In September 1957, as the nation’s attention turned to Little Rock, Arkansas to watch a showdown between Arkansas’ Governor Orval Faubus and President Eisenhower battle over the integration at Central High School, college football fans fixed their focus 700 miles away to Madison, Wisconsin, where a Black man from Little Rock stood poised to break a racial barrier.
After three long years of hard work, Sidney Williams had finally earned the starting quarterback job for the Wisconsin Badgers, making him the first Black quarterback to start the season in the Big 10.
With the civil rights battle unfolding in Little Rock, it seemed so trivial that this quarterback would garner the nation’s attention as a sign of racial progress.
But in the modern Civil Rights Era, Williams’s starting position had special meaning. Ebony observed, “The Little Rock fiasco and his [Williams] conduct under fire in a difficult and demanding position have made him something of a hero to many Americans.”
At a time when many doubted that integration would or could work, and many still questioned Black leadership and intelligence, Williams proved otherwise.
Gordon Graham, a white reporter, said, “If you are at peace with your own feelings on the subject, you should not be guilty of dodging it.”
“It” was the belief that Black men weren’t meant to play the position.
But Graham noted it was time for a change in the old ways of thinking.
“It has been our opinion for some time now that a Negro with the physical and mental equipment can play quarterback in football just as Roy Campanella could catch for the Brooklyn Dodgers…”
“Should Williams fail” Graham suggested, “some other Negro will make good as a quarterback in the future. It is inevitable. But with Sid hailing from Little Rock, his opportunity in the staid, but reasonably fair Western Conference is the most significant item of the entire week’s tour for the Big Ten writers.”
Williams had something to prove not just for himself, but for Black America.
Williams migrated to Madison in 1954 to escape the South. A three-sport star athlete, and national honor society member, at the all-Black Dunbar High School, Williams tried out for the team his freshman year, but the Badgers had no use for a Black quarterback. After being cut as a freshman, he begged the coach for another opportunity the following year.
They switched him to secondary, just like most white coaches had done to other fast Black quarterbacks. During the 1956 season, he played safety until his big break came.
With the offense sputtering, the Badger’s new coach, Milt Bruhn, got desperate and decided to give a Black man a chance at quarterback. Remembering that Williams played quarterback in high school, Bruhn inserted Williams in as the field general to inject life into the offense. The Badgers offense responded and Williams led the team to back-to-back ties against Illinois and Minnesota, two games experts expected them to lose.
Williams’ initial success was a valuable lesson in patience over prejudice.
Wisconsin ran the T-formation and Williams, a former single-wing quarterback had no experience in that set, so he struggled. According to reports he “fumbled too much, his ball handling lacked the crispness that a T-quarterback must have and his passing was helter-skelter.”
At this point, most white coaches would have been done with the racial experiment, but Coach Bruhn gave him a chance.
And with that chance, Williams won the starting job in 1957.
By the late 1950s, the quarterback had been recognized as the most important position in all of sports and the ultimate sign of leadership and intelligence.
For many Black fans, the Black quarterback represented the promise of civil rights and integration. And with Williams at the helm, Black America got what they wanted; a symbol of intelligent Black leadership.
In high school, Williams was a member of the National Honor Society and earned an academic scholarship to Wisconsin where he majored in computer engineering. Even his white coach frequently talked about his amazing leadership and brain power, saying “The boy’s mind works like a computer and he can deliver.”
In a nation that worried if integration could work, Williams was a player “you would rather have on your side,” his white coach said.
Williams also understood the importance of being a Black quarterback and what the position symbolized. He told Ebony, “The coach tells us that the quarterback reflects the team and the team reflects the quarterback. It’s important that the quarterback call signals with a staccato voice, that he hustle, that he believes in himself and shows a lot of pep. The main thing is not to have any doubt, not to be confused and, above all, not to look confused. It’s not necessary for the team to like you, but it must have confidence in you. Once you get that, 60% of your job is done.”
When asked by Ebony what being a starting quarterback meant to him, Williams reflected, “Naturally, I’m kind of proud. I just hope that it will prove that anybody capable can play quarterback or any other positions.”
During the 1957 season, Williams received tons of letters from well-wishers and folks thanking him for being a positive American symbol, but one stood out the most. It came from a young Black quarterback, who for the first time saw possibility in the position.
“Quarterback has always been my position and I want to play the same in the Big Ten football. I had my doubts until your coming renewed my faith,” the young Black admirer wrote.
Seeing Williams at quarterback showed that whites would accept black leadership, recognize black intelligence, and concede to black authority.
Unfortunately, none of that mattered in the pros.
In 1958, the New York Giants drafted Williams, and like most Black quarterbacks before and after him, he was relegated to defensive back. Despite that, Williams remained a symbol of hope for many of that generation. He proved that Black men were intelligent and they could lead white men.
Black folks didn’t need tanks. They just needed white racists to get out of the way.
Sidney B. Williams Jr., a University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Famer, passed away on May 4th, 2024 at 88.
And while largely forgotten in history, trailblazing men like Williams cut through the tough terrains of prejudice to forge a path for stars like Warren Moon, Doug Williams, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, and Patrick Mahomes to shine.
