Editing Southeastern Conference (section)

===Racial integration===
[[File:GreirSugarBwolpg322 1956OWL.jpg|thumb|[[Bobby Grier (Pittsburgh Panthers)|Bobby Grier]] playing against the [[1955 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team|Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets]] in 1955]]
White southerners committed to maintaining segregation created controversy preceding the [[1956 Sugar Bowl]], when the [[1955 Pittsburgh Panthers football team|Pitt Panthers]],  with African-American fullback [[Bobby Grier (American football player)|Bobby Grier]] on the roster, met the [[1955 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team|Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets]].<ref name=fcflu>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Cs9RAAAAIBAJ&sjid=C2wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4796%2C5131560 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |last=Sell |first=Jack |title=Panthers defeat flu; face Ga. Tech next |date=December 30, 1955 |page=1}}</ref> White southern segregationists created controversy by claiming that Grier should be barred from the game due to his race, and whether Georgia Tech should even play at all due to Georgia's [[List of governors of Georgia|Governor]] [[Marvin Griffin]]'s opposition to racial integration.<ref name="Mulé">Mulé, Marty – {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070610185435/http://www.blackathlete.net/artman/publish/article_01392.shtml A Time For Change: Bobby Grier And The 1956 Sugar Bowl]}}. Black Athlete Sports Network, December 28, 2005</ref><ref>Zeise, Paul – [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05280/584401.stm Bobby Grier broke bowl's color line. The Panthers' Bobby Grier was the first African-American to play in Sugar Bowl] Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 07, 2005</ref><ref>[[Pete Thamel]] – [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/sports/ncaafootball/01grier.html?ex=1293771600&en=8a6a5b2ca5956881&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss Grier Integrated a Game and Earned the World's Respect]. New York Times, January 1, 2006.</ref> After Griffin publicly sent a telegram to the state's Board of Regents requesting Georgia Tech not to engage in racially integrated events, Georgia Tech's president [[Blake R. Van Leer]] rejected the request and threatened to resign. The game went on as planned.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fromtherumbleseat.com/2019/11/14/20914927/rearview-revisited-segregation-and-the-sugar-bowl-georgia-tech-pittsburgh-bobby-grier-1955-1956-game |publisher=Georgia Tech|title=Rearview Revisited: Segregation and the Sugar Bowl|author=Jake Grantl|date=November 14, 2019|access-date=November 14, 2019}}</ref>

The 1959 Mississippi State men's basketball team, led by all-American [[Bailey Howell]], finished its season 24–1, winning the conference title. They did not participate in the NCAA tournament as school and state officials would not permit the team to play against Black players from northern schools. Four years later, in 1963, [[1962–63 Loyola Ramblers men's basketball team|Loyola]], with four black starters, played Mississippi State in the "[[Game of Change]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8741183/game-change-mississippi-state-loyola-cannot-forgotten-college-basketball|publisher=ESPN|title=A game that should not be forgotten|author=Dana O'Neil|date=Dec 13, 2012|access-date=2021-10-09}}</ref>

It was not until 1966 that African Americans first participated in an SEC athletic contest, and the first black scholarship athletes did not play in the SEC until the 1967–68 school year.

The first African American to compete in the SEC was Stephen Martin, who [[Walk-on (sports)|walked on]] to the [[Tulane Green Wave baseball|Tulane baseball team]] in that school's final SEC season of 1966.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/2013/05/tulane_community_mourns_passin.html |title=Tulane community mourns death of SEC pioneer Stephen Martin |first=Tammy |last=Nunez |newspaper=[[The Times-Picayune]] |date=May 15, 2013 |access-date=July 13, 2013}}</ref> In August of that same year, Kentucky enrolled [[Nate Northington]] and Greg Page on football scholarships,<ref name=Sculpture>{{cite news|url=http://www.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/uk-football/article103568827.html |title=UK reveals sculpture honoring first black football players |first=Mark |last=Story |newspaper=[[Lexington Herald-Leader]] |date=September 22, 2016 |access-date=October 3, 2016}}</ref> and Vanderbilt enrolled Godfrey Dillard and [[Perry Wallace]] on basketball scholarships.<ref name=Carey>{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/sec/2004-02-19-sec-trailblazer_x.htm|title=An SEC trailblazer gets his due|last=Carey|first=Jack |date=February 19, 2004|work=USA Today|access-date=March 7, 2010}}</ref> At the time, the NCAA did not allow freshmen to compete on varsity teams, which meant that these pioneers could not play until 1967. Page died from complications of a spinal cord injury suffered during a football practice before ever playing a game,<ref name=Sculpture/> while Dillard suffered a career-altering injury before getting a chance to play for Vanderbilt's varsity and transferred to [[Eastern Michigan Eagles men's basketball|Eastern Michigan]].<ref name=Carey/> The remaining two both played in the 1967–68 school year. Northington made his overall debut against [[1967 Indiana Hoosiers football team|Indiana]] on September 23, 1967<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ukathletics.com/documents/2018/7/17/2018_KentuckyFBRecord_Book_WEB.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180913074031/https://ukathletics.com/documents/2018/7/17/2018_KentuckyFBRecord_Book_WEB.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 13, 2018 |title=Pioneers of Integration in the SEC |work=2018 UK Football Record Book |publisher=[[Kentucky Wildcats]] |access-date=September 12, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Maraniss |first=Andrew |date=2014 |title=Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South |location=[[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville, TN]] |publisher=[[Vanderbilt University Press]] |page=221 |isbn=9780826520241 |author-link=Andrew Maraniss}}</ref> and his SEC debut against Ole Miss the following week on September 30 (the day after Page's death<ref name=Sculpture/>), while Wallace made his varsity debut later that year.<ref>''Benching Jim Crow'' by Charles H. Martin</ref>