Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 25, 1995 TAG: 9508250102
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SOUTH BEND, IND. LENGTH: Medium
Paul Robeson was the greatest football player of his time, a renowned entertainer and a scholar. But he is best known for being what he really was not - a communist.
For nearly 50 years the former Rutgers player and first black to win back-to-back All-American honors (1917-18) was shunned because of his liberal beliefs and efforts to win equal rights for blacks. Now, 77 years after his final season, Robeson is taking his place in The College Football Hall of Fame.
``My father always believed, he didn't worry about whether the appropriate or the full recognition would come during his lifetime,'' said Paul Robeson Jr., who will accept the honor today for his father, who died in 1976.
``He knew what he had done, why he had done it and he knew eventually he would be [recognized],'' he said. ``That's all he ever expected and he was right.''
Robeson fought for equal rights for blacks beginning in his Rutgers days and developed a reputation as a left-wing liberal. When he refused to denounce communism or the Soviet Union, he was labeled a communist.
In the era of McCarthyism and the Cold War, few wanted to be seen as a Robeson supporter. While other greats took their place in the Hall of Fame, Robeson was passed by. He wasn't even on the first ballot in 1951.
``This was the McCarthyism era, and American society had a phobia about radicals,'' said Ritter Collett, sports editor emeritus of the Dayton [Ohio] Daily News and a current member of the Honors Court, the National Football Foundation's 12-member selection committee.
``We have come, in successive years, to view that in a different light, especially as it relates to black radicals,'' Collett said. ``It was only the radical element in American society that was trying to do anything in a legal sense for blacks at that time.''
Robeson was neither surprised nor angry at his exclusion, his son said.
``He knew the price he would have to pay as a forerunner, as a pioneer, and he was willing to pay it,'' he said. ``He was never surprised or bitter. He felt it was a job he had to do for his people and the world as a whole.''
There were some, though, who were angered at Robeson's exclusion. Former Rutgers coach John Bateman nominated Robeson in 1962, then spent the next 30-plus years campaigning for his induction.
``I just felt this was a great injustice for a man who had superior credentials for the hall of fame,'' said Bateman, who coached at Rutgers from 1960 to 1972.
Robeson also graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was the valedictorian of the class of 1919. The son of a former slave, he worked his way through Columbia Law School by playing in the American Professional Football League.
Robeson gave up a law career to be a singer and actor, and he entertained all over the world. He played Othello on Broadway and his signature song was, ``Ol' Man River.''
``You have to realize that from 1934 all the way up to about the mid-'60s, the main people in the country were against communism, the Soviets, because of the Cold War,'' Bateman said. ``All the papers ... from 1934 to 1958 wrote that Paul Robeson was a communist.''
But he wasn't. Robeson denied being a communist three times under oath in a federal investigation, Bateman said. Bateman also discovered a radiogram former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had sent to the Canadian ambassador in 1949 that read, ``We have no evidence that Paul Robeson was ever a communist.''
As the Cold War ended and Gene Corrigan took over as Honors Court chairman, Bateman saw another chance to get Robeson inducted. He asked Rutgers athletic director Fred Gruninger if he could take one more shot at getting Robeson into the hall, and Gruninger agreed.
Then time got in the way - Robeson's eligibility ran out. Hall rules limit a player's eligibility for induction to 50 years after the end of his career, Collett said.
An exception was made for Robeson - he would be given one more opportunity to be inducted.
The other inductees are: Jim Brown, Syracuse; Chris Burford, Stanford; Tommy Casanova, Louisiana State; Jake Gibbs; Mississippi; Rich Glover, Nebraska; Jim Grabowski, Illinois; Jim Martin, Notre Dame; Dennis Onkotz, Penn State; Rick Redman, Washington; Billy Sims, Oklahoma; Mike Singletary, Baylor; and former Arizona State coach Frank Kush.
by CNB