Game Changer

Lou Montgomery ’41, the first Black student-athlete in Boston College history, was an outstanding running back on the BC football team. But because of the era’s Jim Crow laws, Montgomery was barred from playing games in the South, including the 1941 Sugar Bowl, in which BC played the University of Tennessee in New Orleans. At the urging of his teammates, however, Montgomery traveled by train with the team to New Orleans anyway, pictured here. Montgomery was posthumously inducted into the Boston College Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1997, and his jersey was retired at Alumni Stadium in 2012. To learn about other significant Black figures from BC history, read Mapping Black History at Boston College. ◽