1948 Cotton Bowl- Penn State vs Southern Methodist University

Penn State played in the first interracial football game at the Cotton Bowl in Texas. Penn State's Black players were not allowed to sleep in the same hotel as their white teammates, and so the entire team stayed at the nearby Dallas Air Naval Training base.  This was the first bowl game to feature African American players. Wallace (Wally) Triplett and Dennis Hoggard played for Penn State after team captain Steve Suhey denied a request for the team to vote on whether to allow Triplett and Hoggard to play, saying the whole team would play or they would not attend at all.  To listen to Wally recount his experiences at the Cotton Bowl please visit: Wally Triplett Remembers the 1948 Cotton Bowl.  

Preferred Citation: Cotton Bowl vs. SMU, 1948 January 01, cuid38763, Reel: 3. Pennsylvania State University, Intercollegiate Athletics, Football records, 00491. Eberly Family Special Collections Library. https://archives.libraries.psu.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/706302

For more information about this video or other collections in the Penn State University Archives please visit: The Eberly Family Special Collections Library