The Rollins Tars football team represented

Rollins College Rollins College is a private college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several graduate programs. It is Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institution. History Rollins Colle ...

in the sport of

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

. They first completed in 1904, and last competed in 1949.

History

The 1908 team claims a state championship, and the 1940 team won the

Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) was one of the first collegiate athletic conferences in the United States. Twenty-seven of the current Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) football programs were members of this conferen ...

title.

Jack McDowall John Witherspoon McDowall (June 26, 1905 – May 25, 1969), known as "Spindle Legs", was an American football, baseball, basketball player and track and field, track athlete at North Carolina State University. McDowall was recognized as an Coll ...

was a prominent athletic director.

1947 homecoming controversy

During the

1947 college football season The 1947 college football season finished with Notre Dame, Michigan, and Penn State all unbeaten and untied, but the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame were the first place choice for 107 of the 142 voters in the final AP Poll in early December, and re ...

, Rollins was scheduled to have their

homecoming Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States, Canada and Liberia. ...

game on November 28 at

Orlando Stadium Orlando Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Soweto, a suburb of Johannesburg, in Gauteng province in South Africa. It is the home venue for Orlando Pirates Football Club, a professional soccer team that plays in the Premier Soccer League. O ...

against

Ohio Wesleyan Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by methodist leaders and Ohio Valley, Central Ohio residents as a nonsec ...

(OWU). OWU's team included an African American player, Kenneth Woodward. In this era, there was concern that "a black player on the field would create a firestorm in the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...

." Trustees at OWU— including

Branch Rickey Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an American baseball player and sports executive. Rickey was instrumental in breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing black player Jackie Robinson. He also creat ...

, who played a key role in breaking the

baseball color line The color line, also known as the color barrier, in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Major League Baseball and its affiliated Minor Leagues until 1947 (with a few notable exceptions in the 19th century before the li ...

by signing

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

—supported Woodward playing the game. However, the Rollins board of trustees wanted to cancel the game, which was the action taken following a vote of the Rollins

student council A student council (also known as a student union, associated student body or student parliament) is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutes ranging from elementary schools to universities and research or ...

on November 24. Contemporary newspapers reported that Rollins had "no objections whatsoever" to playing the game, but had canceled the game after "consulting leading white and negro residents" in their area. In addressing students and faculty, Rollins president

Hamilton Holt Hamilton Holt (August 18, 1872 – April 26, 1951) was an American educator, editor, author and politician. Biography Holt was born on August 18, 1872 in Brooklyn, New York City to George Chandler Holt and his wife Mary Louisa Bowen Holt. His fat ...

stated:

May I say this to you students; you will probably have critical decisions like this to make as you go through life—decisions that whatever you do, you will be misinterpreted, misunderstood, and reviled….It seemed to all of us that our loyalties to Rollins and its ideals were not to precipitate a crisis that might and probably would promote bad race relations, but to work quietly for better race relations, hoping and believing that time would be on our side.

Two years later, the 1949 Sun Bowl controversy saw Lafayette College of Pennsylvania decline an invitation to a

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

, when an African American player on their team would not have been allowed to play.

References

{{Rollins Tars football navbox American football teams established in 1904 American football teams disestablished in 1949 1904 establishments in Florida 1949 disestablishments in Florida