In 1969, Robert Bell, along with his girlfriend, Rosie, loaded into his green-on-green 1969 Chevy Malibu and made the trek from Meridian to Starkville. Bell’s parents, Joe Bell and Eddie Mae Bell, followed.

Bell had recently concluded a successful prep football career at Meridian High School that resulted in a scholarship to Mississippi State University.

The 96 miles clicked by like historic mileposts. Robert Bell was on his way to becoming one of Mississippi State University’s first two African-American football players. Although Mississippi State fielded its first football team in 1895, Bell and Tupelo’s Frank Dowsing Jr. were finally about to break through the color barrier.

Forty-eight years later, Bell and Rosie, the girl in the green Malibu now his wife, returned to Starkville with a different type of anticipation. This time, more than two dozen family members accompanied them.

On Nov. 23, before the Egg Bowl, Mississippi State University honored Bell, now 66, and the late Dowsing with the dedication and naming of Dowsing-Bell Plaza at the north end of Davis Wade Stadium.

Below their names on the red-brick wall lies a plaque, which features their busts and three-paragraph inscription acknowledging their historic accomplishments.

Bell, who lives in Houston, Texas, said he knew the school planned to recognize him, but he was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the ceremony once it began.

“I didn’t know exactly what they were going to do,” Bell said. “I knew they had something particular in mind. (But) all the things they did, and what they put up in the plaza, I just thought that was really something. I appreciated it, and my whole family appreciated it, and everybody who went with us that day.”

The decision to honor Bell and Dowsing was conceived by former Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin and kept alive once Stricklin left for the University of Florida. Current Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen, who was hired in 2016, said it was incumbent on him to recognize Bell’s and Dowsing’s accomplishments.

“I had conversations with Scott Stricklin about it, and Scott had told me when he had left to go to Florida, he had mentioned, ‘Hey, this is something I really wanted to do,’” Cohen said. “We just made a decision that these two very courageous men should be honored. We spent some time — we spent probably five or six months trying to figure out exactly what we felt like would be the right way to honor these men. We felt like building a plaza on the north end of the football stadium was the right way to go.”

Mississippi State admitted its first African-American student, Richard Holmes, in 1965, four years before Bell’s arrival.

A standout at Meridian High School, Bell received offers from Alabama, Houston and other programs, but Starkville’s proximity to Meridian and the guidance from his high school counselor led to his decision.

“I had a councilwoman who was there, and she was telling me a lot about Mississippi State, and she was (also) my high school counselor,” Bell said, her name lost to the years. “She really helped me with a lot of things, and was telling me a lot of things about Mississippi State.”

In the fall of 1969, Bell and the rest of Mississippi State’s football team arrived on campus ahead of the rest of the student body. Although Bell, a defensive lineman, carried the pressure of being the school’s first African-American football player, he said his focus was on getting to know the young men he would eventually spend years with.

“You were a little more concerned and conscious of what you had to do, and what you did (like) meeting up with some of the guys and knowing them and getting to know them, and them learning me,” Bell said.

Bell acknowledged there were a few instances of racial tension but didn’t elaborate. He said he’d rather not give energy to something that wasn’t positive.

“You were just moving along,” Bell said. “I can’t particularly say that they were looking at me, and I was looking at them, that’s about as much as I can say about that. But they were nice and friendly, and I tried to be nice and friendly, too. Some of them would speak, some of them wouldn’t speak, so that’s OK. Some of them would maybe just come up to you, and you’d say what your name is, and a few of them did that. I’m not going to say a whole lot did that, but I considered it to be a friendly atmosphere. I didn’t have any particular problems.”

Robert and Rosie Bell were born in the same hospital in Meridian and attended the same schools since their years as elementary students. The two began dating in the 11th grade at Meridian High School and married in 1974.

Rosie Bell reminisced about dating Bell during his time in Starkville.

“He was the man,” Rosie said with a laugh. “He was the man on campus. He was the first black (football player). People were curious as to what he and Frank were going to do, but they were nice guys. You couldn’t have two better guys than those two.”

While history brought them together in Starkville, Bell’s and Dowsing’s friendship outlasted their four years as roommates and teammates until Dowsing’s death in 1994.

Bell recalled his first memories of Dowsing, who was Mississippi State’s first football player to earn the title of National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete.

“He was telling a guy, ‘I saw that guy who is going to be my roommate, and he ain’t got no neck,’” Bell said with a chuckle.

As their friendship grew, Dowsing would accompany Bell on visits to Meridian, and Bell would reciprocate with trips to Tupelo. Dowsing, a defensive back, became Mr. Mississippi State in 1972 after receiving the votes of his fellow students. 

“He’d come home with me sometimes, and I’d ride home with him,” Bell said. “He was kind of like a dairy farmer, and we’d get up in the morning and milk the cow, and he’d show me how to do that.”

The sacrifices and courage of young men such as Bell, Dowsing and other college football pioneers are undeniable. They paved the way for racial equality in sports. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, in 2016-17, 984 of the Southeastern Conference’s 1,707 football student-athletes were African American.

Bell deflected talk of him creating a path for future African-American student-athletes. But Rosie Bell said getting him to take credit for being a pioneer in Mississippi State athletics isn’t an easy task.

“First, you have to know Rob,” Rosie Bell said. “Rob is a very humble man. As long as you do him right, you have no problems out of him. He’s just a nice guy. He’s that kind of person. Whereas you can ruffle my feathers, it takes a whole bunch to ruffle his. He’s just a nice guy; a humble guy.”

Although Bell graduated in 1973, Cohen said time hasn’t diminished his and Dowsing’s legacies and accomplishments, and Mississippi State owes a debt of gratitude to them both.

“My father used to tell me — probably like every other father around — that everything that matters, everything that’s worthwhile in life, is not easy,” Cohen said. “And I just can’t imagine that these two men, their contributions were not easy. They were probably very difficult (times), and (the players were) extremely courageous, and in creating the plaza, I want all of our student-athletes and all of our younger students at Mississippi State and our fans, I wanted them all to be aware of the contributions of these two great men.”