The Daily Campus | Fall 2023 Issue
Holding Ownby Accountable a Century Later
From Ponies to Cash Cows
Accountability. For SMU students of color and their allies in the Human Rights Program, this word means holding the administration to its promise to fulfill a long list of demands for their community, many of which began in the 1960s by the Black League of Afro-American College Students (BLAACS) and continued into the 2000s with the Black Unity Forum (BUF). One of those demands includes addressing the racist history represented in a street sign connected to the former football stadium. In the spring 2023 issue of The DC, we published research from the SMU archival records and reporting from SMU libraries that showed Ford Stadium’s preceding structure, Ownby Stadium, began with a $10,000 contribution (roughly $179,547 today) from Jordan Ownby in 1922, an SMU alumnus who once performed in blackface performances at a 1920s-era campus event called the Kill Kare Karnival. The university demolished Ownby Stadium in 1998 and replaced it a year later with Ford Stadium. Ownby’s name still marks one of the university’s most used streets near the stadium, Ownby Drive. Construction for the Garry Weber End Zone Complex removed the physical sign for Ownby Drive, but ”Ownby Exit” signs are still visible inside the Binkley Parking Garage and the name is still visible on Google and Apple maps. The name of Ownby Drive should be changed. It should no longer stand as a painful reminder of racism to the students of color that drive past it. The Association of Black Students (ABS), the Black Unity Forum, the Human Rights Program and other cooperative groups agree Ownby’s past has no place in the Hilltop’s present. Last semester, DC spoke with former ABS president Kennedy Coleman about its plans to ask for Ownby’s name to be removed from SMU’s campus for good. The current ABS president, Damondre Lynn, said efforts will continue. “We’re going to get this process re-started,” Lynn said. For a century Ownby’s name has been immortalized as a founding father of what would eventually be the home of SMU football. In 2020, BUF, comprised of many organizations on campus that support and empower Black students, including ABS, African Student Association and the Black Law Association, authored a letter to SMU’s administration, respectfully asking for initiatives and actions on campus that would make the Hilltop an inclusive environment for all students. Three years later, Lynn says, it’s good to see some of these demands being met. Following the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, this letter asked SMU to hold itself accountable for not only educating but protecting and praising its students of color. As a result of America’s racial reckoning in 2020, many historically marginalized groups requested the administration strip racist An archival image of Ownby Stadium from namesakes from the 1920s. Courtesy of SMU Archives
Thirty-five years after the Death Penalty was instated against SMU football, the program now faces its biggest changes that will influence its future: membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The offer to join the conference came on Sept. 1 and boosters hope the move will put SMU football back on a path to prominence. “This is such an important day for SMU,” said SMU Board Chair David B. Miller ‘72. “Becoming a member of the ACC will positively impact all aspects of the collegiate experience on the Hilltop and will raise SMU’s profile on a national level. SMU is committed to excellence in everything we do, and this move will strengthen that commitment.” Some fans of the ACC project fear that SMU will not hold their own, merely becoming another small school that teams will trample. The pressure will fall entirely on SMU to prove doubters wrong. Even though SMU will be losing broadcast revenue, boosters have stepped up to support the move; the university raised $100 million from donors in the week after the ACC announcement. Change seems to be on the horizon 35 years after one of the most infamous college football punishments was cast upon SMU. The early 1980s was the time to be an SMU football fan. The Mustangs just came off back-to-back national championship recognition in 1981 and 1982, and running backs Eric Dickerson and Craig James had just put SMU football on the map. The backfield duo was known as the “Pony Express” and remains the cornerstone of what was the most iconic era of SMU football. However, their reign as the most famous part of the program came to a crashing halt in 1987. SMU was busted for paying players and recruiting violations. It faced the NCAA’s harshest sanctions. SMU football has yet to recover. SMU finished in the collegiate Top 10 three times between 1981 and 1984 and has not seen a single Associated Press ranking since. John Williamson, SMU class of ’89, arrived on campus his sophomore year, unaware of the events that would unfold and drastically change his college experience. “It was surreal because nothing like that had ever happened before,” Williamson said. “Everybody knew that teams were cheating, but for them to just completely shut down the football program was just shocking.” After the suspension, a majority of recruits left SMU football in the dust and transferred schools. Upwards of 50 scholarships were stripped and nine sponsors were restricted in working with Dallas’ team. SMU students at the time had no idea the impact the suspension would cause in years to come. For football fans such as Becca Bets, SMU class of ’00, she was sad she had missed the years when SMU football was a crown jewel. “It’s funny now because when I was going to school here, SMU wasn’t even playing on their campus yet and so it was hard for all of us as fans to rally,” Bets said. “My family and I now live in Highland Park, come to each home game and so to see the expansive school spirit for the football team nowadays just does not remind me of my time as a student here.” Story continued on page 5
Ceara Johnson | Managing Editor
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Opinion
It’s time for the Ownby name to exit campus, writes SMU Daily Campus Editor Managing Editor Ceara Johnson. Photo by Lauren Villarreal monuments and buildings on SMU’s campus. Yet some names remain plastered around the Hilltop today. BUF is committed to conducting research on how to begin the process of removing Ownby’s name from campus on behalf of the Black community at SMU but hasn’t officially demanded it. “At this time, a formal request to pursue the removal of this name from the street has not been made,” BUF co-president Nick Jones said in a written statement. Trust is not easily gained, especially from a school with a campus that features buildings that bear the names of enslavers (Caruth Hall), Ku Klux Klan supporters (Selecman Hall) and ethically ambiguous Nazi artifact collectors (Harlan Crow and Kathy Crow Commons). “SMU should do the right thing and show that [they] are sensitive and responsive to a changed America,” said Dr. Rick Halperin, director of the SMU Human Rights Program. “As long as there is accountability, there is a hope for a better, more inclusive version of the Hilltop.” Ownby’s legacy has no place in SMU’s 2023 Homecoming celebration. His hateful representation of Black people should not be honored by an increasingly diverse SMU. Black football players and students who must stand in what was formerly Ownby Stadium should not have to dwell on physical reminders of a century-old donation he paid to begin the school’s first stadium. College campuses serve as small echo chambers of a greater society and as a reflection of that institution’s values and priorities. As SMU seeks to become a more inclusive space, it must expand the sense of belonging felt by those who step onto this campus and address BUF’s list of demands. an increasingly diverse SMU. Black football players and students who must stand in what was formerly Ownby Stadium should not have to dwell on physical reminders of a century-old donation he paid to begin the school’s first stadium.
Hannah O’Gara | Co-Sports Editor
