© U-M Bentley Historical Library

The Belford Lawson Mystery

A family story and racism's long shadow

by James Tobin

posted 10/30/2009

Among the cognoscenti of Michigan football lore, it is well known that there was not a single African American letterman at U-M between George Jewett in 1892 and Willis Ward in 1932. This forty-year gap is commonly attributed to the attitudes of Fielding Yost, head football coach from 1901 to 1923 and 1925 to 1926 and athletic director from 1921 to 1941. Yost,

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