In this July 30, 1953, file photo, veteran halfback Wally Triplett of Penn State U., originally from La Mott, Pa., poses in action during his second year with Chicago Cardinals and fourth year in the National Football League. Triplett, who left his indelible mark on NFL history by becoming the first African-American player to be drafted and play for an NFL team, passed away Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, the Detroit Lions announced. He was 92.

When Penn State takes the football field Saturday for the Cotton Bowl, 71 years will have passed since the Nittany Lions made their inaugural trip to the Dallas-based bowl game.

Penn State tied the Southern Methodist University Mustangs, 13-13, in a hard-fought Cotton Bowl that year, and the Nittany Lions finished the season ranked No. 4 by The Associated Press.

Most significantly, however, Penn State’s 1947 season will forever be remembered for the role the university had in dismantling a bastion of racial inequality.

On Jan. 1, 1948, Penn State football players Wallace Triplett and Dennie Hoggard desegregated the then-12-year-old contest when they became the first African Americans to play in the Cotton Bowl. Triplett caught a 6-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter of the game to tie the score at 13.

The NCAA during the 1947-48 season featured 13 bowl games in eight states. Nearly all of those locations were nestled in southern cities that still embraced Jim Crow, where segregation remained prevalent.

Segregation featured rigid laws dividing blacks and whites including, no fraternization, “separate but equal” education, restrictive covenants in housing and limits on voting. Those who challenged the system were harassed, beaten and/or lynched.

“The tradition had been what were gentlemen agreements – the agreement was that teams with a few black players, if the game was in the South, if they were going to go to Alabama or Mississippi to play, they would typically leave their players at home,” said Mark Dyreson, Penn State professor and Director of Research and Educational Programs for the Penn State Center for the Study of Sports and Society.

Penn State’s popular “We Are” chant is a common exchange among alumni, students and fans. Historical lore credits it as originating during the 1947 season when in response to a request from Cotton Bowl representatives that Penn State leave Triplett and Hoggard behind Pennsylvania, Penn State player Steve Suhey rejected officials’ request with a passionate refrain that began with “We Are Penn State.”  However, the veracity of that account has been disputed over the years.

“I know there’s a lot of different discussions and theories and thoughts on where “We Are,” came from, but that’s the one, I think, that most of us identify with,” Penn State coach James Franklin said.

While the Cotton Bowl was, that year, prepared to shatter the color barrier that had long prevented African American players from participating in the postseason contest, other institutions in Dallas still clutched segregation.

Penn State’s football team stayed at a Dallas-area naval base during its Cotton Bowl trip because Triplett and Hoggard weren’t allowed to stay in the city’s hotels.

Neither the history nor significance of the desegregation of the Cotton Bowl is lost on Penn State coach James Franklin, a Pennsylvania native and one of 12 African American head coaches employed by FBS programs. Franklin began his head coaching career at Vanderbilt, where he compiled a 24-15 record over three seasons.

In 2014, Franklin became Penn State’s first African American head football coach. In six years, he’s compiled a 55-23 record, and he’s taken Penn State to three New Year’s Six bowl games in three of the last four seasons.

“We’re going to spend some time kind of talking about the history, the significance,” Franklin said of his team’s trip to the Cotton Bowl. “I think we can make some great connections with some of the conversations that we had this year. And then obviously for me, that’s something that I don’t spend a whole lot of time talking about, but I think the people that know me closely, and people within our program, they understand how important that is to me.”

In 1941, brothers David and Harry Alston became Penn State’s first African American football players. David Alston died in 1942 after falling ill following a tonsillectomy. 

Paving the way

Triplett has the distinction of not only being one of two African American players to desegregate the Cotton Bowl but he was the first African American football player at Penn State to earn starter status.

Triplett was born in La Mott, Pennsylvania. The University of Miami offered him a football scholarship but rescinded the offer after learning he was African American. He enrolled in Penn State in 1945, and in 1949, he became the third African American player to be selected in the NFL draft when the Detroit Lions drafted him in the 19th round.

He was a co-founder of Penn State’s Gamma Nu chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Triplett died in November of 2018. He was 92.

While Hoggard didn’t achieve the same level of professional sports success as Triplett, the Philadelphia native played an active role on campus as a voice of the civil rights movement.

“In some ways, Hoggard is the more interesting character because his dad was a minister from the Philadelphia area who became a state representative and so, he was more politically active on campus,” Dyreson said.

While Penn State’s Cotton Bowl appearance helped shine a spotlight on racial inequalities in Dallas at the time, race relations back home in State College were far from perfect.

Triplett and Hoggard didn’t live with their Penn State teammates during their early years with the team. Instead, they lived off campus at Lincoln Hall, an African American boarding house operated at the time by Harry and Rosa Gifford.

Lincoln Hall is located at 119 North Barnard St. in State College. A plaque outside the residence designates it a State College historical site, and a five-paragraph inscription lists its contributions.

“Lincoln Hall was the boarding house for black male students,” Dyreson said. “There’s a little plaque on it. Penn State owns the house now. It was a private home an African American family ran, and it was a boarding house. Remember, only about one percent of Penn State students in that era were black – we’re talking about 20 or 30 guys.”

The racial discrimination faced by Penn State’s African American students during that time wasn’t limited to campus residences. Restaurants, hotels and barbershops in State College largely prohibited patronage by African Americans.

Hoggard actively used his visibility as an athlete to protest State College’s barbershop discrimination. He later desegregated the campus’ Lion’s Paw Senior Society as its first African American member.

“There’s a black-white coalition that is really pushing for it and it becomes a big deal, and Hoggard is not just a football player, he’s a campus civil rights leader,” Dyreson said. “This is not a quick struggle. This struggle lasts into the mid-1960s. Barbershops stayed segregated in State College until the mid-1960s.”

Hitting close to home

Time might distance history, but that hasn’t stopped Franklin from sharing it with his players. In 2015, Franklin invited Triplett to a Penn State practice.

“For me and for the team, it’s interesting because these guys, sometimes we talk to them and we talk about things that we think they know and the history that we think they know, and they have no clue,” Franklin said. “I mean they think like the ’90s were a long time ago, which is scary to me on a whole other level. But I think that’s where it’s important that we take some time talking about these things and having some of the discussions, especially with some of the discussions that we had kind of throughout the year as well.”

A number of Penn State’s current players weren’t on the team to witness or participate in Triplett’s return to State College four seasons ago. Many of them, however, know of his and Hoggard’s contributions to the program, the sport and the community.

Penn State offensive lineman Steven Gonzalez recalled Triplett’s visit.

“I remember him talking to the team and meeting him, and it was a pretty cool experience,” Gonzalez said. “The ‘We Are’ (is) everywhere, and his aura, I guess you could say. It’s pretty much everywhere. You can tell it’s around the building.”

Penn State wide receiver KJ Hamler wasn’t on campus when Triplett visited the football facility, but Hamler is well aware of his considerable legacy and contributions to the school’s hallowed program.

“I think a lot of us are familiar,” Hamler said. “I actually researched a little bit about it, you know, just to know the background of it and how important this game is for Penn State, as well. It’s very unique. Just honoring Mr. Wally Triplett, I think it’s going to be a great time to prove ourselves.”

Despite the 70 years that separate Triplett’s and Hamler’s time spent as Penn State student-athletes, Hamler said he holds a deep respect for the role Triplett and others played as pioneers and trailblazers and as African American student-athletes.

“Me being African American and him being African American and being one of the first ones here to do that, to set a standard here, is amazing,” Hamler said. “It’s crazy how far we’ve come from that time to now. I think we wouldn’t be the team that we are without him.”

For Penn State safety Garrett Taylor, returning to Dallas after Triplett and Hoggard desegregated the Cotton Bowl seven decades ago will make playing there that much more meaningful and significant.

“I think it’s pretty cool and pretty special,” Taylor said. “(It’s) just kind of another stepping-stone in the right direction, in terms with college football and having the inclusivity and the ability for everyone to play. To be able to go back to that same bowl game is going to be pretty special.”