This book is an easy read (I deliberately chose a large. Wesley Walker graduated high school right on the cusp of integration. Wilt Chamberlain was being aggressively recruited by the legendary Phog Allen that year. Walker, despite being a highly talented player, never played high school basketball. In the local city leagues, where he was omnipresent, he truly shined. He cosistently scored high, was a positive team player, and is fondly remembered by many from that time for generously sharing his acumen for the game. He was recruited by the Harlem Globe Trotter's farm team, the Jesters. If he had been properly "groomed" by good coaches, or recruited by the University of Kansas at that time, he might have played with Wilt Chamberlain. He should have been recruited at least by one of the Black colleges. The game was changing to a fast break one, and Walker played that kind of game. However, he went into the army instead. There he developed into quite a boxer. His development was cut short by a tragic car wreck, in which he almost lost a leg. Walker fought back, and became a wheelchair champ. In later years, he opened a local gym, and is beloved today by many who personally felt his influence.
Local Sports Hero
The Untold Story of Wesley B. WalkerBy JESSE NEWMANAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2009 Jesse Newman
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4389-9720-9Contents
Chapter One
Born Battler
In the major sports, only a few rise to the top, then climb to the next rung to become a champion. Lawrence has had two. Both played in the same 1954-1958 period, and even played with each other. One was, of course, John Hadl. He rose from local high school hero to real stature in KU football, on to the NFL, playing with the San Diego Charger's. Now there is an effort to hopefully get him into the Football Hall of Fame, shrine of the very best. Hadl didn't do it on his own. Way back in Lawrence Junior High School, Coach Duver noticed his potential and later, he was groomed by "Lawrence Ranks High" Al Woolard to become part of Lawrence's long-reigning championship team.
Except for those who played with, or against him, very few in Lawrence today know about our second local sports figure, in spite of his exceptional talent in several venues. That's because he was faced with doing things by himself. In spite of that, he came to outshine all his peers.
His name is Wesley B. Walker. He was just a youngster when he watched a Movietone newsreel at the local Varsity movie theater. He was mesmerized by Marcus Haynes and "Goose" Tatum of the Harlem Globe Trotters, who dribbled the ball from every angle and kept it away from the other team. Young Wesley knew that's what he wanted to do. I recall that as a youngster I would see my cousin, Wesley, riding his bike and dribbling his basketball beside himself!
The Journal World articles record his scoring high in the city league, yet he never made the Lawrence schools' basketball teams. Apparently, the coach had little use for this black kid with the "uppity" attitude. He never had a basketball coach. Years later, he played for the Iowa Ghosts, and in 1957, he was recruited to play for the Harlem Jesters, a farm club for the Harlem Globe Trotters. He played LHS football under Al Woolard, and excelled as a defensive end. In those days, the high school counselor, as a matter of course, always advised Negro students to take the general (occupational) track, not the college curriculum, so he never went to KU. Walker, having never heard of things like mentoring and tutoring, probably could not see how he could keep up with university standards.
Walker graduated in 1954. Then he went into the army and his talent was appreciated there, where he was a championship player in football and boxing. Wesley had long boxed in the local area, but in the army, his boxing career took off. He knocked out his first seven opponents in 1958 in the first round, and became known as "The Knock-out King."
A tragic car crash, in March of 1965, would have ended sports for a lesser man. He almost lost his left leg, and would have, except for the intervention of Dr. Penfield Jones, who knew he was a born fighter.
Wesley B. Walker not only fought to save his leg, he went on to become a World Champion from his wheelchair, in both discus and the shot-put. He participated in wheelchair basketball and track. He was the National Champion in the discus and shot- put from 1969 through 1971, and a medalist in the Pan American games. (In 1969 in Argentina, he won the gold, silver, and bronze. In 1971, in Kingston, Jamaica, he won three gold medals for shot-put, discus, and javelin; and was a medalist in the Pan American games). All along he touched peoples' lives. He coached boxing and basketball. When his wheelchair might have stopped him, his passion kept him growing. He went on to a life of service, coaching boxing as well as track and field. He was there for kids, giving them the attention he lacked. What might have happened if back in the 'fifties, things had been different? What if coaches had kept an eye on him when he was young and molded him? What if it had been expected by our schools that Walker would seek higher education? Might he have been a KU star? Might he have become a pro? What might have been accomplished if only ..? What if ..,?
Chapter Two
What If?
Wesley B. Walker was born, the third of four sons, in Lawrence, Kansas on May 19, 1935. He attended Pinckney grade school, and graduated Lawrence High School in 1954. His parents were Glen and Alice Walker. Like many Negroes of this era, they struggled in farm/domestic jobs. Living only three generations since the end of (failed) Reconstruction, as Negroes, they were routinely paid much less than their white counterparts (If they were paid at all). Negroes had been defined in the Constitution as three- fifths of a person, and because of slavery, as more of an animal than a human being. Even after the Civil War, when they were supposedly freed, they quickly saw their hopes dashed. Reconstruction in the South was traded for White unity, and Negroes were terrorized into abstaining from voting or office-holding. In Plessey v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled segregation law and "authorities", such as the social scientist Frederich L. Hoffman, furthered segregation. Hoffman's views mirrored the White majority's attitude about the place of the Negro in the social order by providing "national legal sanction" to racial segregation. By 1906, Jim Crow laws and state's rights ruled the nation. Legal starvation as well as economic and educational disadvantage placed the Negro back into pseudo-slavery systems.
Jim Crow replaced slavery. The motive was still subjugation of Blacks. It was put more blatantly in an earlier epoch. Some, (Thomas R. R. Cobb of Georgia and Gov. Henry A. Wise of Virginia to name two), even equated the equality of Whites with subordination of Blacks. A newspaper of 1855, spreading proslavery sentiment in Kansas, showed how the thinking went:
The editors of the Squatter Sovereign surely shared these sentiments. In a slave society, the paper proclaimed, "color, not money marks the class: black is the badge of slavery; white the color of the free man and the white man, however poor [and] whatever his occupation, feels himself a sovereign." Like Cobb, the paper contended that this made slavery the basis for republican equality. The white man in a slave society "looks upon liberty as a privilege of his color, the government peculiarly his own, himself its sovereign. He watches it with the jealous eye of a monarch." The free white man is "proud of his freedom" and "jealous of his privilege." Such a man is "will resist every attempt to rob him of his dominion."
When Walker was born, Jim Crow laws and segregation systems were a way of life for every American, Negro or White. So, it is remarkable to see the spirit of individualism (seen by most Whites as "uppity") burn in the body and mind of Wesley Walker.
What causes certain people to rise above circumstances and say, "I am somebody!" and "I'm going to be somebody!"? This striving to change through practice, pain, and just plain hard work makes him stand out from others. (The ancient Greeks idolized character, strength, and skill as the making of a god. We are not quite as fanatic, but we greatly admire those qualities).
Growing from a child to a boy, then a man, the chiseling, the sculpting, of his mind and body came to show itself through sports. As my mother used to say, "We are all born equal, but after that, we have to BECOME unequal." Wesley Walker was only six feet tall, 175 pounds, but his determination, skill, and speed made up for his size. Winning is in America's national character. Notice what sports columnist Earl Morey said about Walker being a winner, in his column, Strictly Personal, on April 7, 1964:
Wesley Walker of Lawrence continues to amaze me. He's retired two or three times from the amateur boxing ranks in order to coach and train younger fighters. But it seems something always comes up that causes Wes to crawl back into the ring, and each time he does, he enjoys success. After Walker won the Kansas City Golden Gloves light heavyweight title, he "hung up the gloves." But he returned to challenge Kansas University's Ron Marsh in the finals of the heavyweight division last year, and forced the much-younger Ron to the limit before a close decision. Again Walker quit as an active fighter and went to work building a team for the Lawrence Boxing Club, under the sponsorship of the Lions Club. But when he recently took a pair of fighters to Springfield, Missouri, for matches, it was Wesley who had to take on one of Joplin's top heavies because another fighter failed to show. Wesley whipped the man easily. Now he's won the Regional AAU heavyweight title and is in Las Vegas, Nev., trying for a berth in the Olympic trials which follow in New York. And you know something? Wes just might get the job done at both places. Don't bet against this battler.
Walker accomplished, as they used to boom on Wide World of Sports in early TV, the "thrill of victory" and the "agony of defeat" by never giving up.
His story has lain hidden from Lawrence history, but through his character, he made his mark on many people. We are lucky to have these newspaper articles and clippings. Without those old clippings recording Walker's life-long achievements, this story would not have been told to the public.
Chapter Three
Before His Time
In the very year (1935) that Walker was born in his home on the four-hundred block of Alabama Street, only two blocks away, at 809 West 6th Street, a young Negro was breaking new ground. His name was John B. McLendon. He was the first Negro to enroll at KU in physical education. As part of his requirements to graduate, he had to pass swim classes. Thus Robinson gym was desegregated (they drained the pool the first few times he swam); however, the Lawrence municipal pool remained segregated for another three and a half decades.
Basketball was considered a "thinking man's game," unsuited to Negroes. Then in the Berlin Olympics of 1936, Jesse Owens won gold medals in the 100 and 200 yard dashes. That showed that Negroes were faster than Whites, (in short distances that is, not in long distances). The distance myth was shattered in the Mexico Olympics of 1968, when Jim Ryan lost to Kip Keino in the 1500 meters. Keino won gold in that one and silver in the 5000 meters, and Benjamin Kogo took silver in the Steeplechase. After that, many Negroes played on high school and university football teams, (since football is a violent, "collision" sport-one of power and speed).
So, the LHS football team was integrated. After all, it was reasoned, the fast, violent sport was well suited to Negroes. Basketball would be a different matter. Since basketball was considered a thinking man's game, it was a very slow process to bring Negroes into basketball.
Lawrence kept its basketball segregated, relegating Negroes to an after-school program with donated, hand-me-down uniforms. They were called the Promoters. On 2/20/2000 the Lawrence Journal World featured an article about the Promoters. My dad, Jesse Newman played center on that team in 1930-33. The team lasted until 1949 when LHS was finally integrated. The first Negro on the LHS basketball team was Leonard Monroe, in 1950. He made the team, but did not play. The next year Wayman Wilburn actually played. Both Monroe and Wayman were former Promoters. The Promoters were co-champions of the Kansas-Missouri Athletic Association (page 4).
The LHS coach, Fred Noll, coached the team, (after school hours), until 1936. My cousin, Will Jeltz, remembers John McLendon as a student coach for Lincoln Grade School (a segregated school) and Lawrence Junior High under "Dad" Perry in 1934-36. We know McLendon also worked with Fred Noll coaching the Promoters while attending KU. His biography lists LHS in his credits for 1934-36. He learned directly from Naismith, the inventor of basketball while a student at KU. (He was the first Negro to graduate in physical education).
Because Naismith was from Canada, and did not grow up with Jim Crow bigotry, we do not know how much influence that had on Lawrence basketball. We do know that Naismith was a mentor and teacher to McLendon, who went on to an outstanding career in coaching basketball, the first coach in history to coach three consecutive national titles. (And a Negro at that!) He guided Tennessee State to the NAIA championships in 1957, 1958, and 1959. He was the first Negro to coach pro basketball. He coached in the NIBL, the ABL, and the ABA. McLendon was the best Negro basketball coach, ever, and the author of two books about his fast-break approach. On March 3, 1979, he was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
LaVanne Squires of Wichita, Kansas was recruited by Phog Allen (only because, according to Max Falkenstein, Kansas State University had recruited Gene "the Jet" Wilson in 1952, the first Negro player in Big Seven basketball). Squires became KU's first Negro basketball player. Maurice King replaced LaVanne Squires as KU's next good ball handler in 1955, and would be on the starting team with Wilt Chamberlain. Maurice "Pancho" King and Wes played on a Kansas City team called Peck's Bad Boys. "Pancho" was his nickname to most of us. Many times he told me that Wes was the best player on the team. We all knew it, so others should have known it, too. Since Allen was looking for excellent ball handlers at the time, what if he had recruited Walker? Right in his own back yard!!! What if ...??
Chapter Four
The Good Samaritan
The night of September 28, 1963, Walker and a companion witnessed what he at first thought was merely a couple of vagrants seeking to break into a car for shelter. The two ran when they heard Walker. Then he saw what he thought was an old blanket on the ground. Upon closer inspection, it tuned out to be a pool of blood with what looked like half a body in the center. It was the tiny body of Leo Bierman, badly beaten.
Walker was outraged. He took out after the culprits and picking up one by the collar slammed him to the ground. The man yelped for the other person (a woman) to run. Well, Walker knew that a Black man couldn't chase a White woman-(and at night, too!)
He held the man (Wayne Knackstedt) for the police. They later caught the woman, and both went to prison. Leo was in the hospital, and then he was taken in by a local minister's family for a while, for which he was forever grateful, having been pretty much abandoned by his own family. After the assault he was almost blind and totally deaf.
Most people really liked Leo Bierman. He was always friendly, and he made the most of being handicapped when there were few social services anywhere for the handicapped. He walked with the aid of a tiny homemade wagon, and he drove a tractor that was specially adapted for him. He sold pencils in the downtown and evidently he camped out at night in the car dealership and Goodyear tire place on 9th and New Hampshire Streets, which has since been walled in and renovated into restaurant spaces.
Wesley was something of a local hero. He told me that people were nicer to him after that. He had no trouble starting his boxing club. He said that Coach Jack Mitchell even sponsored a trophy for the club.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Local Sports Heroby JESSE NEWMAN Copyright © 2009 by Jesse Newman. Excerpted by permission.
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