Stephen Martin, 66; SEC's First Black Athlete (1966)

[Bill Schenley]

Tulane's Stephen Martin, an African American pioneer
in college sports, was an inspiration to those around him

Photo: http://tinyurl.com/ca89ogg

FROM: The New Orleans Times-Picayune ~
By Tammy Nunez

There was one way Stephen Martin got through the backlash of being the
first African American to play varsity sports in the Southeastern
Conference in 1966. Martin, a former Tulane baseball player who died
on Tuesday, insulated himself from angry fans yelling racial slurs at
him during games.

He ignored detractors and kept pulling on his Green Wave uniform and
trying to assimilate onto an all-white baseball team in an all-white
conference in the deep South during some of the nation’s most
turbulent racial times.

As a sophomore, Martin started the 1966 season opener against Spring
Hill. He paved the way for Harold Sylvester, who also hailed from St.
Augustine High School. Sylvester was Tulane’s first black scholarship
athlete – he came to play basketball a few years after Martin enrolled
at Tulane. Martin won an academic scholarship.

Sylvester said the two were the only black athletes on a campus that
contained 80 African American students. They talked a lot about how to
navigate their way through the unchartered waters of being some of the
first black athletes in the SEC – the league Tulane was a part of
then.

“The advice was not instructional,” Sylvester said. “It was always
philosophical. He would say, … ‘You just got to do what you do, don’t
let the rest of it affect you. Stay in your bubble.’ That’s the way he
was and again, that’s my memory of him is that he always made sure
that he was contained.”

No matter what fans screamed at him, Martin played on as if they were
cheering for him.

“He had to go to Alabama and to Baton Rouge and into Mississippi and
all those places – essentially alone,” Sylvester said. “He was the
kind of guy, it was like water on a duck’s back. You know he must of
internalized it but he was an absolute, total, complete gentleman. He
was a really bright scholarly guy. But he went through a lot, no
question about it.”

“Steve was a trendsetter and pioneer, who opened many doors for
African-Americans, when he donned a Tulane uniform and took the field
for the first time in 1966,” Tulane Director of Athletics Rick Dickson
said. “Through his heroic determination, he helped break down a racial
barrier and advance collegiate athletics. This is a sad day for the
Martin family and the entire Tulane community, but I have no doubt his
legendary actions will remain as one of the great moments in our
University’s history.”

At St. Augustine, Martin was one of the first few four year lettermen
in football and was a key part of the school's first-ever state
championship in 1963.

Martin, who went on to get a CPA and MBA, was a bit of a marvel in
other ways as well.

“One of the things that I remember about Steve that he was a
consummate athlete in addition to being a consummate gentleman,”
Sylvester said. “He was a guy who was probably a better football
player than a baseball player but the world, the Southeastern
Conference, wasn’t ready for a black football player at the time that
he came through.”

Martin played intramural sports and excelled in the classroom in his
college days. He earned his B.A. in Latin as a Rockefeller Scholar and
M.B.A. as an Arthur Young Scholar from Tulane. He later served his
country in the United States Army and retired in 2012 as the Chief
Financial Officer for Tuskegee University.

He was always a forward-thinking businessman, Sylvester said. The two
talked about opening up a sports agency in the early 1970’s – way
ahead of what would become a big-bang industry.

But Sylvester says he feels a debt to Martin for paving a path for
African Americans like himself in a college culture that didn’t
include many blacks in the 1960s.

“He was out there in baseball. It’s a different sport from football or
basketball,” Sylvester said. “They are in closer proximity so all the
name-calling and isolation things that have happened – it’s a Jackie
Robinson story. Everyone is up close. He went through an awful lot in
those years. He is an actual pioneer in a major southern athletic
conference.”

During his varsity career, he played in 61 career games and was a
career .230 hitter with five home runs, 15 RBI and was a perfect 4-
of-4 on stolen base attempts. He was coached by Ben Abadie and Milt
Retif during his career.

Martin, who died after a long battle with cancer, is survived by his
wife Brigid C. Martin, and his children, Stephen A. Martin, Jr.
(Monique), Nicole M. Franks (Kevin), and Dana C. Martin.