For Browns alumni, quotas, teamwork were part of NFL in 1970s

SANDUSKY — When Sandusky graduate Thom Darden entered the National Football League as the first pick of the Cleveland Browns in the 1972 draft, one of his defensive teammates had never played with a black person and the league had a silent quota system to limit the number of African-American players on each. team.That was something Darden had never experienced playing for the Blue Streaks or during his college days at the University of Michigan."It boggles my mind that this game that we love and were playing and were fortunate enough to make a living at, that there were guys who never played with a black player before," Darden said during a panel discussion on racism in sports Saturday at the St. Stephens AME Church. "We felt this things and we understood those things."Darden served as moderator for the event that featured former Cleveland running backs Greg Pruitt and Cleo Miller, offensive lineman Al Jenkins and quarterback David Mays, who was one of just three black quarterbacks in the league when he played in 1976.Darden organized the event to offer insight into the experiences he and some teammates, who have made their homes in the Cleveland area, had during their playing days in the NFL. "Sports was probably one of the most instrumental factors in ending segregation," said Mays, who also was a longtime Cleveland area dentist. "When laws were passed ending the practice, the first things that happened was college coaches started recruiting black athletes. And even though there was still racism in sports, it played a tremendous role in helping everyone getting along."When that whistle blows, everyone one was playing for the same goal."Mays earned a spot on the Browns roster as a third-string quarterback after bounding around the defunct World Football League. He finally got a chance to play when Brian Sipe was injured during a 1976 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers and rallied Cleveland to an 18-16 victory.He experienced racism early after winning state titles in tennis, basketball and football in high school. He was told he would have to switch from quarterback to be offered a scholarship to attend Louisiana State University. He declined and became a standout quarterback at Texas Southern, but still had to wait three years for the WFL to begin play and then was cut by teams in Detroit and Philadelphia without as much as a tryout."There were a lot of situations where guys who were quality players, had great minds and great athletic ability, but not given the opportunity to maximize their potential because it was thought blacks were not thinkers to be in that position," Darden said. "How many guys suffered because of that?"Jenkins was definitely one of them. He was drafted by the Browns in 1972 after the team took running back Ron Johnson from Michigan. Both were given the Wonderlic test, an intelligence test still used by NFL teams in the draft process, and they finished with the two highest scores recorded that year."Racism is somethings that all of us, as black people and white people, have had to live with," he said. "My little brother would complain that things weren't fair and I told him nothing is fair. The lines you have to cross are like hurdles, but that's the way the system is. You can cry or you can get up and do something about it and that's what we've done."Jenkins, the first black athlete to graduate from Tulsa University, experienced the racism of the NFL quota system when he landed in Miami after two seasons with the Browns. He was told by team officials that they were one man over the numbers of blacks the Dolphins could keep."When I came into the league in 1969, I think the quota was eight per team and it eventually got up to 15," he said. "When I got to Miami, it was 14 and I was one over the quota. The NFL is a graveyard of quality football players who couldn't play their position."The Dolphins figured out a way to keep Jenkins for the 1972 season, the year the team completed the only undefeated Super Bowl championship season in league history, but he was in Houston to play for the Oilers the following season.Miller and Mays grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Miller was considered one of the finest athletes in the state by his senior season. However, there was no big-time college program that would give him a chance, so he chose a historically black college, University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff."When I was a senior in high school, I got a letter from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville to play in this high school all-star game where everyone was supposed to play," he said. "We went to all the practices, but when the game came around, I never got a chance to play. They didn't want people to see the talent we had and that did something to me."Athletes are not brought up to hate each other. When we are playing each other, we are enjoying each other on the football field, we're brothers out on the football field. We care for each other and we do the things we need to do because it's a team sports. Beyond that are things we can't control."Pruitt, a 1999 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, was a two-time All-American running back at the University of Oklahoma and a Heisman Trophy finalist twice. He also starred as a high school quarterback, but was switched to receiver in his senior season and then to running back at Oklahoma."Sometimes you can't see the forest from the trees," he said. "Football got me away from the forest so I could see. My whole life changed as a result of football. What I loved about football back when I played was the coaches. The coaches became my father that I didn't have at home. They had their own rules that you had to abide by. God made me fall in love with football."Pruitt was a second-round pick of the Browns in 1973 and spent nine seasons in Cleveland, earning Pro Bowl recognition four times before being traded to Los Angeles, where he was a Pro Bowl return specialist for the 1982 Super Bowl XVIII-winning Raiders." A lot of my good friends are white and black as a result of football bringing us together," he said. "I would have never met them and they wouldn't have known anything about me. We have to continue to try to do the right things. We have to make sure our kids do the right things."I always take the time to share with kids the road that I've been down that they are going down. I tell them a mistake don't make you a failure, it's repeating that mistake. And I tell them don't be afraid to make mistakes because the biggest thing is learning from them."Sandusky graduate Thom Darden, back, was moderator for a panel discussion on racism in sports Saturday at St. Stephens AME Church in Sandusky. He was joined by former Cleveland Browns teammates (from left), David Mays, Cleo Miller, Greg Pruitt and Al Jenkins.Former Browns offensive lineman Al Jenkins speaks to attendees at St. Stephens AME Church in Sandusky on the issue of racism in sports during a panel discussion Saturday, hosted by Sandusky graduate Thom Darden.Former Cleveland running back Cleo Miller addresses attendees of a panel discussion on racism in sports Saturday at St. Stephens AME Church in Sandusky. Greg Pruitt (left) and Al Jenkins (middle) were also part of the panel, moderated by Sandusky graduate and Cleveland defensive back Thom Darden.David Mays, a former quarterback for the Browns and Cleveland area dentist, addresses attendees of a panel discussion on racism in sports Saturday at St. Stephens AME Church in Sandusky.