When Ricky Williams participated in a joint Zoom interview with Earl Campbell on Monday afternoon, they spoke for the first time since the University of Texas, his beloved alma mater, had awarded them the most significant of his countless soccer honors.
“Hello Ricky! Congratulations, brother,” said Campbell.
“Back to you,” Williams said.
“What the hell have you and the guys from Jamail got us into?” Campbell asked with a smile.
With a strong push from the three children of the late Joe Jamail, whose name has been on FieldTurf at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium since 1997, the university decided to name the field after Campbell, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1977, and Williams, who brought the Heisman back to Austin 21 years later.
“Obviously it’s a great personal honor. But I see it more as symbolic,” said Williams, 43. “Where the country is right now, I understand the need to tear down the statues. But I think what this shows is that it’s not just about taking things down. It’s about building something and using this platform.”
“I am proud that this is my university, and it came organically through the players. There is much more that needs to be changed. But this is a step in the right direction. I think it is an example for the rest of the country.” “
Campbell, 65, is old enough to remember how the state championship won by his John Tyler High School in 1973 kept racial tensions at bay in his hometown of Tyler, Texas.
“I learned that the only thing the American people don’t like is change,” Campbell said. “And I think because of what happened in the past 400 years of slavery in this country for our people, that change is here … People had to lose their lives for that to happen.”
When a group of Texas student athletes asked on June 12 for a series of changes to address racial inequalities on the college campus, something quite unexpected happened.
They got results. They obtained immediate results.
The academics listened. Students who write checks like Dahr Jamail listened. The university decided that tomorrow’s leaders, admitted to its campus presumably for their SAT scores and 40 times, had a point. And on Monday, the university announced a series of changes to make Forty Acres a more welcoming place for African-Americans.
“Let’s start putting our money where our mouth is,” said Campbell, “our mouth where our heart is.”
That more or less describes the actions taken on Monday.
The Texas State University, which was a member of the Confederacy, is taking the name of Robert L. Moore, an avowed racist, from its Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy Building.
The University of Texas, which was not integrated until the United States Supreme Court ordered the law school to admit Heman Sweatt in 1950, will erect a statue of Sweatt near the entrance to the law school.
The University of Texas, who in 1969 put the last all-white national champion on the field at Texas Memorial Stadium, will erect a statue of Julius Whittier, who a year later became the first black player to win a card, at the stadium.
And the University of Texas will remove the name of Joe Jamail, a Houston attorney and one of the university’s biggest benefactors, outside of FieldTurf Stadium.
“When you take the name of a white man off the field, and you’re going to put Ricky and Earl? I think that’s pretty significant,” said Dr. Leonard N. Moore, university vice president for diversity and community engagement. .
Williams appreciated the number of glasses that had to line up for the lock to open.
“It took the younger children to stand up and say something,” he said. “Then it took the rich white man to do something about it. Then it took the bureaucracy to take it seriously and do something about it. I think everyone working together is how we got here.”
The “rich white man” is Dahr Jamail, 67, whose father had a close relationship with Royal, the coach who led the Longhorns to three national championships. Jamail met Campbell when they were both teenagers. Texas was recruiting Campbell, and he came to Jamail’s house for dinner. Recruitment rules were more flexible then.
“Joyce [Clark, the Jamail family cook] cooked fried shrimp the size of lobsters, “Jamail said.
Two decades later, in the summer after Williams’ first year, Campbell drove Williams from Austin to Houston to meet Joe and Dahr Jamail. Joe died five years ago. Decades later, Campbell and Williams remain close to Dahr Jamail.
“We go back a long way,” Jamail said. “It is very difficult to explain that we are truly familiar. When the school elevates them, it simply puts another of our [family’s] names, really. “
Student athletes did not get everything they asked for. “The Eyes of Texas”, its minstrel-based roots, remains the school song. The truth, Dr. Moore said, is that “black students weren’t even unified to get rid of the song.”
Of the four campus buildings named by Confederates and / or racists, the university will rename one. But they promised shows and exhibitions to place “The Eyes of Texas” and the racists in a historical context that will provide a more complete picture.
Still, the Texas athletics department committed a “multi-million dollar investment” to fund programs to attract and retain black students. The university promised a renewed outreach for minority students in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, not to mention a more intense search for minority teachers worldwide.
When both parties get something and leave something on the table, that is called compromise. You may not know the term. It is rarely used in the United States Congress, where a Texan named Lyndon Johnson used it to create landmark civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s. In today’s cancellation culture, it’s easier to dump the trash on the other side than to sit back and find a solution.
The changes in Texas underscore that history is alive and breathing. History evolves with the people who study it. That doesn’t sit well with those who are comfortable with the old story. But when the new version of the story sheds light on overlooked themes, despised people, forgotten heroes, it’s hard to imagine why that’s a problem.
Dr. Moore noted that the university will have six statues of African Americans on campus. Sweatt and Whittier will join Campbell, Williams, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Barbara Jordan, the late UT congressman and student.
“UT was late for the party,” said Moore, “but I think what we have here is not performative gestures, empty gestures.”
And the two most honored players in Longhorns history received an honor that can exceed them all. Campbell appreciated how he and Williams received “our flowers while we live, so we can smell them and enjoy them with our children and grandchildren.”
“Earl and I are not going to be on this earth for long,” Williams said. “Hopefully the name in the field will outlive us. It will always live longer and stronger as a symbol.”
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