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Language: en

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i think that it's important for the history of 
these types of change agents to be recognized  

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for what they are change in society change in how 
we live change in how we see each other a change  

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at the university of virginia quite frankly stan 
land john rainey harrison davis and myself were  

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the first african-american scholarship athletes 
at the university of virginia back in 1970  

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history contains variations on just a few themes 
the truly significant ones continue to echo  

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50 years ago a group of four student 
athletes stepped onto the grounds of  

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the university of virginia and in the 
process became cavalier trailblazers  

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set against the backdrop of sweeping social change 
that included the civil rights movement vietnam  

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war protests and the first class of undergraduate 
women the arrival of the first african-american  

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scholarship athletes might have seemed like 
a natural progression it was anything but  

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uva was the last school in the atlantic coast 
conference to integrate its athletic programs  

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even the city of charlottesville had been slow 
to change only integrating its public schools  

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following a federal mandate four years after 
brown versus the board of education but there  

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was more to charlottesville and the university 
of virginia than a history of segregation they  

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were both communities that ultimately appealed 
to the hometown lane high school football star  

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kent merritt and his three future teammates we 
had distinct black communities in several parts  

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of town the old saying that community raises a 
child it existed it was a very very nice place to  

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grow up even though we didn't probably know at the 
time i didn't know anything about charlottesville  

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charlottesville seemed like a big metropolis to 
my hometown of tazewell so many street lights  

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i grew up in a very small town fairfield virginia 
if you blink you will quickly be in and through  

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fairfield i wanted to go to school and initially i 
wanted to go to play football and so consequently  

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i figured i could play football anywhere actually 
university of virginia turned out to be more of  

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an academic school which was very appealing 
to my parents oh yeah i always listen to mom

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kent had not even signed on to virginia 
but he was like their assistant recruiter  

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when they came harrison john and 
stan came i mean we just kind of just  

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hung out and and had a great time and i think 
that played more of a part in them coming here  

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than anything else so i was the last one actually 
to sign here we all came from winning traditions  

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and we thought we could help uva win we didn't 
come in to change things we came in to play ball  

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we came in to win ball games and we came in to get 
the education a familiar face in virginia football  

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history was charged with welcoming the new class 
of freshmen to grounds al groh was just a few  

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years removed from his uva career when he took the 
reins of the virginia freshman team and a host of  

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challenges that it brought in order to coach every 
player you eventually have to win their trust  

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and you can't win their trust if 
you don't know anything about them  

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they had certain things in common obviously 
most obviously one being their race but they  

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came from four different sets of circumstances 
so each one of them was unique in his own way  

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but within the locker room with the goal of all 
being focused on the same objective having the  

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same purpose going through the same things it 
exposes all of us for exactly who we are and  

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what we always find out is there's a lot more that 
we have in common than what we have in difference  

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the very first time that i met coach groh we 
were picking out jersey numbers that evening  

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and he walked by and someone said to him coach 
do you see anybody any of these young men that  

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you know you think are going to be good players 
for you and he didn't miss a beat he looked at me  

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and he said that guy right there he's going to be 
a good player for us i can already tell and so you  

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know it's like the commercial he had me at hello 
he's one of my favorite people i mean he was tough  

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you know i mean i'm loud he was loud that's 
how i learned to play sports and i always  

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played that way no holds barred crush kill 
destroy run through brick walls to succeed  

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he was hard on us he was tough on us but i 
think he loved us too that was more like our  

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lifeline that first year they were my guys and 
it was in both of our best interests that things  

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work out well for you of course i wasn't out 
in the community i wasn't walking every step  

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with these four guys so i understood that there 
are things that they're going through that are  

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not common to the usual freshman experience we 
came up you know in a period of resistance it  

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wasn't that in your face type of racism that 
i saw but i did see it in the background fans  

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waving the confederate flag in the stadium 
there was the playing of dixie during the games  

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the change wasn't that fast i don't 
think i think it took a few years later  

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for it for some changes to come about and 
accepting integration totally face-to-face i had a  

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positive experience as long as you're winning 
everything's great and so i understand that  

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i believe in it sincerely so consequently 
when they did give me a negative response  

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because of my bad play or bad attitude 
you know i understood it thoroughly

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just as it is now people really want to win 
against virginia tech harrison was having  

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a tough time he threw two interceptions right 
off the bat and uh and the crowd really wasn't  

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pleased with harrison the rebel flag was going you 
know dixie was playing then all the boos came out  

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and harrison just turned around 
and gave them the middle finger

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they had a picture of that man 
i told myself if i ever had a  

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picture of that i'd make it a mural on my wall

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fortunately enough we did come back and we ended 
up winning that ball game in the fourth quarter  

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the desire to succeed kind of overrode any 
negative responses i would ever get to make  

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sure that you know i kept my mind on what 
i was doing regardless of what anybody else  

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was saying even though like i said they were 
small or undersized people we were able to  

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you know compete in a lot of situations 
but i think we could have done better  

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we were able you know to come in and add some 
positive strokes to the football program itself  

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ultimately the on-field victories never 
materialized for virginia and that promising 1970  

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class but their contributions extend far beyond 
the pages of a media guide the program would go  

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on to hire legendary head coach George Welsh play 
in 21 bowl games enjoy the type of conference  

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and national success unimaginable five decades ago 
the identity of virginia football today its people  

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its fans its foundation can be traced through 
its history a direct line to harrison davis  

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stan land kent merritt and john rainey i wish 
that while we were there we could have done more  

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but the reality is that we were 
doing something we were proving  

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to all that would care to look that we 
were capable of doing the academic work  

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and performing on the football field and being 
successful at graduating from the university of  

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virginia and if those four kids could do it 
then the next four or five kids could do it  

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and the next 10 could do it as a african-american 
male i think we are conditioned to always expect  

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that there are going to be some obstacles for us 
that we have to overcome a lot of people didn't  

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want us here but we prevailed it's possible to 
to achieve you know under such adverse conditions  

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it just proved that from all walks 
of life we could be successful so i  

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think that's the example that we set and i 
hope it was an example that people follow  

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knowing where you came from knowing how you got 
there i think it adds some appreciation to your  

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life the first ones to do anything you know took 
some you know took some punches for you nobody  

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ever really does anything on their own because 
you benefit from anybody who has gone before you  

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and i think it's very special to know the story 
i mean you couldn't get any better you went to  

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school together you played sports together 
that's the ultimate link in anybody's life  

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it's hard to believe that 50 
years has passed just like that