Following his Path

Much has been made of Lou Montgomery’s inability to play against Southern teams during his time at Boston College— and rightly so. It makes you wonder if similar concerns constrained the career of basketball’s first Black professional, Harry “Bucky” Lew. Following the end of the New England League’s 1905 season, many of Lew’s teammates went on a barnstorming tour of the Midwest. The highlight of the trip was their victory over a team led by Phog Allen, which gave them the right to call themselves World Champions.  Allen’s team, the Blue Diamonds of the Kansas City Athletic Club, had claimed…

When I got number 21, I remember sitting there thinking… I don’t just want to wear this number, I’m going to retire it. So I looked up who had it before me… and that’s when I learned about Lou Montgomery. It was a bittersweet moment, realizing the history behind it, the barriers he broke, and how he changed Boston College forever.Lou Montgomery broke barriers as the first Black football player at Boston College, creating opportunities that players like me were able to step into.Wearing number 21 wasn’t just an honor. It was a responsibility to carry torward wat ne started.…

Imagine being given a gift You think the gift one thing but it turns out to be something unexpected. When I think of Lou Montgomery I think of a wonderful gift he was given being able to go to fantastic school Boston College. Now the school has increased. It’s demand it’s notability it’s practices. But at the core, I believe it’s the gift of Betterment.  What do I mean by betterment? The ethos of betterment is the idea that a school like BC has the power to transport us to far-flung realms and ignite our imagination. A promise that would take…

“The Enduring Legacy of Lou Montgomery” By Matthew K. CampbellCoordinator of Recreation and Extracurricular ActivitiesCommunity Schools of BrocktonBrockton Public Schools On the national level any discussion of race and sports deservedly centers around luminous figures like Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson. Their struggles and triumphs have spurred documentaries, feature films, and in Robinson’s case, a place in the national consciousness that can never and should never be forgotten. Growing up in Massachusetts, we were obviously aware of these legendary figures. Of a more local variety, Bruins fans of a certain age could recall Willie O’Ree, and even casual Red Sox…

Professor Emeritus at University of California Berkeley

Race, Sports, & Politics: Confronting Injustice in the History of Boston Session 2: Commemorating Boston’s Black AthletesPanelist: David Joyner on behalf of Brother, Russ Joyner.  Reflections shared by Russ’s teammate, Doug Guyer with annual winners of BC Football’s Russ Joyner Award for most outstanding defensive lineman. From: Doug GuyerDate: Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at 3:57 PMSubject: The Russ Joyner Award – Reflections on Russ from DE Teammate  Quintayvious and Neto, (and Coach Comissiong),            With each passing year, and the announcement of that year’s recipient of The Russ Joyner Award, I, along with a slew of the BC Football Brotherhood from the early…

Breaking Barriers: A Journey of Resilience and Leadership – Dr. Renée Heywood Reflecting on the Lou Montgomery documentary, I am reminded of the profound significance of being “the first.” My own journey mirrors this theme. When I appeared in the documentary, I was celebrating my role as the first Assistant Superintendent of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Brockton Public School District – a city where 90% of students are of color, yet 85% of educators are white. This disparity underscored the urgent need for culturally and linguistically sustaining practices, and my team worked tirelessly to address it. However, despite…

I have had the privilege of getting to know some amazing Black athletes through my research and teaching over the last several years. What I have learned about their journeys through the college sports industry is often not reflected in the mainstream media, which tends to focus as much on academic struggles as athletic achievements. The Black football and women’s basketball alumni I interviewed not only achieved at high levels academically and athletically, but they did so while facing numerous hurdles as Black athletes at predominantly White schools (PWIs), often without the support and mentorship they deserved. The Division I…

In my 43 years of working at The Sports Museum, one of the most heartbreaking images I’ve come across is this grainy news photo of Boston College star football player Lou Montgomery listening to the 1941 Sugar Bowl, a game in which he should have been a notable participant. To my knowledge as well as that of many sports historians, officials at Boston College acceded to the single most egregious example of racial exclusion of the pre WWII era of intercollegiate sports. This occurred when they agreed to sit Montgomery, a former Brockton High star and Boston College’s first African-American…

BC Athletics Remembers Russ Joyner On New Year’s Day, the Boston College Athletic community lost a cherished member in former football captain Russ Joyner ’82. Former sports information director Reid Oslin `68 pays tribute to the BC standout. When Boston College played Auburn in the 1982 Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, it marked the first time in nearly 40 years that the Eagles had been invited to play in a postseason game. But college football followers everywhere knew that the renascent Eagles would not have an easy task in their long-overdue return to post-season play. Coach Pat Dye’s Auburn Tigers, fresh…

Charlotte has been living and working in Juneau, Alaska for the last few years. She has organized this event to remember and honor Lou Montgomery, and bring together members of the community near Juneau, to share stories that reflect their own experiences of character, compassion, and community resilience.                        Grateful for the support of the Gold Town Theater and the Black Awareness Association.                        Photos coming soon.

Charles Thomas and Lou Montgomery were contemporaries.  Thomas, a halfback for Boston University, directly competed against Montgomery during the late 1930s and early 1940s when the Terriers battled the Eagles.  Both men’s lives read like history books, ones filled with stories not often taught in school. Thomas played football, basketball, and baseball at a time when opportunities for African American athletes narrowed due to racial segregation and discrimination.  But his integrity, both on and off the field, shattered these restrictions and his courage assured future generations a measure of equality in sports. Born in Georgia, Thomas eventually joined the Great…

My journey has followed a path remarkably similar to Lou Montgomery’s. Like Lou, I began breaking barriers through football, using the game as a doorway into spaces that weren’t always built with people who look like me in mind. When I arrived at Boston College, I learned quickly what it meant to carry the weight of representation, to navigate spaces where my presence alone challenged norms, and to grow through both the opportunities and the quiet pressures that came with them. Football shaped me, but it also positioned me, just as it did Lou, to step into leadership long before…

Now is the time! When I think about Lou Montgomery and his pioneering efforts, the one thing that stands out is his endurance of high-level humility while going through an undoubtedly torturous process of evolution – one that he had accelerated with adeptness and courage. As our world evolves, we are going to need to follow in Mr. Montgomery’s footsteps by applying those traits to this societal transition. That is, humility, adeptness and courage are going to be consequential key components in this Movement for greater humanity and change. Now is the time! M. Quentin Williams, Esq.Founder, Dedication To CommunityB.C.’87

Boston College Football proved to be the ultimate maturation experience for me. The collegerecruiting process can be misleading, especially for the overconfident young athletes getting ready to take on Division 1 athletics. Like most athletes, I left high school as the big man on campus, a former starting quarterback, and a beloved member of the student body. Then the first off season workout smacked me in the face and presented the unfamiliar feeling of doubt. Am! good enough? Am I prepared? Did I make the wrong decision? My first winter in Boston had me asking that question daily! But the…