Harold Sylvester

[golfnut69]

http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf ... cart_river

[tpstulane]

Great stuff here especially the first link!
1965 historical event Harold played in.

http://wwno.org/post/secret-basketball- ... ool-sports

http://www.jesuitnola.org/2016/02/25/19 ... os-tripod/

In this installment of TriPod, Glenn Goodier ’65 of Jesuit and Harold Sylvester of St. Augustine explain how the administrators of both schools worked behind the scenes to make the contest happen “to show the Louisiana High School Athletic Association that black and white teams could play one another without there being any problems involved,” as Goodier explains. The “game” was actually more of a scrimmage of five periods that Jesuit used as preparation for the upcoming state championship tournament. Following the broadcast, Goodier told alumni director Mat Grau ’68, “You know, the administrations of both Jesuit and St. Augustine were courageous in agreeing to the scrimmage.”

Read More and Listen to the Broadcast
WWNO.org – The Secret Basketball Game That Desegregated Louisiana High School Sports

[golfnut69]

We played Jesuit that year ( '65 ) in the state semi finals in scenic Shreveport LA...back then it was called the "Top 20" tournament...Jesuit had a very good team, I can only imagine how good St Aug must have been, Most of the guy's I played high school ball grew up playing at Metairie or Airline Park ( Miley)... during the summers some of us would go play at Lemon playground on Causeway Blvd, near Jeff Hwy, we never had one issue. My first year at East Jeff was the first year the school was intergrated, I do not remember any earth shattering problems occuring. East Jeff was all male and Riverdale was all female, it made for some intense back seat moments at the "Do Drive In" and other venues where sex education was taught !!!..with that, I thank the young ladies from Mercy Academy, Mt Carmel and Sacred Heart !!!!

[tpstulane]

We played Jesuit that year ( '65 ) in the state semi finals in scenic Shreveport LA...back then it was called the "Top 20" tournament...Jesuit had a very good team, I can only imagine how good St Aug must have been, Most of the guy's I played high school ball grew up playing at Metairie or Airline Park ( Miley)... during the summers some of us would go play at Lemon playground on Causeway Blvd, near Jeff Hwy, we never had one issue. My first year at East Jeff was the first year the school was intergrated, I do not remember any earth shattering problems occuring. East Jeff was all male and Riverdale was all female, it made for some intense back seat moments at the "Do Drive In" and other venues where sex education was taught !!!..with that, I thank the young ladies from Mercy Academy, Mt Carmel and Sacred Heart !!!!

Good story. Thanks for sharing.

[tpstulane]

Rehash
http://www.nola.com/300/2017/01/the_sec ... rt_m-rpt-2

[Jaxwave]

As a side note and certainly not of importance in the grand scheme, a few of the Jesuit players including a couple of starters were held out of the game by their parents.

As a Blue Jay student I attended the first St Aug/Jesuit football game at Tad Gormley a couple of years later which was won by Jesuit 13-6. As I walked out of the game in my Jesuit uniform, I was congratulated over and over by St Aug fans who couldn't have been nicer.

The city and Archdiocese of New Orleans certainly can be proud of St Augustine High School.

[lurker123]

As a side note and certainly not of importance in the grand scheme, a few of the Jesuit players including a couple of starters were held out of the game by their parents.

FWIW, I asked directly that question of a Jesuit starter that day in the scrimmage and he said every Jesuit player participated. No one was held out by anyone for any reason. Hollywood productions by definition require dramatic tension and use dramatic license to achieve it. The "racial boycott" was added to Sylvester's script at some point by someone to jazz it up. Perhaps Harold did it himself. Who knows if it was him or an uncredited co-writer. It's now reached urban myth status.

The Jesuit starter did emphasize that Jesuit treated it as a practice scrimmage and laughed that it was "St Aug parents who were keeping score." He said St Aug was a great team and that he and his teammates enjoyed the competition.

[Jaxwave]

My next door neighbor (who got me interested in Jesuit) was a student manager for the team at the time and told me about the game that night including the names of the players who were held out. Without saying who, two are in the picture shown on the Jesuit reunion link shown above.
The feeling from him was their absence wouldn't have made a difference in the final outcome but would have been more competitive. 59 points was a pretty low total for that team. If I remember correctly, for two years they scored over 100 points in both the state semi-final and finals.

[golfnut69]

My next door neighbor (who got me interested in Jesuit) was a student manager for the team at the time and told me about the game that night including the names of the players who were held out. Without saying who, two are in the picture shown on the Jesuit reunion link shown above.
The feeling from him was their absence wouldn't have made a difference in the final outcome but would have been more competitive. 59 points was a pretty low total for that team. If I remember correctly, for two years they scored over 100 points in both the state semi-final and finals.

I do not know why I posted semi finals...Jesuit beat us 100 - 75 in the finals...we kept it close for awhile...I think it was 2 - 0..and then all hell broke loose

[lurker123]

My next door neighbor (who got me interested in Jesuit) was a student manager for the team at the time and told me about the game that night including the names of the players who were held out. Without saying who, two are in the picture shown on the Jesuit reunion link shown above.
The feeling from him was their absence wouldn't have made a difference in the final outcome but would have been more competitive. 59 points was a pretty low total for that team. If I remember correctly, for two years they scored over 100 points in both the state semi-final and finals.

Fair enough. These folks are alive and any interested journalist can interview them and name names. Let history speak because until it does the Sylvester movie is not especially flattering to some of the Jesuit folks. I'll give the benefit of the doubt to those that dispute it without direct testimony.

As a comparative example, you can easily find today lots of now public info about "Rudy" where Hollywood falsely demonized Dan Devine to add dramatic tension. The movie basically falsely made Devine an all time jerk because just like WWE, you need a good guy and a bad guy.

Meanwhile I'll trust my source's memory (which obviously could be wrong) since he started and played in the scrimmage.

However here is a story from NPR affiliate in New Orleans that says players were withheld on both teams but again no names.

http://wwno.org/post/secret-basketball- ... ool-sports

Sidenote to the above which is a tribute to the grit St. Aug had: as noted in the article, St Aug had no gym in 1965. It practiced outside. I don't think their gym was built until 1967 or so. Until then, sort of like amateur baseball, the players themselves had to maintain and clean the outdoor court of rain water and debris so St. Aug could practice.

[Show Me]

Absolutely a white parent or two back then didn't want their sons to play against and all black school like St Aug. Different times during those days. Segregation was still practiced. It still makes for an interesting story.