The Black 14 Philanthropy, along with the College Football Hall of Fame and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, donated 36,000 pounds of food to the Atlanta Community Food Bank in East Point on April 7.
That brings their total to a staggering 1.75 million pounds of food donated since 2020.
“One of our missions is to help the communities that need food,” said Mel Hamilton, one of the original 14. “We want to feed as many people as we can.”
Hamilton and his former teammate Tony McGee made the trip to Atlanta to deliver the goods personally, joining representatives from the food bank and its partner agencies, who were very glad they showed up.
Atlanta Community Food Bank CEO Kyle Waide said the donation couldn’t have come at a “more important time” — the bank is currently serving 70% more people than it was just four years ago.
So who exactly are the Black 14?
In 1969, they were 14 Black football players on a University of Wyoming team that was undefeated, nationally ranked, and headed somewhere special.
Then, the night before a game against BYU, they went to their coach to ask if they could wear black armbands as a quiet, peaceful protest of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints policy that barred Black men from the priesthood.
Coach Lloyd Eaton didn’t wait to hear them out. He fired all 14 on the spot. Wyoming went on to beat BYU without them. Then lost every road game that November. Then went 1-9 the next season.
Eaton was eventually removed as coach. And 11 of the 14 players — despite losing their football scholarships — went on to earn college degrees anyway.
The University of Wyoming issued a formal apology in 2019, fifty years later. The NCAA gave the group its Inspiration Award in 2023. And the LDS Church changed that priesthood policy back in 1978.
As for the Black 14? They didn’t wait around for apologies before deciding to do something good with their story. In 2019, the surviving members launched the Black 14 Philanthropy. The following year, they began partnering with the very church at the center of the 1969 controversy to donate food to communities in need across the country.
“We’re 14 individuals that may have had a bad thing happen to us, but we’re above that,” McGee said. “Now what we want to do is help as many people as we can. We’re not worried about a legacy for us. We’re worried about a legacy for the world.”
Wide receiver John Griffin, a devout Catholic, put it another way back in 2020 when the partnership first launched: “The grace of God is all over this. If we didn’t have that grace in play, this probably never would have happened.”
Hard to argue with that.
Read more about the Black 14 and their reconciliation and partnership with the Church of Jesus Christ here.
