Integrating the Southwest Conference: John Hill Westbrook of Baylor (September 23, 2025)
by Scott Sosebee
We are progressing deep into football season, and in Texas quite often that means that college football takes center stage, perhaps particularly this year since both the state’s two professional teams are a combined 1-5 at this point in the season. College football, today, is different than it was thirty or forty years ago. Back then, a now defunct college conference dominated the state’s interest. The Southwest Conference (SWC) was unique among major college conferences in that eight of its nine members—The University of Texas, Texas A&M, SMU, Baylor, TCU, Rice, Texas Tech, and the University of Houston (Arkansas was the other)—were schools in one state. It was one of the top conferences in the nation.
The SWC was also a conference in which all its schools were located within a southern state, which also meant that even deep into the 1960s its schools were open only to White students, which also meant that there were no Black players on their squads. The pressure to add African American players became heavy in the 1960s, and it would eventually be two of its smaller (in terms of enrollment) and not as accomplished teams would be the first to break the traditional color line. Many people believe that SMU and Jerry LeVias were the first to do so, but while LeVias was certainly the first scholarship Black player and was the first “star” of his race in the conference, it was actually another player at Baylor University—John Hill Westbrook—who became the first player to integrate the SWC.
Westbrook, the son of an educator and minister, grew up in the east-central Texas towns of Corsicana, Marlin, and Elgin, all places in which the dogma of Jim Crow dominated society. He attended and graduated in 1966 from Washington High School in Elgin, the “Black” school in that segregated city. He was an award-winning athlete in three sports, but it was in football that he particularly excelled. He was offered scholarships to Texas Southern, Prairie View A&M, and Southern—all historically Black schools—but Westbrook had a different aspiration. Because he wanted to be a minister like his father, the school that offered him the best training to do so was where he wanted to go—and that was Baylor University. Baylor administration had taken the step of announcing that they would be admitting African American students for the first time in the fall of 1964, and since Westbrook wanted to either become a minister like his father or at least associated with the Baptist Church, it was Baylor that he wanted to attend.
A star player in three sports at segregated Herbert High School in Beaumont, he was offered scholarships to Texas Southern, Prairie View A&M, and Southern—all historically Black schools—which meant that he would have to “walk-on” at Baylor. The Bear’s coach, Jim Bridgers, had been contemplating adding Black players for a few years in Waco, and he thought Westbrook would be the perfect candidate. Baylor administration and many of his assistant coaches were cool on the idea, which meant that Bridgers would not be able to offer Westbrook a scholarship. Still, Westbrook enrolled and had to try-out for the football team. His athleticism and competitive spirit was evident from his first practice and Bridgers added him to the squad for the fall of 1964. Rules at that time restricted Freshmen from playing varsity sports, so Westbrook would have to wait until 1965 to make his debut.
Not that his time waiting to play was not without difficulty as Westbrook was targeted by White players for the Bears in practice, very often encouraged by some of Baylor’s coaches. In later interviews, many players and coaches from that era claimed they did so as a way to “toughen-up” Westbrook and prepare him for what he would receive from opposing teams and its fans. I suppose some of that could be accurate, but from contemporary reports such actions were due to just plain racism. Since Freshman at that time were not eligible to play on the varsity, Westbrook was on the freshman team. He may have been on the team, but the coaches refused to put him into games. He became frustrated watching athletes in which he was obviously better than play instead of him. He also had to experience the arrows of racism from his fellow students on campus, which increased his feelings of isolation.
Westbrook made his SWC debut Sept. 10, 1966. The Bears upset seventh rated Syracuse 35-12 and John Hill Westbrook became the first African American to play in a game for a SWC team. Injuries and his lack of blocking acumen limited Westbrook’s action during the remainder of his sophomore season. He had hoped that his injured knee would heal without surgery, but when he reported for spring practice in 1967 that hope turned to despair. He had surgery in early April 1967, but his knee never fully healed and he lost that explosiveness that had defined his game. He tried to play, but he was just not effective. The injury hampered Westbrook for the rest of his career at Baylor. At times the old talent that made him such an effective player came back, but it was spotty at best. It did not help that those Baylor teams were just not that good and posted losing records during his time there.
So, why has so little been written about Westbrook? One is that he was a walk-on and not a scholarship athlete as his contemporary Jerry LeVias, who was a star. Still, John Hill Westbrook was the first Black athlete to appear in a football game in the SWC. What should be pointed out is that Westbrook was also a strong scholar. He graduated from Baylor on time in May 1969. He would recall in later interviews that his feelings about Baylor were mixed. He valued the degree he received, but the experience was brutal. That dismayed him because one reason he went to Baylor was that he thought, as a Baptist-affiliated school, Christian charity would supersede racism. When it did not, it demoralized him. He even admits to giving in to bitterness. When he graduated, he left Texas and moved to Kansas City first, where he went to work for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. But even with FCA he encountered racism when they tried to censor his speeches. He would then move to Nashville and work for the mostly White Southern Baptist Convention. Also unfulfilled there, he made his way back to Texas to pastor churches in Tyler and then at Houston’s historic Antioch Baptist Church. He died of a massive blood clot in 1983. He was just 35 years old.
The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.