The Impact Of An Alabama
Quarterback
Many people love the game of college football. College Football is a game of strategy,
strength, toughness, as well as discipline.
Each year the participants become stronger, faster, and bigger making
the game overall more competitive.
College football is one of the most highly watched and enjoyed sports in
America today. College football
exhibits passion, excitement, and pageantry unlike any other college sporting
event. As time goes on, the game itself
continues to change with new trends and the overall complexity of college
football increases. College football
produces some awesome players who become legends for their schools’
and for the game itself.
When I think about the Alabama
Crimson Tide Football teams, many legends come to mind. Those who helped win games and championships
and those who exhibited the character of student athletes which adds to the
rich Alabama football tradition. With
that being the case, I think about Alabama football players who constructed
change not only at Alabama but who helped change college football as a
whole. Walter Lewis was such a
player. He was the first starting black
quarterback at the University of Alabama who played during the end of the Bear
Bryant era. (1980-1982). Lewis was not only a starting quarterback
but he was a star on and off the field.
On the field, Lewis was not only a great leader but a record setting
quarterback for total offensive yards in a career. Even though, he was an option style quarterback, he still had
awesome passing skills which made opposing defenses not know how to defend
against Lewis. With Lewis’s
versatility as a quarterback, he would become not only a legend but a black man
who helped change the thinking of many people who thought a black man could not
play the quarterback position at the University of Alabama or anywhere else.
Lewis, a native of Brewton, Alabama
made headlines as a football player and student. As he stood in the pocket of life, he faced the racial pressures
of being a black starting quarterback.
Despite the tremendous pressure he faced, Lewis was very successful when
it came to doing more than just winning games.
He played at Alabama during a time when not long before blacks were not
allowed to even attend the University of Alabama. Racial barriers were set up all around his tenure which he had to
overcome, not only as an athlete but as a student and black man. By not only taking the sword of racism, but
also being asked to win as a starting
Alabama quarterback made a man such as Lewis have huge shoes to fill.
When it comes
to football, regardless of the level of competition there always has been a
racial stigma toward blacks playing the quarterback position. For many years, and some cases now, blacks
have and still are black- balled out of playing quarterback. It was believed that blacks were inferior
when came to playing quarterback. The
fallacy was that the quarterback position, being such a high profiled part of a
football team’s make up, blacks could not handle
such an important job. A quarterback in
most cases is supposed to be the leader of your team and he also is the one who
takes most of the blame when the team loses.
A quarterback must be a leader, a game manager, but most off all he must
make the right decisions with the football.
A great quarterback is one who reads defenses and limits his mistakes so
late in game his team has the best chance to win the game. The thinking was in the past that black athletes
could not be great quarterbacks because they were supposed to not have all of
the intangibles needed to become successful at playing that position.
At the University of Alabama,
football is a serious ordeal. It is a
legacy and tradition of winning excellence.
With this being the case, Walter Lewis broke down racial barriers that
stood so tall. Not only making himself
strive as a black man that helped civil rights progress, but also as a great
football player. He not only broke the
color barrier as a starting Alabama quarterback, but he also was one of the
all-time great quarterbacks at The University of Alabama. Lewis, would go on to a professional career
as a quarterback in the former U.S.F.L. football league and the Canadian
Football League.
Walter Lewis made his impact as not
only a great starting Alabama quarterback but as a man who was in many ways a
civil rights leader. At the University
of Alabama, Lewis accomplished much as a football player and student. He did all of this under tremendous pressure
playing to not only win on the field but paving a way for others like him to
follow. Lewis is a man who still
inspires many to strive for their dreams no matter what those dreams are.
Enclosing: A Poem Called: To Honor You
Oh you, stood
so tall
in the face of
many.
And gave it
all you had
until you were
tired and empty.
A leader so
determined to win
against so
much pressure you faced,
stilled you
steadied your pace.
You are a folk
hero
who wore the
numbers 1and zero.
You gave birth
to a dream
and made it
seem
like a possible thing,
that could be.
Where there
was ignorance,
you showed
truth.
Where there
was belief you show proof.
Sad to say,
many benefit
from you
today.
But don’t
know who you are
still you are
a true star.
Thank you,
Mr. Walter
Lewis,
just how many
did you
influence?
Not just as an
athlete
and a black
man,
who played quarterback.
But as a man,
who broke down
racial
barriers,
for all of
humanity.
