Monthly Archives: April 2013
Rare Jack Trice high school pictures
Along the course of my long journey in the search for Jack Trice’s Iowa State football jersey number (which I wrote about two days ago), I gathered a mountain of material on Jack Trice’s life. I wanted to share some pictures from his 1921-22 senior year of high school at East Technical in the heart of Cleveland. Trice played football and participated in track–both teams steamrolled their opponents on the way to winning championships. Visible in these pictures are Trice’s future ISU teammates and coach: Johnny Behm, Norton Behm, and Coach Willaman (in the top left of both team pictures).
The East Tech Scarab football team dominated their eight opponents by a cumulative score of 320 to 28–an average score of 40-3.5. Johnny Behm (holding the football) was the QB and captain, while Norton Behm played end. Look at the smitten young women behind the doors:
Jack Trice’s jersey number mystery solved
Kagavi’s first major story collection debuting this fall is based around the legend of Iowa State University’s first Black football player, Jack Trice, who played in just two games for Iowa State in 1923. Trice suffered fatal injuries in his second game against Minnesota and passed away two days later. A touching personal letter Trice wrote prior to the Minnesota game was read at his funeral in front of thousands of people. In the letter, Trice wrote, in part:
“The honor of my race, family, and self are at stake. Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I WILL! My whole body and soul are to be thrown recklessly about on the field tomorrow. Every time the ball is snapped, I will be trying to do more than my part.”
After his premature death, Trice’s story was gradually forgotten for many years, but a revival of interest in later decades led to ISU’s stadium being renamed Jack Trice Stadium in 1997. It remains the only major college football stadium named after a Black player. Iowa State’s special collections set on Flickr has this 1923 image of Trice with three of his teammates: J. Behm, J. Trice, N. Behm, and W. L. Nave. (The Behm brothers were Trice’s high school teammates in Cleveland.):
Searching for Jack Trice’s jersey number
Jack Trice is a legendary figure in the world of Iowa State University sports. As Iowa State College’s first Black football player in 1923, Trice suffered fatal injuries in his first major college football game against Minnesota. In 1997, Iowa State named their football stadium after Jack Trice. It remains the only stadium named after a black person. For years, I was told Jack Trice’s jersey number was lost to history, yet I always wondered how much research had truly been done. Many people know that baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson’s number was 42, so it’s fair to surmise Jack Trice’s number would hold the same significance in the Iowa State community.