THE AUSTIN FILE
Boston College Class of 1966
Men's Basketball • Guard
Washington, D.C. • DeMatha Catholic
John Austin was a trailblazer, a program-changer. First he transformed DeMatha, a Catholic high school in his hometown of D.C., into a powerhouse program with back-to-back conference titles in 1961 and 1962. After playing on the freshman team at Boston College, he moved into the starting lineup for head coach Bob Cousy’s squad and was the best player on the floor, night-in and night-out, for three years as the most prolific scorer the Eagles have ever had.
Austin broke barriers at both schools as the first African-American in either program’s history. At DeMatha, he opened doors for many, including Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley, gold medal Olympian Kenny Carr, NCAA champion Sidney Lowe, ACC Player of the Year Joseph Forte, current NBA All-Star Victor Oladipo and dozens of other African-American ballplayers.
In his three varsity seasons on the Heights, Austin amassed 1,845 career points; graduating in 1966 as the program’s all-time leading scorer. He still ranks ninth all-time at BC with a 27.1 per game average, which remains the highest in program history, while he also holds the top three sports for single-season scoring. The African-American to play for the Eagles, he helped pave the way for future BC legends such as Danya Abrams, Dana Barros, Troy Bell, Jared Dudley, Tyrese Rice, Craig Smith and so many others.
“John Jones was a high school teammate of John Austin and was also the recreation director at Marie H. Reed elementary school when I was growing up. He always used to talk about how great a player John Austin was when they were teammates at DeMatha.Chris Cheeks, BC Assistant Men's Basketball Coach (2018-pres.)
“John Austin, I believe, was the first African-American player from D.C. to go to DeMatha. Those sorts of legacies are the ones that inspire all of the young kids from D.C. to follow in the footsteps of those who came before us. John Austin was one of those greats we all looked up to.”
John Austin: By The Numbers
1,845
Career Points
(Ninth all-time at BC - graduated as program leader)
27.1
Career Points Per Game
(Ninth all-time at BC - graduated as program leader)
2x
All-American
(1965-USBWA [1st], AP [3rd], NABC [3rd]; 1966-NABC [2nd], USBWA [2nd])
49
Points vs. Georgetown
(Program single-game record set Feb. 21, 1964)
Gallery: Black History Month: John Austin
We just learned that John Austin '62 has passed away. John was a trailblazer. He, along with Johnny Jones '62, were the first African Americans to play hoops at DeMatha. Both came to DM as juniors & DM won its first conference hoops title in '61 and then again in '62. @BCMBB pic.twitter.com/vB6le2sATt
— DeMathaHighSchool (@DeMathaCatholic) November 5, 2020
Boston College Men’s Basketball mourns the loss of John Austin ‘66. The first African-American to play for the Eagles, Austin was also the first BC player to earn All-American honors (1965, 1966) #ForBoston?? pic.twitter.com/xrOuPeXJZd
— BC Men's Basketball (@BCMBB) November 5, 2020
THE McCOY FILE
Boston College Class of 1977
Field Hockey • Ice Hockey
Washington, D.C.
The passing of Title IX in 1972 began to open doors to women on college campuses that were previously afforded only to their male counterparts. Doxie McCoy arrived in Chestnut Hill in 1973 as a member of the recently formed field hockey team and was also a pioneering member of Boston College’s original women’s ice hockey team that same year. She also worked as a sports writer for The Heights and was the founding editor-in-chief of Collage; BC’s Black and minority newspaper that ran from 1977 to 1979. A multi-sport athlete at the scholastic and collegiate levels, McCoy graduated with a degree in communications and furthered her education at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism before setting out on a four-plus decades career through radio, television and politics.
Doxie McCoy: If not me, then who?
Doxie McCoy ’77 understands the importance of representation as well as anyone. There is no official record of the first Black female athlete at Boston College, but it very well could be McCoy. BC only became a fully coeducational institution in 1970, Title IX was passed in 1972, which expanded opportunities for women in athletics, and McCoy was a member of the field hockey team beginning in the fall of 1973 as a freshman.
Born and raised in Washington, D.C. and attended an all-girls Catholic high school, McCoy was accustomed to being in the minority as one of the few Black students in her school.
“Representation is certainly important, because it opens doors,” stated McCoy. “It opens doors for people who come behind you.”
McCoy chose to attend BC after looking at several schools in the Boston area, but ultimately committed to spending four years on the Heights due to the quality of the school’s communications program. She played field hockey for the Eagles and was recruited by former men’s hockey coach Snooks Kelly to join the upstart women’s program; despite not initially knowing how to skate.
Opportunities for women in sports began to grow and McCoy was an example of a woman willing to take chances in a changing world.
“I think it was a slow build,” McCoy said of the impact Title IX had on college campuses. “It reached beyond just ice hockey and not just at Boston College, but nationwide. Women's sports were just, they were not taken that seriously and funded like the men's sports were. It's a reflection of society at the time, in terms of pushing for women's rights and women's liberation, and so sports were kind of folded into the same thing.”
Story continued below…
Gallery: Doxie McCoy
On the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, the city of Boston and the Boston College campus were slowly progressing. In the 1970s, the city was dealing with desegregation of public schools and forced bussing, while BC students pushed for the admittance of more Black and minority students.
Beginning in 1968 and in place through most of the 1970s, BC’s Black Talent Program sought to recruit Black students to the university. The program was initially successful, but was also seen as a tool to keep a limit on the number of Black students admitted to BC, which caused students to protest against the administration in an effort to expand the number of slots for Black students in each class.
“Now, I know that I do recall that there were protests on campus, because the Black students were trying to get more slots to have more Black students admitted to Boston College as it were, at other universities,” recalled McCoy. “I did participate in some of those protests trying to get the school administration to increase their population of Black students.”
Humans Not Things
It's that time again
Sororities and Fraternities
When some people forget PEOPLE
And treat them like things.
Think, is it all worth it
Humiliation and Degradation
Does it really help, or
Disturb the situation?
And when you sport those colors,
Whatever they may be
Wouldn't it be nice
To say others thought twice
And remembered you were a
HUMAN BEING
Doxie McCoy (Collage - Jan. 1977)
McCoy increasingly became an involved member of the student community, expanding beyond athletics, during her time at BC. While focusing on her communications course work, she became a sports reporter for The Heights and founding editor-in-chief of Collage, the campus’s Black student newspaper.
Through those avenues, McCoy became a thoughtful voice for Boston College’s underrepresented student population. In the first issue of Collage, published in January 1977, her poem ‘Humans, Not Things’ was printed in a page three section dedicated to original works submitted by BC students. Three months later in her final issue, McCoy offered a letter ‘From The Editor’s Desk’, which called out BC’s dismantling of the Black Talent Program and called for a unification of BC’s student minorities in an effort to “help those who help you”.
“When I came to Boston College, I was used to being in the minority,” said McCoy. “But by the same token, I was never held back in terms of pursuing the things that I wanted to do. Because I thought, if not me, then who will? I've never been afraid to try to break barriers and encourage any student who feels like they can contribute and feel like if they're the only one then don't be afraid to be the only one because we need the first only one.”
Forty-four years since graduating from Boston College, McCoy has witnessed other women rise up and break barriers; in particular in her hometown of D.C. A member of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s city chapter in Boston during her time at BC, McCoy is proudly a part of the same sorority that Vice President Kamala Harris pledged as an undergraduate at Howard University in the 1980s. Last month, Harris became the living embodiment of McCoy’s need for “the first only one” when she was sworn in as the 49th Vice President of the United States; the first woman, first African-American and first Asian-American to hold the office.
Every pioneer needs someone in their corner pushing them every step of the way and at the end hopes to look back to see a growing crowd in pursuit on their path. For McCoy, the support came from her parents Shelbie and Samuel.
“Both of them excelled in education and excelled in their professions,” McCoy said of her parents. “D.C. is a government town. My dad worked for the federal government. He worked for the Department of Commerce and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). He was one of the very few Black scientists and oceanographers in that agency. So I would say my parents always pushed my sisters and I not be afraid to break barriers.”
That’s the lasting message the former editor-in-chief leaves behind to those who have pursued her path; do not be afraid.
THE MONTGOMERY FILE
Boston College Class of 1941
Football • Running Back
Brockton, Mass. • Brockton High
In the fall of 1937, Montgomery was one of three Black students in the BC freshman class and became the first Black student-athlete on the Heights as a running back for the football team. He starred out of the backfield for coach Frank Leahy's squad in 1939 and 1940, but was forced to sit out the 1940 Cotton Bowl and 1941 Sugar Bowl due discriminating laws that prevented Black athletes from competing against white athletes in America's south.
An education major, Montgomery was also the first Black player on the Boston College baseball team during his sophomore spring of 1939.
BC's First Black Athlete: Lightning Lou Montgomery
Lou Montgomery ’41 arrived on the Heights and instantly became the first Black student-athlete in Boston College history. Montgomery, an All-Scholastic athlete from Brockton High, where he was the only starting Black player on the football team, followed in the footsteps of Casper Ferguson ’37, who was the first Black student in school history and had graduated just a semester earlier.
Montgomery chose to attend BC on a partial scholarship, turning down an offer to UCLA, where he would have overlapped with four-sport star Jackie Robinson. A running back on the football team, he was one of three Black students in his class at BC, but the only Black athlete.
Under head coach Gil Dobie, Montgomery played with the freshman team in 1937 and on the varsity squad as a sophomore in 1938. With the arrival of new head coach Frank Leahy for the 1939 season, the Eagles debuted a newer and faster open-field offense, which heavily featured Montgomery at halfback.
BC had also recently adopted an athletics philosophy to aggressively schedule more nationally prolific games against well-known competition. Adding games against schools such as Auburn, Florida and Kentucky, all of which were charter members of the Southeastern Conference in 1932, would raise BC’s profile, its earning potential through ticket sales at home games and for participation in one of college football’s exclusive postseason bowl games.
"I'm part of the DEI committee. I didn't know who Montgomery was until I watched that documentary. And when we spoke about it and realized what a great story it is, it kind of influenced me to do more."Elijah Jones, BC Football
In 1939, Montgomery averaged 9.68 yards per carry; a BC record that still stands over 80 years later. However, Montgomery played in just nine of 11 games for the Eagles, who finished the season 9-2. Montgomery was forced to sit out games against Florida and Clemson; BC’s only two losses on the season.
Jim Crow laws of the South and disgraceful “gentlemen’s agreements” prohibited Montgomery from taking the field against universities that remained segregated; even BC’s home contest against Florida at Fenway Park. Although these barriers had prevented Black athletes from playing against segregated teams in the past, that was not always the case, but many have accused BC’s administration for not doing enough to push back against the agreement and insist Montgomery be allowed to play.
Author Charles H. Martin, who wrote Benching Jim Crow: The Rise and Fall of the Color Line in Sports, 1890-1980, claims the research into his book found that Montgomery was excluded from more contests that any other Black athlete playing for a school in the North. Upon his exclusion from the game against Florida, the Pittsburgh Post Courier accused southern schools of “bamboozling Boston College into benching Montgomery, not because they objected to his color, but because it was an opportunity to eliminate a star player.”
A key piece of coach Leahy’s offense, Montgomery began to see a reduction in playing time following the 1939 Florida game as BC prepared to enter games without Montgomery in its backfield. At the end of the regular season, BC accepted an invitation to the 1940 Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas to face Clemson. Montgomery was forced to stay behind, while Boston College chose to play in a game that one of its players was not permitted to attend.
The Daily Globe covered the Eagles’ departure for the game at South Station in December of 1939, which Montgomery attended. His appearance was described as “the most touching incident of the occasion”. It was ultimately the selfless decision of Montgomery’s to stay behind so that his team would not face the threat of consequences aimed at a team allowing a Black player to participate. The Globe report went on to add, “so when with tears streaming out of his eyes and with a choked voice, he mumbled to the gripped multitude, ‘I hope the fellows win,’ the entire crowd cheered him louder than anyone else present.”
Montgomery had written in a letter to his teammates that he didn’t want to put himself or his team in an embarrassing situation and that his decision to stay behind was a matter of “self-respect”. Rather than insist on Montgomery’s inclusion, BC traveled to Dallas and suffered a 6-3 defeat to Clemson.
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Gallery: Black History Month: Lou Montgomery
At the end of the Eagles’ perfect 11-0 season of 1940, Montgomery again found himself sidelined as BC headed south for the 1941 Sugar Bowl. This time he was permitted to travel, and did so at the urging of his teammates, but he had to stay with a local Black family as he was barred from the segregated team hotel. Although he was in New Orleans, Montgomery still could not participate in the bowl game; a 19-13 BC win over Tennessee on New Year’s Day, which he watched from the press box.
The southern bowl color barrier would not be broken until 1947 when the Cotton Bowl agreed to let Penn State and its two Black stars Wallace Triplett and Dennis Hoggard compete against Southern Methodist. A year earlier, Triplett and Hoggard were prohibited from playing against Miami in a regular season game at the Orange Bowl. Penn State negotiated in an attempt to get Triplett and Hoggard into the game, but to no avail. In response, the Nittany Lions pulled out of the game rather than compromise.
Speaking with Glenn Stout for Boston Magazine in 1987, Montgomery said, “I may have done the things that were easiest on the players and on the school, but it wasn’t necessarily the best thing that should have been done.”
Montgomery, who passed in 1993, was inducted into the Boston College Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2012, his jersey was retired at Alumni Stadium.
