapping Black History at ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿.Ìýâ—½