Speed City, San Jose, California March 1968
Top, left –right: Kirk Clayton, Jerry Williams, Sam
Davis, Bill Gaines, Lee Evans, Bob Griffin, Frank
Slaton. Bottom, L-R: Tommie Smith, Ronnie Ray
Smith, John Carlos.
Photo Jeff Kroot

Everyone remembers the raised fists of John Carlos and Tommie Smith on the dais at the Olympic Games in 1968 in Mexico City. But it is the athletic program at San José State College in the post World War II era that was the prequel to the story.

The exhibit is an in-depth examination of American sport in an era that spans the aftermath of World War II through America's tumultuous involvement in Vietnam. The exhibition focuses on San José State College's (now San José State University) athletic program, from which many student athletes became globally recognized figures as the Civil Rights and Black Power movements reshaped American society. San José State was selected as the focus of the exhibit as several Spartans became principal figures during this period of dramatic social transformation.

“San Jose State has not only a rich tradition in terms of its sporting programs, but it, too, should be valued for its acceptance of people of color decades before it became de rigueur,” said Urla Hill, History San José’s guest curator of the Speed City exhibit. “Yoshihiro Uchida and Julius Menendez were hired by San Jose State to coach the Spartans before the National Football League or even Major League Baseball began allowing people of color to play in their leagues, let alone coach.”

Speed City: From Civil Rights to Black Power, was on view January 12 through November 30, 2007 at the Pacific Hotel Gallery at History Park in Kelley Park, San José. The term, Speed City, was coined by a San José sports writer to describe the phenomenal success of San José State coaches and athletes in track and field and cross-country during the 1950s and ‘60s. These athletes and their coaches were unusually ethnically diverse for university teams at that time, and their accomplishments were earned in spite of wide spread racism toward all people of color.

Some of the artifacts in the Speed City exhibit include items from Coaches Bud Winter, Yosh Uchida, Ben Tucker, Julie Menendez, Bob Poynter, Chuck Alexander, Lee Evans and more.