ÁùºÏ±¦µä

This story originally appeared in the book "." 

It is a spring late Friday afternoon and, like most Friday afternoons, hardly anyone is on campus. “Dr. Mitchell, there’s someone I’d like for you to meet,” says Barry Sacks, former ÁùºÏ±¦µä assistant football coach. At six feet, three inches, I look up. This kid’s a good 6 feet 5 or 6 inches, wiry, smooth brown skin, close-cropped hair, and a pleasant smile.

“How are you, young man, I’m Dr. Mitchell.”

He extends his hand.

“I’m Colin, sir. Colin Kaepernick.”

Pretty sure Kap doesn’t remember that encounter. This was obviously an “unofficial” campus visit. There was no other family with him and no other coaches with Sacks. Not sure if there was a meeting set with a faculty member (though pretty confident I was the first Black faculty member he met on that visit). In a later conversation, Sacks said ÁùºÏ±¦µä is the only school looking at him to play football while everyone expected him to play baseball.

In retrospect, our meeting reminded me of a similar brush with greatness. When I was a kid coming out of the Nixon Theater in West Philadelphia, after seeing Mary Poppins, there stood “The Greatest.” Muhammad Ali was holding court with a group of community people.

I ran up to him.

“Can I shake your hand?” I said.

“Shake the hand of the man,” he said.

When one meets a transformative individual, whether they be brash and verbose or with a quiet confidence, it leaves an indelible impression. Every student who enters a university is trying to do several things: graduate (either for themselves and/or for their family), develop their own identity, and find their “tribe.” The challenge for student-athletes is balancing classes with practice, schoolbooks with the playbook, out-of-class meetings with position meetings. There’s weight training, travel, missed classes, and dealing with the media. Lastly, there are 100-point midterms, quizzes, finals, and weekly home and away (for quarterbacks) 300-yard passing tests every fall Saturday afternoons or evenings.

But on the most basic level, the five tiers of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for college student development come into sharper focus: physiological (students can’t focus on college if their physiological needs aren’t being met); safety (an unsafe student will unlikely participate in student life); belonging (students want to belong in their college or university); esteem (achieving this requires students to feel confident, strong, and self-assured; it requires them to achieve a sense of esteem); and self-actualization (the achievement of one’s true potential). Couple these needs with the needs of a biracial young man raised in a predominantly white community, living in a new state (that was once dubbed “The Mississippi of the West”) while seeking to understand his place. The writings of Du Bois, Garvey, Malcolm X, etc. were, probably, explored and debated. Kap was able to do all of this while playing the most visible position in football.

Kap began the exploration of his African American heritage in high school, and that carried over into his college days. He pledged Kappa Alpha Psi. Between becoming a fraternity member and playing football, Kap found his tribes that continue to sustain him.

In retrospect, Kap caught everyone off guard. He came to the University as an unheralded football prospect. However, a brief visit to a practice revealed the promise only the ÁùºÏ±¦µä football staff had hedged its bet on. It can be best described like this: A good friend who worked for a major news publication had invited me to Pebble Beach for a golf tournament. First up was Ernie Els. The ball was struck cleanly and goes a good distance. Next up is Tiger Woods. The ball was struck cleanly, but the sound was different. Very different. Woods won that tournament by an incredible fifteen strokes.

At a Wolf Pack football practice, the first quarterback is up and throws the ball. Then Kap is up. He retreats several steps, then turns and spots his streaking target. The ball looks like an orange in his big hands. Then he steps forward, plants his leg, and uncoils a tight spiral. The arm motion is different. The release point is different. The velocity is different. But the main thing was the sound was different. Very different. Imagine the ball is a high-pitched whistle that is screaming in flight. Then it lands softly in the hands of the target. As impressive as that throw was, he was only a freshman. It would take an injury to the starter and a couple years before Kap would make history.

Before Kap’s arrival, the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Reno was one of the nation’s leaders in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion in college football. Arthur James of Elko was the earliest documented Black player on a ÁùºÏ±¦µä team, lettering in 1921.

In 1946, Mississippi State University offered the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä the opportunity to go down south for a game, with one caveat: ÁùºÏ±¦µä’s two Black players — William “Billy” Bass (who became one of the first players to integrate the Canadian Football League) and Horace Gillom — would not be allowed to play. The team agreed that if Bass and Gillom couldn’t play, the team wouldn’t play.

In 1948, the team was invited to play Tulsa University in Oklahoma with the same caveat. Again, the team declined, but Tulsa reneged and allowed Alva Tabor (ÁùºÏ±¦µä football’s first Black quarterback) and Sherman Howard to play. Tulsa ran into a Golden Hurricane: The Wolf Pack won, 65-14, Tulsa’s worst loss in thirty-one years.

The Jim Crow racial segregation laws were not limited to the South. Marion Motley (considered one of the NFL’s 50 Greatest Players) had to hold back his coach after the Idaho coach said Motley wouldn’t be allowed to play. Motley not only played, but he was also one of the first Black players to integrate the NFL.

Kap’s decision to kneel highlighted the more-often-than-not negative interactions between law enforcement and African Americans in this country. All these men, whether knowingly or unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly, have contributed to diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä.

Going off to school to seek higher learning lays the foundation for better critical thinking skills and also allows those in search of knowledge the ability to ponder differing viewpoints. Knowledge can be gained in the classroom. But it’s also the gained knowledge in daily conversations and interactions outside of the classroom as well that makes for a more informed community. Hopefully, these interactions lead to a greater understanding of those who have differing lived and learned experiences. But most importantly, this gained knowledge provides a greater capacity of justice … and compassion … for all.

Kaepernick: numbers, athletics and activism

ÁùºÏ±¦µä Football enjoyed its finest run of success in the NCAA Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) with Colin Kaepernick ’10 (management) as quarterback.

In 2009, Kaepernick and running backs Vai Taua ’10 (general studies) and Luke Lippincott ’09 (psychology) each eclipsed the 1,000-yard rushing mark, making ÁùºÏ±¦µä the first school in NCAA history to have three such players in the same season.

It’s not the only bit of NCAA history to which Kaepernick belongs. Kaepernick made individual history in 2010 by becoming the first FBS quarterback to have passed for over 10,000 yards and rushed for over 4,000 yards in a career. As of publishing, he remains the only member of that exclusive club. Running Hall of Fame head coach Chris Ault’s celebrated “Pistol offense,” Kaepernick capped his decorated Wolf Pack career by leading the 2010 team to a 13-1 record, WAC title and Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl victory. The ÁùºÏ±¦µä Wolf Pack finished the season as the No. 11-ranked team in the nation.

Kaepernick was selected by the San Francisco 49ers as the 4th pick in the second round (36th overall) of the 2011 NFL Draft. During the 2012 season, Kaepernick led the 49ers to an NFC title and appearance in Super Bowl XLVII. As a 49er, he passed for 12,271 yards and 72 touchdowns, while rushing for 2,300 yards and 13 scores.

In Oct. 2016, Kaepernick founded Know Your Rights Camp. The organization’s mission is to “advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders.”

He played his last game as an NFL player in Jan. 2017. In recognition of his work as a civil rights activist, Kaepernick has been named GQ Magazine Citizen of the Year. He has received the Sports Illustrated Muhammad Ali Legacy Award, American Civil Liberties Union Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award, Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award, Harvard University W. E. B. Du Bois Medal, and the Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

Kaepernick was inducted into the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020.