Jack Trice: Jack Trice Stadium


 African American players were often forced to endure unusually rough play. One of the best known examples of this, Jack Trice, was the first African American to play football at Iowa State University (then Iowa State College). Trice joined the team in 1923. Iowa State’s first three opponents that year refused to play the game if Trice was on the field and so he sat out these games. Trice’s first game was against the University of Minnesota and he died as a result of injuries sustained in that game. The stadium at Iowa State was named in Trice’s honor in 1997, 74 years after his death.


Trice was born in Hiram, Ohio in 1902, the son of a former slave and Buffalo Soldier, Green Trice. As a child, Trice was active in sports and demonstrated outstanding athletic skills. In 1918, Trice’s mother sent him to Cleveland, Ohio to live with an uncle. Trice attended East Technical High School where he played football. In 1922, Trice followed five of his teammates, as well as his former high school coach, Sam Willaman, to Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa.


While attending Iowa State, Trice participated in track and football (primarily as a tackle). He majored in animal husbandry, with the desire to go to the South after graduation, and use his knowledge to help African-American farmers. His dream job was to eventually teach Southern black farmers about modern farming. In the summer after his freshman year at the age of 20, Trice married Cora Mae Starland, who was only 15. They both found jobs in order to support themselves through school. Trice also was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and initiated through the Alpha Nu chapter (Drake & Iowa State University).


On October 5, 1923, the night before his second college football game, Trice wrote the following in a letter on stationery at a racially segregated hotel in Minneapolis/St. Paul (the letter was later found in Trice's suit just before his funeral): Trice died due to injuries suffered during a college football game against the University of Minnesota on October 6, 1923... Continue reading 

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