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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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In 1956, Abner Haynes and Leon King became the first Black athletes to play major college football in Texas. Haynes would go on to a successful pro career, starring for the Dallas Texans franchise (before it moved to Kansas City and became the Chiefs) in the early days of the American Football League.
Haynes died Thursday at the age of 86.
His more lasting legacy — and his most compelling stories — came from the largely segregated state of Texas in the 1950s at what was then North Texas State College.
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Given his future success, it's telling that Haynes' first college offer came from a relatively small school in his hometown. North Texas State was effectively a Division II program (a designation that was not formalized by the NCAA at the time) when Haynes set foot on campus for the first time in 1956.
Why the lack of interest in such a talented player?
Texas' most prominent programs, including the Texas A&M Aggies team coached by Bear Bryant, had all yet to integrate. The University of Texas would not integrate its program until 1970. LSU and Georgia became the last Southeastern Conference programs to roster Black players in 1972.
Haynes didn't have it easy. North Texas, located in the suburb of Denton about 40 miles northwest of Dallas, had integrated its student body only two years earlier.
Haynes and King were not allowed to live on campus or eat in the dining halls for the first two years they were at North Texas, in spite of the fact that Black women had been allowed to live in the dorms and eat in the dining halls for the previous two years. When some schools learned North Texas' roster had integrated, they reportedly refused to play them.
Not only did Haynes help integrate a historically all-white football program in a southern college football hotbed, but he also helped bring the Mean Green players together by enduring racism from hostile crowds and discrimination away from the field.
"Everywhere we would go play, especially my freshman year at North Texas, they would create problems with me being there," Haynes told CBS 19 in Texas. "[My teammates] would be the ones to step up and make sure I was alright, surround me, and help me walk off the field. I couldn't help but notice that these cats looking [were] out for me."
At one road game, against Navarro Junior College in Corsicana, Texas, the crowd was so hostile toward Haynes and King that coach Ken Bahnsen told the bus driver to park close to the field. He ordered the players to run for the bus as soon as the game ended. The white team players surrounded King and Haynes and ran to the waiting bus.
On the field, Haynes led the Mean Green in rushing for three seasons and was named an All-American by Time magazine in 1959. His college career led to immediate success in the AFL, which would merge with the NFL in 1970.
Haynes was inducted into the North Texas Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986 and was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame in 1991.
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