Cleveland Abbott

PROFESSIONAL | SPORTS

CLEVELAND ABBOTT

1892 - 1955

South Dakota African-American Firsts

Cleveland “Cleve” Abbott lived, believed and taught these words he spoke in 1924: “To learn self-control is another great philosophy of the adage, ‘Him whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad,’ the success of any team and the prowess of any player depend upon the ability to keep cool under fire and the control of temper.”

Imagine being a black child in the early 1900’s. What chance would you likely have to create changes now taken for granted in the world of international sports. Cleve Abbott was raised in a time of real and perceived cultural disadvantages able to stop many. A strong South Dakota character, combined with natural abilities, took him to the world stage, making it a better place for all of us.

Cleve Abbott was a true South Dakotan to his core. A man of few words who instead used challenges to prove principled action creates success. He took his athletic prowess and South Dakota public education to create his own path to excellence. Cleve’s parents, Albert B. Abbott and Mollie Brown, were married in 1890 in Alabama and by the time Cleve was born on December 19, 1894, they were living in Yankton, SD. The family grew to seven children by the time the move was made to Watertown, where Cleve’s mother died in 1909. Young Cleve was raised at a time when most sons would have followed their father to become a stone mason. He instead combined sports and education to build citizens of character and strength for a stronger nation.

He trained his mind like he trained his body. Cleve was among the first black South Dakotans to graduate from a public high school and college while excelling in sports. He graduated from Watertown High School and South Dakota State, earning a combined total of 30 varsity letters covering football, basketball (team captain), baseball, track and tennis. Considering the social and legal tenor of the day, these accolades would have been life highlights but Cleve was just getting started.

Cleve’s college academic record combined with athletic ability was brought to the attention of Booker T. Washington, founder of the historically black college in Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute. While searching for a man of color to combine integrity, scholarship and athleticism to transform the stature and place in American society for his students, he had a 1913 chance encounter with South Dakota State president

Ellwood Perisho, and Abbott received a graduation job offer. Cleve accepted the challenge to build an athletic program at Tuskegee when his dairy science degree was earned.

In 1916, Cleve showed up for work at the Tuskegee Institute as an agricultural instructor and coach. Soon WWI interrupted his career, and he reported for active military duty. Cleve went on to become a respected Army intelligence officer and leader of men in France.

At the conclusion of the war, he continued his education in Kansas and then Harvard. He joined the faculty at Kansas Vocational School in Topeka, Kansas, serving as coach and Commandant of Cadets.

Abbott was asked to return to Alabama in 1923 to be the eighth head football coach for the Tuskegee Institute Golden Tigers, for 32 seasons until 1954. His accumulated record still ranks first at the school in total wins, fifth in winning percentage (.661) amounting to 202 wins, 97 losses and 27 ties including six undefeated seasons, topped by six college football national championships. The stadium he personally helped build was renamed in his honor.

According to his wife Jessie, Cleve’s responsibilities as Director of the Department of Physical Education and Athletics allowed them to create model programs designed not only for black men and women to excel, but all students in America. His efforts to help women brought to the world stage the first black woman, Alice Coachman, to earn a 1948 Olympic Gold Medal.

Cleveland and Jessie did not experience the challenges of southern segregation growing up. Like most early immigrant South Dakotans, they showed a prairie toughness able to persevere with an acceptance of challenges to create success. Efforts to bring out the excellence in everyone was based on their ability to be involved in all aspects of community. Tuskegee was a platform to create opportunities showcasing talents previously ignored because of skin color.

Cleve became the first person of color to be a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1946. There is a long list of excellence awards given during his life and his early death in 1955 has not stopped them. Cleve Abbott’s induction into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2018 is an honor he would humbly have accepted as a means to highlight his students and their achievements – not him.

NOMINATED BY RICHARD DUNWIDDIE

Our Champions of Excellence come from all corners of the state and differ by gender, race, political orientation, vocation, and avocation. What they have in common is their pursuit of excellence. We honor them for what they have done and what they will yet do. We hold them up as examples to inspire citizens to pursue their own path of excellence. We hold them up to positively influence the culture of South Dakota.

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We invite you to learn more by getting to know our board and staff, and visiting us in Chamberlain, or online at sdexcellence.org. We encourage you to consider joining our effort to Champion a Culture of Excellence: One Act at a Time.

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INDUCTEE ANNIVERSARIES

1988 | 30 YEARS 1998 | 20 YEARS 2008 | 10 YEARS

Mahpiyato Blue Cloud, Walter Bones, DeWitt Booth, Fr. Columban Bregenzer, Dr. William Donahoe, Parnell Donohue, Leif Hanson, Jakways Kesling, Charles Lien, Paul Marschalk, Winfred Reutter, Mildred Sandal, Leland Warne, Dr. Karl Wegner, Korczak Ziolkowski and Ruth Ziolkowski Dr. Frank Aplan, James Aplan, Bertyne Birkland, David Christensen, Curley Haisch, Rose Haisch, Dr. John Hamre, Melvin Hanthorn, Boyd Hopkins, Eunice Hovland, Howard Hovland, Dr. Benjamin Kantack, Pat O’Brien, Robert Penn, Calvin Schultz, Dr. Robert Wagner, and Anson Yeager Sue Brown, Thomas Daschle, Gordon Fosness, Rodney Fouberg, Dr. James O. Hansen, Gordon Hanson, Peter Hegg, Elmer Karl, Evelyn Leite, Dr. James Martin, Rev. Dr. Donald Messer, Dr. Vernon Ronald Nelson, and Clint Roberts

Raleigh Barker, Lionel Bordeaux, Dr. Roscoe Dean, White Eagle, Abner George, Sylvia Henkin, Dr. Warren Jones, Joe Kirby, Wallace Larsen, Dr. John Milton, George Mortimer, Robert Perry, Arthur “Joe” Quintal, Leland Schoenhard, Dr. Harold Schuknecht, Mildred Sutton, and Leonard "Bud" Williams Dr. Charles Balcer, C. John Egan Jr., Richard Ekstrum, Alfred “Bud” Jetty, Sister Blanche Kribell, Helen Madsen, LuVerne Madsen, Dr. Thomas F Malone, Rev. Stanislaus Maudlin, Roger McKellips, Dr. Raymond Moore, Ben Radcliffe, Theodore Spaulding, and Dr. Vance Thompson Miles Beacom, Ruth Brennan, Bernard Christenson, Shirley Halleen, William Janklow, Dennis Knutson, Pat Lebrun, Thomas Lillibridge, Jerry Shoener, and Charles Trimble 1993 | 25 YEARS 2003 | 15 YEARS 2013 | 5 YEARS