First black players at Death Valley return to Clemson

COLUMBIA - Former Wake Forest star linebacker Bob Grant recalled the death threats, the precautions to avoid violence on bus rides to Southern football stadiums and the harsh, volatile words spoken by opposing coaches including Clemson's Frank Howard - the very reason he became part of the "Junior Jim Crow Killers."

"If you would've told me I'd be doing anything for Clemson, I would have said, 'fat chance,' even if there was a gun to my head," said Grant, one of the first blacks to play at Death Valley.

Grant, Kenneth "Butch" Henry and William "Smitty" Smith called themselves the "Junior Jim Crow Killers" in 1964, when they showed up at Clemson's Memorial Stadium for a freshman football game.

More than four decades later, Grant, Smith and former Wake Forest basketball prospect Jim Carter - Henry died in 1996 - return to campus to support the "Call Me MISTER" program based at Clemson and designed to guide black males into teaching positions at South Carolina elementary schools.

Grant dreamed of an NFL career from his earliest days and signed for a Wake Forest scholarship with that in mind. Breaking a color barrier was not his goal.

"I had my own plan. I didn't need an organization to speak for me," he said. "Of course, you are aware of what's happening and aware of what the contribution was."

Grant, a defensive star who played in two Super Bowls for the Baltimore Colts, took extra pleasure in sticking it to teams in the South, where coaches claimed they would never allow a black player on their team.

"Quite frankly, it never changed in my four years there," he said. "I don't think I played against another black player until my senior year. That's because there were none."

A Greenville, S.C., native, Smith starred at Sterling High, a black school, and could not wait to return home to play at Death Valley. But as a member of Baha'i Faith, Smith says he was seen embracing fellow members of the religion, black and white, before the game. That incensed his coaches, already fearful of racial tension, who made him stop and suspended him from the action.

"It was a very disappointing time," Smith said.

Grant said he, Henry and Smith were threatened with violence "in a time when people could carry them out." Black players were seated on the aisles during bus rides from hotels to stadiums, Grant said, so as not to provoke attacks from people outside.

His effects, though, were felt on the field. Grant recalled how, a few years later, Clemson All-American offensive tackle Wayne Mass came up to shake his hand and said Grant was the best player he ever faced. The late Howard also held a respect for Grant - and told the player so several years later when the two were at a fund-raiser.

Howard approached Grant and said in his gruff, Southern voice, "Back when you were playing, you thought I didn't like you."

Grant told him he thought Howard's opinion was worse than that.

"No, it's not," Howard responded. "I wanted some colored players, too. I was really glad to see you out there. One day, Clemson is going to have plenty of colored players."

"Now," Grant says, "when I see Clemson and Florida State take the field, I feel so fulfilled. ... What we did was absolutely worth it. Forget the Super Bowls, forget the NFL. That was the best thing I ever did."

Smith left Wake Forest after a year or so to organize civil rights initiatives. He was drafted into the Army and became a decorated combat platoon medic in Vietnam. He later earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Massachusetts.

Through it all, he's proud of his role in Southern race relations.

"We know it's a place where we put a footprint," Smith said.