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Wilmeth Sidat Singh

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Allegiance
  
Died
  
May 9, 1943, Lake Huron

Years of service
  
1943

Weight
  
190 kg

Name
  
Wilmeth Sidat-Singh

Parents
  
Elias Webb

Role
  
American football player


Wilmeth Sidat-Singh Wilmeth SidatSingh Wikipedia


Nickname(s)
  
The Syracuse Walking Dream

Born
  
February 13, 1918Washington, DC (
1918-02-13
)

Education
  
Syracuse University (1936–1939)

People also search for
  
Vic Hanson, Arthur W. Radford, Edward A. Craig

Wilmeth sidat singh race and football


Wilmeth Sidat-Singh (February 13, 1918 – May 9, 1943) was an African-American basketball and football player who was subject to segregation in college and professional sports in the 1930s.

Wilmeth Sidat-Singh The Syracuse Walking Dream

His parents were both African-American. After the death of his father, Elias Webb (a pharmacist), his mother, Pauline, married Samuel Sidat-Singh, a medical student from India who adopted Wilmeth, giving him his family name. After his graduation from Howard University, Dr. Sidat-Singh moved the family to Harlem and set up a family medical practice. Wilmeth showed great talent as an athlete and became a basketball star, leading DeWitt Clinton High School to the New York Public High School Athletic League championship in 1934. He received an offer of a basketball scholarship from Syracuse University and enrolled in 1935. While playing an intramural football game, an assistant football coach noticed his talent and asked him to join the football team. Sidat-Singh starred for Syracuse, playing a position equivalent to modern-day quarterback and starring for the basketball team as well.

Wilmeth Sidat-Singh 2LT Wilmeth SidatSingh 1918 1943 Find A Grave Memorial

Syracuse University and nearby Cornell University were among the first collegiate football teams to include African-American players as starting backfield players. In that era, when games were played in Southern segregation states, African-American players from Northern schools were banned from the field. Because of his light complexion and name, Sidat-Singh was sometimes assumed to be a "Hindu" (as people from India were often called by Americans during this time). However. shortly before a game against the University of Maryland, a black sportswriter, Sam Lacy wrote an article in the Baltimore Afro-American, revealing Sidat-Singh's true racial identity. Wilmeth Sidat-Singh was held out of the game and Syracuse lost that game 0-13. In a rematch the following year at Syracuse, Sidat-Singh led the Orange to a lopsided victory (53-0) over Maryland.

Wilmeth Sidat-Singh 2LT Wilmeth SidatSingh 1918 1943 Find A Grave Memorial

With unofficial bans on black players enacted in both the National Basketball League (NBL) and National Football League (NFL) Sidat-Singh played briefly for a professional barnstorming basketball team in Syracuse and then joined the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia. After U.S. entry into World War II, he applied and was accepted as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the only African-American unit in the U.S. Army Air Force, and won his wings as a pilot. Sidat-Singh died in 1943 during a training mission when the engine of his airplane failed. "He died on a training flight when his stricken plane went down in Saginaw Bay, his parachute tangled in the fuselage." He drowned in Lake Huron.

Wilmeth Sidat-Singh The Syracuse Walking Dream

In 2005, Syracuse University honored Wilmeth Sidat-Singh by retiring his number and hanging his basketball jersey in the rafters of the Carrier Dome.

Wilmeth Sidat-Singh May 9 1943 Wilmeth SidatSingh Dead The National WWII Museum Blog

On Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013, the University of Maryland publicly apologized to surviving relatives from the Webb family at a ceremony during a football game with Syracuse University.

Wilmeth Sidat-Singh Wilmeth SidatSingh Race and Football YouTube

References

Wilmeth Sidat-Singh Wikipedia


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