Mel Hamilton

Mel Hamilton was a football player for the University of Wyoming in 1969. He was one of 14 players removed from the team for wearing black armbands in a protest against Brigham Young University because of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' policy at the time preventing men of African descent from holding the priesthood.

In 2005 the LDS Institute of Religion in Laramie invited Hamilton to give a speech. Hamilton and his associates have also been praised by Darius Gray, an African-American Latter-day Saint who went to Wyoming to try to defuse the situation in 1969, for taking a non-violent route in voicing their concerns.

Hamilton's son Malik Hamiton joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a student at Utah State University. He was a chef at Brigham Young University from 2008 to 2010.