something that may seem obvious but some should probably hear: anyone who was the first _____ at _____ was a bad, bad man. had to be. https://twitter.com/TexasLonghorns/status/1332333971892559873

when i was growing up, i hung out a lot at the barbershop right near prairie view's campus. i'd be there just about every day for a while, and all the older professors got haircuts there. one was a dude named professor stewart.

prof. stewart didn't have much reason to go to the barbershop, but mr. kirby would always comb his hair up and cut it like mr. clarence cut cuba gooding's hair in coming to america. scissors moving, but no hair hitting the ground.

prof. stewart would get up and pay with a check.

anyway, i didn't know very much about prof. stewart past coming in the barbershop. i'll never forget the succinct way one of my dad's friends described stewart.

"that man got a ph.d in math from the university of texas in 1964." that was all he needed to say.

i didn't realize prof. stewart was the first black man to get a ph.d in math from ut, but he was. can you *imagine* what that man had to go through to get that far? and how cold he had to be to make those white folks treat him with even a modicum of respect?

anyway, to where this thread started: every school should probably have a statue for its first black athletes in a sport. it was almost a requirement they be excellent men or women, on teams where everybody else just got to be whoever the hell they were.