Local Sports Hero

AuthorHouse

Contents

Chapter One

In the major sports, only a few rise to the top, then climb to the next rung to become a champion. Lawrence has had two. Both played in the same 1954-1958 period, and even played with each other. One was, of course, John Hadl. He rose from local high school hero to real stature in KU football, on to the NFL, playing with the San Diego Charger's. Now there is an effort to hopefully get him into the Football Hall of Fame, shrine of the very best. Hadl didn't do it on his own. Way back in Lawrence Junior High School, Coach Duver noticed his potential and later, he was groomed by "Lawrence Ranks High" Al Woolard to become part of Lawrence's long-reigning championship team.

Except for those who played with, or against him, very few in Lawrence today know about our second local sports figure, in spite of his exceptional talent in several venues. That's because he was faced with doing things by himself. In spite of that, he came to outshine all his peers.

His name is Wesley B. Walker. He was just a youngster when he watched a Movietone newsreel at the local Varsity movie theater. He was mesmerized by Marcus Haynes and "Goose" Tatum of the Harlem Globe Trotters, who dribbled the ball from every angle and kept it away from the other team. Young Wesley knew that's what he wanted to do. I recall that as a youngster I would see my cousin, Wesley, riding his bike and dribbling his basketball beside himself!

The Journal World articles record his scoring high in the city league, yet he never made the Lawrence schools' basketball teams. Apparently, the coach had little use for this black kid with the "uppity" attitude. He never had a basketball coach. Years later, he played for the Iowa Ghosts, and in 1957, he was recruited to play for the Harlem Jesters, a farm club for the Harlem Globe Trotters. He played LHS football under Al Woolard, and excelled as a defensive end. In those days, the high school counselor, as a matter of course, always advised Negro students to take the general (occupational) track, not the college curriculum, so he never went to KU. Walker, having never heard of things like mentoring and tutoring, probably could not see how he could keep up with university standards.

Walker graduated in 1954. Then he went into the army and his talent was appreciated there, where he was a championship player in football and boxing. Wesley had long boxed in the local area, but in the army, his boxing career took off. He knocked out his first seven opponents in 1958 in the first round, and became known as "The Knock-out King."

A tragic car crash, in March of 1965, would have ended sports for a lesser man. He almost lost his left leg, and would have, except for the intervention of Dr. Penfield Jones, who knew he was a born fighter.

Wesley B. Walker not only fought to save his leg, he went on to become a World Champion from his wheelchair, in both discus and the shot-put. He participated in wheelchair basketball and track. He was the National Champion in the discus and shot- put from 1969 through 1971, and a medalist in the Pan American games. (In 1969 in Argentina, he won the gold, silver, and bronze. In 1971, in Kingston, Jamaica, he won three gold medals for shot-put, discus, and javelin; and was a medalist in the Pan American games). All along he touched peoples' lives. He coached boxing and basketball. When his wheelchair might have stopped him, his passion kept him growing. He went on to a life of service, coaching boxing as well as track and field. He was there for kids, giving them the attention he lacked. What might have happened if back in the 'fifties, things had been different? What if coaches had kept an eye on him when he was young and molded him? What if it had been expected by our schools that Walker would seek higher education? Might he have been a KU star? Might he have become a pro? What might have been accomplished if only ..? What if ..,?

Chapter Two

Wesley B. Walker was born, the third of four sons, in Lawrence, Kansas on May 19, 1935. He attended Pinckney grade school, and graduated Lawrence High School in 1954. His parents were Glen and Alice Walker. Like many Negroes of this era, they struggled in farm/domestic jobs. Living only three generations since the end of (failed) Reconstruction, as Negroes, they were routinely paid much less than their white counterparts (If they were paid at all). Negroes had been defined in the Constitution as three- fifths of a person, and because of slavery, as more of an animal than a human being. Even after the Civil War, when they were supposedly freed, they quickly saw their hopes dashed. Reconstruction in the South was traded for White unity, and Negroes were terrorized into abstaining from voting or office-holding. In Plessey v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled segregation law and "authorities", such as the social scientist Frederich L. Hoffman, furthered segregation. Hoffman's views mirrored the White majority's attitude about the place of the Negro in the social order by providing "national legal sanction" to racial segregation. By 1906, Jim Crow laws and state's rights ruled the nation. Legal starvation as well as economic and educational disadvantage placed the Negro back into pseudo-slavery systems.

Jim Crow replaced slavery. The motive was still subjugation of Blacks. It was put more blatantly in an earlier epoch. Some, (Thomas R. R. Cobb of Georgia and Gov. Henry A. Wise of Virginia to name two), even equated the equality of Whites with subordination of Blacks. A newspaper of 1855, spreading proslavery sentiment in Kansas, showed how the thinking went:

The editors of the Squatter Sovereign surely shared these sentiments. In a slave society, the paper proclaimed, "color, not money marks the class: black is the badge of slavery; white the color of the free man and the white man, however poor [and] whatever his occupation, feels himself a sovereign." Like Cobb, the paper contended that this made slavery the basis for republican equality. The white man in a slave society "looks upon liberty as a privilege of his color, the government peculiarly his own, himself its sovereign. He watches it with the jealous eye of a monarch." The free white man is "proud of his freedom" and "jealous of his privilege." Such a man is "will resist every attempt to rob him of his dominion."

When Walker was born, Jim Crow laws and segregation systems were a way of life for every American, Negro or White. So, it is remarkable to see the spirit of individualism (seen by most Whites as "uppity") burn in the body and mind of Wesley Walker.

What causes certain people to rise above circumstances and say, "I am somebody!" and "I'm going to be somebody!"? This striving to change through practice, pain, and just plain hard work makes him stand out from others. (The ancient Greeks idolized character, strength, and skill as the making of a god. We are not quite as fanatic, but we greatly admire those qualities).

Growing from a child to a boy, then a man, the chiseling, the sculpting, of his mind and body came to show itself through sports. As my mother used to say, "We are all born equal, but after that, we have to BECOME unequal." Wesley Walker was only six feet tall, 175 pounds, but his determination, skill, and speed made up for his size....