Stanford Brothers Made History as Athletes and Recounts Experience with the Sit-In Movement
This article is based on the experiences of Mr. Pollard Stanford ’61 in honor of his brothers Lorenzo ’61 and Carl Stanford ‘ 63.
In the late 1950s and 60s, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University athletics were at an all-time high of winning championships for the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA).
It was a very familiar euphoric feeling that Aggies feel today with the university’s current athletic success. For the Stanford brothers, Pollard ‘61, Lorenzo ‘61 and Carl ’63, they were a powerful dynamic to Aggie football, being the first three siblings to play a collegiate sport at the same time in the CIAA in 1960.
“Today when I see North Carolina A&T in national newspapers, it is an extreme honor because, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the local papers would not cover us, only African-American media,” said Pollard. “We would always wait until Monday morning for the Pittsburgh Courier to read the coverage on black football.”
From 1957-1960, the Stanford brothers, who are natives of Englishtown, New Jersey, played together in the all-tackle positions. As players, they always kept the following consecutive numbers – Lorenzo #72, Pollard #73, and Carl #74. The brothers grew up in a close-knit family that consisted of seven siblings with Pollard being the oldest, Lorenzo in the middle and Carl as the youngest.
“I initially was enrolled at the University of Wisconsin on a full-scholarship my freshmen year, when my brother, Lorenzo, called me and asked would I transfer to North Carolina A&T College to play football with him,” said Pollard. At the time, I didn’t know it was a big deal for brothers to play together in our conference and there was actually a feature story about us being the first siblings.”
All three brothers secured two CIAA football championship titles in 1958 and 1959.
On Feb. 1, 1960, Pollard was the president of the Letterman’s Club of A&T, when four freshmen, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. (Jibreel Khazan) and Joseph McNeil ignited the sit-in movement at the F.W. Woolworth store. The four students known as the A&T Four, refused to leave a segregated lunch counter after purchasing school supplies. This simple act of defiance launched a national sit-in movement in the City of Greensboro.
“As an athlete and student leader, I felt obligated to get involved with the sit-in. There were people down there that I was extremely concerned about and I wanted to represent all A&T athletes,” said Pollard.
In the first couple of days of the movement, students from A&T, Bennett College, James B. Dudley High School, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Guilford College joined in with the A&T Four. The Greensboro sit-inwould last from Feb. 1 to July 26, 1960.
“There is so much more to the story with the sit-in, it was a lot of people involved that skyrocketed this movement off the ground. There would be hundreds of students in the streets of downtown Greensboro coming each day and it became very difficult for the police to lock up everyone,” said Pollard.
During this time, the students involved in the sit-in suffered violence and degrading acts from being spat on, racial slurs, food condiments being smeared on their clothing and women having their hair pulled out.
“One of my experiences in the first couple of days, I was standing in the restaurant and I could feel a group of white men staring at me, and I could hear them saying very loud, due to my size, ‘This is a bad n—-r, burn him with a cigarette!’”
“The next thing I know, one of the guys walks towards me and took his cigarette and placed it on my chest, I could smell my skin burning and I never fought back. When those boys didn’t see me react, they backed up and I could see it in their faces they had made a mistake,” said Pollard. “They called us everything and would shoot their shotguns in the air chasing us back to campus.”
Due to the sit-in movement, the Dr. Warmoth T. Gibbs administration received a lot of pressure by state government officials to expel students involved in the movement.
“I was threatened that I would lose my scholarship for being involved and other athletes received threats as well, however, we still went downtown because it was the right thing to do. There were so many athletes involved that no one lost their financial aid because there wouldn’t be any players on their respective teams,” he said.
After things calmed down from the sit-in movement and the brothers graduated from A&T, two of the Stanford brothers secured positions to play in the NFL. Lorenzo was recruited to play for the Dallas Texans and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Hamilton, Ontario for seven years, and Carl played for the Detroit Lions for three years.
“Black professional players were not paid a lot of money in the 1960s and for some, if you wanted to play sports, you would have to move to Canada for the opportunity,” said Pollard. “I really looked up to my brother, Lorenzo the most because he was an all-American football player and he was inducted into the North Carolina A&T Sports Hall of Fame.”
Pollard pursued a career in social work after graduation in the state of New Jersey. He retired after 32 years of service and moved back to Greensboro. He is the only surviving brother and continues to share their legacy through op-ed articles.
“For years, I have been a dedicated and devoted donor to North Carolina A&T, and I believe that all alumni should contribute to our great university,” said Pollard.
