First in a three-part series comparing special Indiana University football seasons 1945, 1967 and 2020.
The bronze statue of George Taliaferro is the sentinel of the campus, a symbol of conscience fighting racism and football excellence.
A ball tucked into the crook of his sculpted right arm, leather helmet on his head, Taliaferro is guardian of a plaza named for him and the entrance to Memorial Stadium outside the north end zone.
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And more than that. In 2020, Black Lives Matter became a movement with a name and the Hoosiers football team recorded one of its most memorable seasons since the 1945 undefeated campaign Taliaferro highlighted.
Seventy-five years later, the world — and Bloomington — circled back around to the statue and the man it was raised to honor.
When the statue was dedicated Nov. 1, 2019, just over a year after Taliaferro passed away at 91, then-athletic director Fred Glass called him “one of the most important figures in the history not only of Indiana University athletics, but of Indiana University as a whole.”
Three-time All-Americans may earn remembrance statues at many schools, but much rarer are individuals who improve the place they live by their presence and rescue the soul of their community through commitment.
Taliaferro was a Black man who endured local discrimination and conquered it, carving new paths for others to come.
In a documentary film about his life, Taliaferro said his answer to segregation was to be “the best human being I could be.” He lived those words.
IU Football In 1945
Indiana first fielded a football team in 1899 and 2020 represents the 122nd year of play. There have been more gloomy seasons than celebratory ones and the school’s all-time record is nearly 200 games under .500.
Recorded are just two conference championships and one undefeated season. In the fall immediately following the conclusion of World War II, the Hoosiers finished 9-0-1 and won the league crown. They were ranked No. 4 nationally by the The Associated Press.
The Hoosiers achieved this with a handful of Black players in the lineup, including Taliaferro, when only a small number of top-level American colleges suited up African-Americans.
In 1945, the most prominent Black athlete in the country was Joe Louis, the heavyweight champ. When growing up in Gary, Indiana, Taliaferro idolized Louis and it was his initial aspiration to become a boxer. Taliaferro’s parents squashed that idea, stressing the importance of education.
Major League Baseball was still segregated. Jackie Robinson did not make his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers until 1947. Although some Black players had competed in the National Football League in the 1920s, the NFL had become a closed shop, barring Blacks beginning in the 1930s.
Taliaferro admired the nearby Chicago Bears.
“They were my heroes,” he said.
When he cavorted in neighborhood yards in well-integrated Gary, he imitated Bears’ players. Attending an all-Black high school, few colleges were aware of Taliaferro’s talents. Only UCLA, Illinois and historically black North Carolina Central, came calling. And eventually, IU.
“Bo McMillin did not have a problem recruiting Black football players,” said Mark Deal, an IU associate athletic director in a recent interview. “That’s one reason George went to IU.”
In a biography Taliaferro collaborated on with Dawn Knight, he said, “Bo McMillin changed my life.”
Taliaferro always spoke well of McMillin, in a 2011 interview, in other interviews over time, and on film, saying the boss was fair and gave him chances to shine on the field as soon as he realized Taliaferro’s high school talent translated to college.
Taliaferro was probably the most versatile high-achieving player in Indiana history. He ran, threw, caught passes, was the team’s punter, and in an era of two-way players, also played defensive back.
The Hoosiers ran a modified T formation that McMillin toyed with and in his pep talks emphasized, as often as had Taliaferro’s family members, that players should obtain a good education. This reverberated in Taliaferro’s head.
IU opened the 1945 season on Sept. 22 by beating Michigan, 13-7, in Ann Arbor. It was a good start and a big win. IU scored all of its points in the first half.
Taliaferro rushed for 95 yards. There were several noteworthy players on that IU squad. Tight end Ted Kluszewski, who became a slugging All-Star first-baseman for the Cincinnati Reds, scored the season’s first touchdown. The other TD was scored by receiver Mel Groomes, later the first African-American to sign with the Detroit Lions.
Fullback Pete Pihos became an all-star receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles and Bob Ravensberg was an All-American end. Russell Deal was the captain. Taliaferro gained 719 yards on the ground, the first Black player to lead the Big Ten in rushing.
“I could run with the ball,” said Taliaferro, who was 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds. “I could throw the ball. I could kick the ball. I was a triple threat.”
IU’s one slip that season was a 7-7 tie with Northwestern in the second week. Then the Hoosiers rolled past Illinois, 6-0, Nebraska, 54-14, Iowa, 52-20, Tulsa, 7-2, Cornell College, 46-6, Minnesota, 49-0, Pittsburgh, 19-0, and Purdue, 26-0, grabbing possession of the Old Oaken Bucket. In 10 games, the defense allowed one touchdown or fewer eight times.
At Tulsa, Taliaferro remembered — he always remembered the slights and insults well — Black Hoosier players were assaulted by racial taunts.
He clearly remembered clobbering Minnesota, too. Taliaferro scored three touchdowns. He ran the opening kickoff back 95 yards for a TD and another score came on an 82-yard interception return.
“The best day of my football life,” he said.
Segregation Away From The Game
Football life was fair under McMillen, whose players were sometimes called “Bo-Men.” On the road McMillin worked to ensure players stayed and ate in the same places and were not divided because of race.
“There was none of that,” said quarterback Ben Raimondi in 2011. “Coach McMillin was ahead of his time.”
Yet in Bloomington, Taliferro and other Black students had to stay in boarding houses run by Black hosts because they were not allowed to live in dormitories. They could not eat in restaurants on or near campus.
Jim Crow laws were prevalent in the U.S., with “Colored” and “Whites Only” signs posted at rest rooms, movie theatres, drinking fountains, and restaurants. The world of discrimination was “separate and unequal,” as Taliaferro sometimes said.
In the 1920s, Indiana’s state government was permeated by the Ku Klux Klan, the cross-burning, white-sheet wearing, prejudiced cabal that ultimately had a state membership of 250,000.
A tipping point for Taliaferro occurred when his class schedule conflicted with his ability to eat lunch without dashing four miles home. Fed up, Taliaferro took his dilemma to university president Herman Wells, testing his open-door policy.
By this time Taliaferro was an on-campus celebrity because of his football stature. He informed Wells he was not allowed in the nearby Gables restaurant due to his skin color.
Wells telephoned the proprietor and asked if it was true. He was told the rule was in place because whites would stop coming if Blacks ate there. Wells said he just might have to make the Gables off-limits to all students. Instead, he arranged for Taliaferro and a Black friend to eat there for a week to see what happened. Then for Taliaferro and three friends to eat there. There never were any complaints and the restaurant was integrated.
“After that it was over,” Taliferro said.
Taliaferro also played a part integrating Bloomington movie theatres. Taliaferro was a guinea pig for a similar plan followed at the Indiana Theater. By then, students were asking Taliaferro for his autograph and no one challenged his ability to sit anywhere he wanted at the movies.
“That team gave me instant stardom,” Taliaferro said.
Taliaferro tackled a policy change at another theatre on his own. Where previously it was “Colored” seating in the balcony at the Princess Theater, one day at the show Taliaferro removed the sign and sat in the mezzanine. He kept the 10-inch-long “Colored” sign forever, employing it as a lecture prop later.
Going Pro
After 16 months in the service and three seasons with IU, Taliaferro discovered his football skills were in demand. The now-forgotten All-America Football Conference of the late 1940s that gave the game the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, and many individual stars, also included a club called the Los Angeles Dons.
Taliaferro agreed to play for them — just before his beloved Bears drafted him. Taliaferro was eating lunch with friends after a workout in Chicago when a late arrival walked in and said, “Guess who was drafted by the Bears?” It was written in the Chicago Defender.
This was stunning. No NFL team had ever drafted an African-American player before. Taliaferro was the first.
Taliaferro was torn. He preferred the Bears, but gave his word to the Dons, so he went with the AAFC until it folded. In the NFL, with the New York Yanks, Dallas Texans and Baltimore Colts, he was a three-time Pro Bowl selection.
He also became the first African-American to play quarterback in the NFL, though he deflected that distinction to Willie Thrower because the other man was listed as a quarterback on a roster and he was not.
There was still racism in the NFL, some stemming from Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall, who vigorously opposed integration. Once, Taliaferro overheard Marshall saying Blacks “should never be allowed to do anything but push wheelbarrows.”
The insult rankled and when Taliaferro repeated the story he laughed “because then I went out and scored three touchdowns.”
The Rest of the Story
Once a three-time All-American at Centre College and a player in the early days of the NFL, Bo McMillin left Indiana to coach the Detroit Lions, but died at 57 in 1952.
Kluszewksk, who one season batted .443 for IU, had a 15-year Major League Baseball career.
Pihos was a three-time All-American and in the NFL was chosen for the Pro Bowl six times. Pihos is a member of the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.
Tackle Russ Deal, who played in the North-South Game and the Blue-Gray Game all-star events, signed with the Baltimore Colts in 1947, but chose high school coaching over pro ball.
Both sons, Mark, still associate athletic director, and Mike, played football for IU.
Mark Deal, 63, became one of Taliaferro’s Bloomington golf partners, another sport in which he excelled. He said George and his wife Viola practically adopted him later in life.
“He was one of my best friends in the whole world,” Mark Deal said. “They were unbelievable people. An elegant, gracious, fascinating man. They don’t come any better than George Taliaferro.”
Taliaferro earned an undergraduate degree at Indiana, then a masters degree from Howard University in social work after playing pro football. He returned to IU as a special assistant in the president’s office to supervise affirmative action programs on campus, helped found a Boys and Girls Club and devoted more than 30 years to fundraising for the Children’s Organ Transplant Association.
Taliaferro and Viola, Monroe County’s first African-American judge, were married more than 65 years. Together they were honored by a nearby Indiana NAACP chapter.
Social justice always mattered. In late 1967, when George was driving through Linton, Indiana he saw a sign reading “Black people — don’t let the sun going down catch you in this town.”
Ever-vigilant, ever-true to his principles and his pride, in a reprise of his Princess Theater remodeling, George Taliaferro cut down the the sign.