The UNT Athletic Hall of Fame honored the 1959 football team at its induction ceremonies Oct. 16. What was significant about that team?

A. The team was undefeated.
B. The team was one of the first to be racially integrated. C. The team wore all green uniforms.
D. The quarterback was named All American.

The correct answer is B: The 1959 team was the first at UNT - and one of the first in the country - to be integrated. 

Enter to win a UNT T-shirt gift pack by sending an e-mail with “Fame” in the subject line to inhouse@unt.edu by 5 p.m. Oct. 23. Winners will be selected at random from all responses.

Abner Haynes, left, and Leon King joined the freshman football team in 1956, the same year that North Texas admitted its first African American undergraduate, Irma Cephas. Cephas’ matriculation was without incident, but the football team endured name calling and threats. The players made the varsity teams of 1957 and 1958 among the first integrated college sports teams in the South, a decision supported by President J.C. Matthews. Three Mississippi universities refused to play North Texas and a hotel in Houston refused to allow the team to stay there.

In 1959, when Haynes and King were seniors, the football team won the Missouri Valley Conference championship with a 9-1 record and played in the Sun Bowl in El Paso. (New Mexico State University won, 28-8.) Haynes was drafted by the new professional team, the Dallas Texans which became the Kansas City Chiefs, and was named rookie of the year in 1960. King earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from North Texas State and became a school administrator in Dallas.

• Learn more about Homecoming, including the Hall of Fame breakfast, and find photos from the weekend’s events in the North Texan magazine.
• Learn more about Mean Green sports and athletes, and how to buy tickets.

(Photo: Members of the 1956 freshman football team in 2004: from left, back row, Gordon Salsman, Frank Klein, Haynes, Raymond Clement; front row, Bob Way, coach Ken Bahnsen and King. )