A look back at how Fred Patterson became Ohio State’s first Black football player in 1890.
Beginning this month, Eleven Warriors will publish a regular contribution from Dan P. McQuigg, the author of the book “Days of Yore: The Men of Scarlet and Gray,” featuring stories from Ohio State University’s rich athletic history. His first contribution tells the story of Fred Patterson, Ohio State’s first-ever Black football player.
Black children weren’t permitted to attend high school in Greenfield when their oldest son Fred finished the eighth grade. When Fred went to the school on the first day of classes his freshman year, the superintendent denied him entrance to the school building. The Pattersons went to court to fight this injustice and forced the school district to provide Fred an education.
Military training was mandatory for all male students at the time and Fred was an exemplary cadet. As a freshman, he was appointed to a select company of OSU’s best cadets to represent the university in a prize drill competition against seasoned militia companies from Cincinnati, Springfield and Wooster.
Their job was described as being “unmercifully pummeled” by the varsity each day. The game was brutal, there were no helmets and most of the plays relied solely on “battering ram tactics.” Despite donating their sweat, blood and time, it was a thankless endeavor. Campus publications never mentioned them as being associated with the squad, and they didn’t appear in team photos. Hell, they even had to purchase tickets to watch the games.
Kickoff for the Thanksgiving Day clash with Kenyon was scheduled at 10 a.m. to ensure everyone could be home in time for feasts that afternoon. The Lantern observed that “a light fall of snow the night before” had made the field “slippery and covered with slush.” The sloppy conditions helped cause a muffed punt in Kenyon territory that Fred scooped up and carried to the end zone for a touchdown – the first by an African-American and only the sixth ever by an Ohio State player.
It was a reference to a notorious Halloween prank weeks earlier when some students stole a hog from the agricultural school that had been used in cholera experiments. The pig ended up running away, never to be found and the angry professor and his German accent became the focus of a good deal of mockery. Detmer saw to it that the students that were involved, including a few scrub team members, were expelled.
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