Wisconsin Badgers

1875 - William Noland is the first Black student to graduate from the University of Wisconsin.

1900 - Julian Ware (baseball 1900-03) and Adelbert Matthews (baseball 1900-02) are the first Black varsity student-athletes at UW when they suit up for the baseball team in the spring of 1900. Matthews played for two more seasons, and Ware was on the team until 1903. Ware and Matthews are in the above photo of the 1902 Wisconsin baseball team. View the full image here.

1901 - Track and field becomes the second integrated varsity sport at the University of Wisconsin. Olympian and Big Ten champion George Poage ran for track for the Badgers from 1901-1904, setting three school records during his career. Poage was the first in a long line of successful Black trackmen for Wisconsin.

1902 – Julian Ware and Adelbert Matthews help Wisconsin win its first Big Ten baseball title. Ware makes Big Ten history that year when his teammates selected him to be the team captain. He was the first Black man in the Big Ten to be so honored.

1904 - In the course of three months in the summer of 1904, George Poage becomes, in turn, the first Black athlete to win a Big Ten Track and Field championship, and, then, the first Black athlete to win an Olympic medal. Poage wins the 220-yard hurdles and the 440-yard dash at the Western Conference championships and follows that up with bronze medals in the 220-yard and 440-yard hurdles at the Third Olympic Games in St. Louis.

1918 - In 1899, Julian V. Ware tried out for the varsity football team. Although he impressed in early season practices, he left the squad before appearing in a game. 19 years later, Madison-native Leo V. Butts (pictured below) became the first Black athlete to play varsity football for the Badgers, when he suited up for the 1918 squad. Learn more about Wisconsin football's early history with Black student-athletes.

1923/24 - W. Cecil Bratton rows freshman crew, making him one of the first Black individuals to row any level of collegiate crew. Pioneering Black historian Edwin Henderson claims in his book The Negro in Sports that “Cecil Bratton attempted crew at Wisconsin ... but restrictions prevented his participation in regattas.” No other Black students appear to have rowed crew before 1970. Bratton also starred for the Wisconsin freshman football team in 1923, and in 1937, Lester Brownlee was one of the leaders of the freshman team.

1929 - William Exum (1929, 1934) is the first Black athlete to make the UW varsity football team. After taking several years off from school, Exum also played with the 1934 football team. Unfortunately, academic troubles and a nagging ankle injury cut Exum's football career short, and it is unclear whether or not he appeared in a game for the Badgers. Exum also won three letters as a member of the Wisconsin track team.

1934 - Lloyd Cooke (1934-36) is the first Black member of the UW cross country team. Cooke competed for three years during the 1930s and was the team’s second-leading scorer in his senior year. After World War II, many Black athletes ran for the Badgers.

1939 - UW withdraws from a proposed track meet at the University of Missouri, rather than agreeing to the color line and leaving star hurdler Ed Smith at home. The faculty and students in Madison strongly supported Smith's equal opportunity, and the Badgers withdrew rather than accede to Missouri's exclusionary policy.

1940 - Ed Smith wins the Big Ten title in the 120-yard hurdles, becoming the second Black Badger athlete to win a Big Ten individual title.

1944/45 - The 1944/45 school year is the last school year in which no Black athletes represented the University of Wisconsin in competition.

1946 - Jamaican sprinter Lloyd LaBeach wins Big Ten titles in the long jump (indoor) and 100-yard dash (outdoor), helping Wisconsin to a third and fifth-place finish. LaBeach would also earn three All-America honors at the 1946 NCAA outdoor championships, turning in runner-up finishes in both the 100 and 200-yard dashes. LaBeach earned 17 of UW's 18 points, helping the Badgers placed fifth at the outdoor national championships.

1946/47/48 - Cal Vernon (1946/47-1947/48) is the first Black member of the UW boxing team, winning the 1948 NCAA Boxing Championship in the 178-pound light heavyweight division. He is one of the first Black athletes in the country to win a collegiate boxing title.

1948 - Cal Vernon and Robert Teague become the first Black athletes to play regularly on the Wisconsin varsity football team.

1948 - After transferring to UCLA, former Badger Lloyd LaBeach goes on to win two bronze medals at the 1948 Olympics, while representing Panama - the country's first two medals. LaBeach becomes the first Black Badger to capture Olympic medals since George Poage had also won two bronze medals at the 1904 games.

1950 - Ed Withers, a defensive halfback from Madison, earns the distinction of becoming the first Black athlete to be named a football All-American at Wisconsin.

1952 - The 1952 squad is the last Wisconsin varsity football team without any Black players.

1956 - Charlie Thomas (1956-1958), a shot-put specialist, is the first Black Badger athlete to participate in the weight events for the Track and Field team.

1956 – Little Rock, Arkansas, native Sidney Williams (1956-58) becomes the first Black starting quarterback in modern Big Ten history.

1956 - Wisconsin cancels football games with Louisiana State University rather than abide by a Louisiana state law that outlaws integrated athletic contests. Read the full UW statement.

1958/59 - Jim Biggs (1958/59-1960/61, pictured below) and Ivan Jefferson (1958/59) are the first Black members of the UW basketball team. Jefferson, who had captained the freshman squad in 1957/58, played only one year for the Badgers, but Biggs remained on the team for three seasons. 

1958/59 - On UW's first road trip in the winter of 1958, Biggs and Jefferson suffered the indignity of not being allowed to stay at a hotel with their teammates prior to a game against Rice University in Houston, Texas. When the squad returned to Madison, the trip's Jim Crow accommodations became a cause celebre, and, soon after, the athletic board adopted a resolution requiring that road games be played only in cities where the entire team could stay under one roof.

1958/59 - Charles L. McNeal is the first Black member of the UW wrestling team.

1960 - Infielder Frank Burks is the first Black baseball player at UW since 1903.

1966 - Long-time Texas high school football coach Les Ritcherson becomes the first Black member of the Wisconsin coaching staff. Ritcherson, one of the first Black assistants at any major college program, coached receivers and tight ends for four seasons.

1967/68 - Welford Sanders (1967/68-69/70) is the first Black athlete on the UW fencing team, winning varsity letters in three seasons.

1974 - Gilda Hudson-Winfield became the first Black female student-athlete at the University of Wisconsin. Originally from New Orleans and with no prior athletic experience, Hudson-Winfield walked onto the track team and quickly became a significant contributor. In 1976 she won Big Ten titles in the 100-yard dash and the 4x100 relay. Her efforts were rewarded when she became one of UW’s first female scholarship athletes. 

1975 - Pam McKinney (1975-76), is the first Black head coach at the University of Wisconsin when she leads the women's tennis team for two seasons.

1976 - Bill Cofield was hired at Wisconsin becoming the first Black head coach in Big Ten Conference basketball history. That same summer, Edwina Qualls was hired by Wisconsin as the Big Ten's first Black head coach in women's basketball. Cofield coached six years compiling a 61-103 record, but had the distinction of hiring Bo Ryan as an assistant introducing him to the Badger State. Qualls had a 131-141 career record upon her resignation after 10 years in 1986.