Against the backdrop of iconic football memorabilia in the heart of the College Football Hall of Fame, a story of reconciliation and love took center stage last week. BYU students and professors were part of it.
The College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia, kicked off Black History Month with a newly installed exhibit honoring members of the Wyoming Black 14 last week. In conjunction with the new exhibit, the Hall invited BYU’s School of Communications to show its documentary “The Black 14: Healing Hearts and Feeding Souls.” The film was screened in front of a packed audience and was followed by a panel discussion featuring Black 14 members Tony McGee, John Griffin and Mel Hamilton.
Our newest display is dedicated to the Wyoming Black 14 – a group of African American football players who stood up against injustice by fighting for their right to express themselves politically at a pivotal moment in both societal and CFB history. #BlackHistoryMonth #CFBHALL pic.twitter.com/nZtJ7UG4Co
— College Football Hall of Fame (@cfbhall) February 5, 2024
The documentary – produced by journalism students in 2022 under the guidance of BYU professors Ed Carter, Melissa Gibbs and Alan Neves – chronicles the University of Wyoming’s Black 14 and the collaboration with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to address food insecurity. The film delves into the 1969 experience when members of the University of Wyoming football team were removed for considering a protest in a game against BYU. The documentary highlights the subsequent decades of reconciliation and collaboration between the Black 14, BYU and the Church of Jesus Christ. The ongoing partnership has resulted in substantial contributions of food donations to food pantries in the players’ hometowns.
“We didn’t let that incident in 1969 define us. I tell people it was a tragedy that’s been turned into philanthropy,” said Griffin, noting that the Black 14 and the Church have donated more than 1 million pounds of food to communities across the nation since 2020.
So, it was only fitting that as part of the events in Atlanta, BYU journalism students, faculty, and representatives from the Office of Belonging and BYU Athletics participated in a food donation to the Atlanta Community Food Bank. The Wyoming Black 14 donated forty thousand pounds of nonperishable food items, a donation made possible through a collaborative effort with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Having the documentary screened at the College Football Hall of Fame is another accolade on the film’s growing list of recognitions; the film took first place at the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Student Awards and received an honorable mention from the Gracie Awards.
Denis Crawford, historian and exhibit designer at the College Football Hall of Fame, said the exhibit and story of the Black 14 and BYU is one of his favorite projects he’s been involved with because of the collaborative nature of the story.
“This exhibit reminds us that our differences don't really matter. We make issues, Black or White,” said Crawford. “But this is an example of the gray areas in between. That's where progress happens. That's where compromise happens. And great things result from the gray.”
Carly Wasserlein, a BYU senior who did much of the videography for the documentary, said the experiential learning opportunity the project provided was foundational to her time at BYU. She remembers the nerves she felt as she traveled around the country with faculty mentors Ed Carter, Alan Neves and Melissa Gibbs to interview members of the Black 14, eager to do justice to the impactful story of healing and reconciliation.
“It was an amazing experience to go out and actually do the work we had been talking about in class,” she said. “I learned a ton from it, and I’ve been able to apply what I learned to my next internship.”
"I came to BYU expecting a degree, and I left BYU a better disciple of Christ."
Wasserlein said her experience working on the documentary is reflective of her overall experience at BYU. “I came to BYU expecting a degree, and I left BYU a better disciple of Christ,” she said. “I think about how lucky I’ve been to have so many mentors and professors who are examples of disciple-scholars and people that I want to emulate in my own journey as a student and a professional and as a disciple of Christ. I feel very lucky to have all these brilliant people to look up to.”
To learn more about how the College of Fine Arts and Communications supports experiential learning, click here or watch the video below for a behind-the-scenes look at how students worked together to produce the documentary.
