By KEITH WHITMIRE
FOXSportsSouthwest.com
Anyone who saw Jerry LeVias play in the 1960s as a lightning-quick receiver and return man for SMU can recount his spectacular plays from memory.
What is truly unforgettable, and should never be forgotten, is the racial barrier LeVias broke 45 years ago as the conference's first black scholarship football player.
Being acknowledged for opening doors for African Americans gives LeVias a greater sense of pride than all his touchdowns put together.
"It gives me a feeling that I did something worthwhile and that was appreciated, not just from an athletic standpoint," LeVias said. "It's really something positive."
LeVias' contribution to sports and culture will be recognized in a special Town Hall Forum at SMU on Monday, Feb. 28, in connection with Black History Month.
The forum, which begins at 7 p.m. at SMU's Umphrey Lee Center, will feature a showing of Fox Sports Southwest's award-winning documentary "Jerry LeVias: A Marked Man" followed by a discussion panel with players, coaches and media.
The evening will be recorded and broadcasted this spring on Fox Sports Southwest.
LeVias, who will take part in the forum, says it's important to remind younger generations about the struggles he and other African Americans faced in the Civil Rights era.
"I think we've lost a little perspective for the price that a lot of people paid, including what my father did, to get us to this place called equality," LeVias said. "My dad grew up in a segregated society, moreso than I did. We had options."
One option denied black athletes prior to 1966 was the opportunity to play Southwest Conference football. When SMU coach Hayden Fry signed LeVias to a scholarship letter in the summer of 1965, it wasn't exactly a popular decision at the time, even with some of LeVias' future teammates.
Baylor's John Westbrook, then a walk-on, is recognized as the Southwest Conference's first black player, beating LeVias to the field by two weeks in September of 1966.
But LeVias, a schoolboy star out of Beaumont, garnered more attention with his scholarship signing and, later, his exploits on the field. LeVias helped SMU to the SWC title in 1966 and was a consensus All-American his senior year, when he finished fifth in the Heisman vote.
All the accolades came with a price. LeVias endured taunts from the stands, cheap shots on the field and bundles of hate mail - even death threats. During one game in particular, teammates and coaches casually kept their distance from LeVias on the sideline, just in case a sniper threat wasn't a hoax.
Threats against LeVias couldn't be dismissed as the work of crackpots and pranksters. It was the era of assassinations, and LeVias played in a city that, just a few years earlier, had been the scene of perhaps the most famous assassination of all.
Through it all, LeVias managed to be both a star player and a scholar. The burdened he carried wasn't just to show that blacks could succeed on the playing field. He also earned academic honors, and both he and his two sisters earned college degrees.
"My dad gave us three options: education, education, education," said LeVias, currently the Director of Outreach for Boys & Girls Harbor, a youth organization in Houston. "That was our three options. He didn't want me to play football. It was more about the education than anything else."
LeVias and SMU continue to educate young people about his experiences. Rather than retiring LeVias' number 23, SMU coach June Jones has the LeVias legacy live on by awarding it to a deserving player.
Defensive back Chris Banjo is the first player to carry the honor, and he and LeVias have established a bond.
"The young man who's been wearing it, Chris Banjo, is a fantastic young man," LeVias said.
"The thing that connects us is I always tell him to stay mental, think for yourself and make the right choices."
Thanks to the challenges LeVias and others lived through 45 years ago, minority student-athletes have many more choices today.
Follow Keith Whitmire on Twitter: @Keith_Whitmire
