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presents: wi lli e me r r iwe at he r A Smooth Player LISTEN: "One on One" interview with Willie Merriweather Merriweather a standout in sea of change BY MARK MONTIETH Special to Gold and Black change toward blacks, and Lamar Lundy, a football and basketball standout who went on to a Hall of Fame career in the illie Merriweather was one of the NFL. central figures amid a sea change It must have been startling to many in Purdue's basketball program. It turned fans, then, when four black players out to be a false start, but still stands as joined the team for the 1955-56 season: a landmark era in the program's history, Merriweather, Indiana Mr. Basketball and one that brought renewed success Willie Eison, Fort Wayne's Charlie Lyon the court. ons and Harvey Austin, who had arrived His was a career on the crossroads of from the Army on a track scholarship. social change, filled with ample individAustin, a point guard, wound up starting ual and group distinction, but diverted three seasons, while Merriweather, a 6-5 from a possible professional career by an guard, and Eison, a center, started two. Purdue Army obligation. He wound up spending All three were second-team All-Big Ten most of his career in education, where Willie Merriweather became selections in 1958. In '59, their senior the first Boilermaker player to his accomplishments surpassed those average 20 points per game. seasons, Merriweather was voted to the of his athletic career in the real-world first team and Eison to the second team. ways. Eison was voted the team's MVP in 1958, Merriweather's college basketball caMerriweather in '59. reer will conclude with one final honor Lyons perhaps would have been a this fall, when he's inducted into Purstarter as well if not for social mores due's Athletic Hall of Fame. The 1959 of the time. It was unusual for college graduate who majored in physical educoaches to start three black players in cation and biology played on two teams the 1950s, and to add a fourth, as Lyons that finished in a tie for second place in would have been, was absolutely daring. the Big Ten and was a first-team All-Big Merriweather recalls Lyons being proTen selection as a senior, when he bemoted to the starting lineup at one point, came the first player in school history to but being called over during pregame average more than 20 points (20.8) for warmups and told he had been removed a season and set a new single-season from it. Coach Ray Eddy's explanation scoring record. was that the order had just come down "I have good memories," he said of his from athletic director Guy "Red" Mackey. college days. "I didn't have any problems down there." It was a sign of the times. Many southern schools No serious problems, anyway, which was no small were not accepting any blacks on their teams, and matter for an African-American player in that era. most Midwestern teams were overwhelmingly white. Before 1955, the year Merriweather and Oscar Rob- It wasn't until 1963 that an NCAA championship team, ertson led Crispus Attucks to the state high school Loyola, included four black starters. One of its tourchampionship, Purdue's basketball program had wel- nament opponents, Mississippi State, literally had comed just two black players: Ernie Hall, a Lafayette to defy the governor's decree and avoid a state sennative who had to attend a junior college first, before ator's injunction to sneak out of the state and travel a coaching change at Purdue brought a philosophical to play the game. Even a decade later, Purdue would W 87 IllustrateD volume 24, issue 1 f