Speed City: From Civil Rights to Black Power» A Historical Athletics Exhibit curated by Urla Hill
Lynn Vidali
SJS’s Lynn Vidali, who made the Olympic team at 16 in 1968, also competed in the 1972 Olympics. Vidali, who grew up in San Francisco, discusses her travels into the South, saying that once she saw a water fountain marked colored, but drank out of it, anyway. Someone came up from behind her screaming and [...]
Free At Last 1960 -1964
“The (Civil Rights) movement was really laid out in the fifties by the work and challenges that the Black athletes faced, and the stands they were willing to take.” – Ben Tucker, San José State’s cross-country team, 1960-1964 During the sixties, the tone and tenor of Black/White relations had begun to shift radically. By this [...]
Art Simburg
Another Bud Winter protégé, Art Simburg, who went onto work for Puma, at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, circa 1972.
Dudley DeGroot
SJSC Head Football Coach | 1932 to 1939 Dr. Dudley S. DeGroot might best be remembered for leading the Washington Redskins to the National Football League championship in 1945, but his most notable contribution was made in the collegiate ranks. While coaching at SJSC between 1933 and 1939, DeGroot began recruiting Hawaiians and Black Americans [...]
DeWitt Portal
Freshman Football Coach | Boxing Coach | 1934 to 1953 In photo: Coach DeWitt Portal supervises a “bout” between his son, Ronnie, and Julius Menendez in front of the Men’s Physical Education building, circa 1946. The building has since been renamed in honor of judo coach Yoshihiro Uchida. Menendez would take over the boxing program [...]
1947 Varsity Boxing
There is no doubt Portal’s staff was one of a kind in the collegiate ranks. It featured Lincoln Kimura, a Japanese-American athletic trainer, and Julius Menendez, a Spanish-American assistant. His team also had Black and Spanish team members, circa 1947.
Spartans Boxing Team in Japan
DeWitt Portal and his wife, Helen, escorted the Spartans’ boxing team to Japan during the fall of 1939. Interestingly enough, the Japanese had begun to train their military pilots as boxers in the years preceding the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s entrance into World War II.
Protective Headgear 1948
This newspaper clipping shows Portal’s assistant, Menendez, introducing the Spartans to protective headgear, circa 1948. Portal pushed the NCAA to make wearing protective headgear a requirement for collegiate boxers during the late 1940s.
Portal Training Camp
DeWitt Portal’s family owned thousands of acres in San José during the early 1900s. His teams used to train at the family camp grounds, chopping trees, digging, and running. Here, Portal clowns around with members of the boxing team, circa 1938, in a ring he had built on the property. This photo was taken from [...]