Central grad was first African-American student-athlete at SE

Curtis Williams doesn't look at himself as any kind of a ground-breaker, and at times he even feels a bit uncomfortable about any attention he might receive.

But make no mistake about it -- Southeast Missouri State University's first black student-athlete is more than proud to hold that distinction.

"I didn't really feel like I was breaking any ground, and I feel awkward about being the first black student-athlete at Southeast," Williams said. "I was fortunate enough to participate in two sports that I had a passion for, and in the process, I received a degree in education.

"But sure, the older you get, you look back on it, and it makes you real proud."

The 58-year-old Williams, a Cape Girardeau native and Central High School graduate who has lived in St. Louis for more than 35 years, was a basketball and track standout at Southeast from 1964 through 1967.

And some of those who coached him and played with him describe Williams as being as good a person as he was an athlete -- which apparently is saying something.

"Curtis was a great athlete. He was only about 5-11, but oh my God, he could jump," said Marvin Rosengarten, Williams' former track coach at Southeast and later the school's longtime athletic director. "And he was a great guy, a very hard worker, a gentleman. I don't think anybody ever said a bad word about him."

Said Kermit Meystedt, Williams' former basketball teammate at both Central and Southeast who along with Williams was inducted into Southeast's Athletic Hall of Fame last October: "He was just a very class individual, and an excellent, very gifted athlete."

In basketball, Williams was a three-year letterman under coach Charles Parsley. He averaged 18.4 points per game as a senior to earn first-team all-MIAA honors after being second-team all-MIAA as a junior.

On the track, Williams earned four letters and excelled in all the jumps. He at one time held school records in both the high jump, at 6-8 3/4, and the triple jump, at 48-8 1/4. He was a multiple conference champion.

Williams said he would have a hard time pinning down his favorite sport, but he enjoyed both.

"It's tough to pick, but I was pretty tough in both of them," he said. "I enjoyed track because of the individual part, but in basketball the team part was fantastic."

Told that Rosengarten raved about his jumping ability, a laughing Williams responded, "I could jump out of the gym. I could stuff with either hand.

"At Central Missouri my senior year, I scored 36 points and had a big stuff where I took off from about the free-throw line. You didn't see that much back then. They were our big rival, and we won."

Even though Williams was Southeast's first black athlete and only a handful of other blacks played sports during his four years at the school -- there weren't even very many black students attending Southeast at the time -- he said he really can't remember many problems because of his race.

"Not at Southeast. My teammates all accepted me," he said. "There was no problem at all. At the time, going to some of the more southern places for games and meets, like Jonesboro, Ark., there might have been a few negative words, but not much at all.

"Coming back from trips, sometimes we wouldn't get served in restaurants, or they'd say I had to go eat in the back, but Coach Parsley said we would all eat together or we wouldn't eat there. I remember we left one place outside Jonesboro."

While Williams said he never encountered much negative reaction because of being black while at Central or Southeast, he was certainly not exempt from racism.

"During the early years of my life, I grew up at a time when blacks had to go in the back doors of restaurants to be served, where you were not allowed to attend movies or swim in public pools," he said. "To this day, I still have flashbacks of those moments when one was made to feel less than human. You deal with it and move on.

"I remember my first year in an integrated school situation. I came home from Lorimer School telling Mama I hated a white classmate because of a dispute we had. She said to me, 'Curtis, you are going to have lots of arguments and differences with people during your lifetime. Don't let color be the reason.' She went on to say that if you do, you will deprive yourself of many lasting friendships. Thank God for her vision."

Williams actually began his Southeast athletic career without a scholarship, which meant he not only stayed busy playing sports and studying, but he also routinely worked almost a full-time shift at Cape Frozen Foods, which specialized in butchering and storing meat.

"I stayed real busy," he said, chuckling.

Recalled a laughing Rosengarten, "He worked at least 30 hours at the frozen food locker on Broadway. I always used to have him promise me he wouldn't work the day before a meet so he wouldn't be worn out.

"But after his sophomore year, I went to Charles Parsley and we worked out a deal where we split the scholarship. I think in his junior year he was just on a partial scholarship but by his senior year he was on full scholarship between basketball and track."

After graduating from Southeast, Williams moved to St. Louis, where he taught elementary physical education in the Ritenour School District before retiring in 1998.

"A degree in education allowed me to influence young lives in a positive way," Williams said. "In the end, I sincerely hope that the students I taught and talked to realize that in matters that count, all of us are more alike than different."

Williams and his wife Vickie, also a Cape Girardeau native and Central graduate, have been married 37 years, and they have two grown children, Mark and Becky, who also live in St. Louis.

"I still have a couple of aunts and some cousins in Cape, and my wife's mother and sister are still there, so we come back quite a bit," Williams said. "The community has meant a lot to us. We were raised there."

Countless blacks have played sports at Southeast over the past 40 years, but Williams will always hold the distinction of being the first. And those who knew him believe that honor couldn't go out to a finer person.

"Curtis was an outstanding kid, the kind of kid you couldn't help but like," said Carroll Williams, a longtime Southeast coach, instructor and administrator who was the College High basketball coach when Williams attended both Central and Southeast. "I didn't think about him as black, white, hispanic, oriental. ... He was just a great kid.

"I think Southeast was very fortunate to have him. If other schools at the time would have been more open to black athletes, we would have probably never had him. We were lucky."

No, said Williams. He was the lucky one.

"I was just a kid from Central High School. I never thought about breaking any color barrier," he said. "The negative encounters I faced while competing were few. The rewards were many.

"Thanks to teammates, Southeast Missouri State University and Cape Girardeau, I experienced so many wonderful moments that will forever be a part of me."