From Protests to Partnership

Last week, I published two stories about the Black 14, the players kicked off the 1969 Wyoming football team because they considered wearing black armbands during a game with BYU to protest a past Latter-day Saint policy on race and priesthood.

The Black 14 were honored at a BYU game for their work with Latter-day Saint leaders to feed the hungry in their hometowns.

“The fact we’re in this stadium is surreal for me and for Mel,” John Griffin said at the game. “I haven’t felt this well in a long time. It’s adding to the healing that’s been under way for a lot of years.”

Here’s a look back to our archives from 2020 at the original backstory of how the church and Black 14 started working together:

The label affixed to each 1,600-pound pallet of donated food heralds a new alliance unimaginable a half-century ago and hatched only this past spring — a partnership between the “Black 14” and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A semitrailer full of the hulking, shrink-wrapped pallets arrived Monday in Laramie, Wyoming. It was the first of nine truckloads of food worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that the partners will deliver this week to food pantries in eight states across the country, including Denver on Tuesday.

The deliveries are another step in healing a wound opened by an act of injustice that has been called a tragedy — the day the University of Wyoming’s football coach kicked 14 Black players off the school’s nationally ranked 1969 team on the eve of a game with Brigham Young University.

While this story of redemption includes Super Bowl champions and a former Heisman Trophy candidate, football is not its foundation. Its true roots are faith and forgiveness.

“The grace of God is all over this. If we didn’t have that grace in play, this probably never would have happened,” said John Griffin, a devout Catholic and the team’s star wide receiver.

Read the full backstory here.

My Recent Stories

Healing continues as 2 members of ‘Black 14’ light the Y and receive warm reception at BYU-Wyoming game (Sept. 25)

BYU to honor ‘Black 14’ football players kicked off of Wyoming’s 1969 team (Sept. 22)

About the Church

General Conference is almost here!

Here’s the general conference session schedules and how to watch.

Something new this year: the October general conference will include a 90-minute Saturday evening session for all Latter-day Saints.

Catch up on April’s conference with my notes from Saturday or Sunday, or using this study guide that LDS Living put together.

You can also prep the best snacks for general conference or the best post-general conference dinners. While you’re at it, here are eight activities you can do in between general conference sessions.

You can already watch the October 2022 edition of the World Report.

Tell me: What are your general conference traditions?

Programming note: There will be two extra issues of ChurchBeat this week, so check your inbox Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon for insights on general conference.

Behind the Scenes

Mel Hamilton and John Griffin, members of the 1969 Wyoming Black 14, push the button to light the Y prior to BYU and Wyoming playing at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

Black 14 member John Griffin, of Denver, hugs Elder Rick Balli, of Centennial, Colo., after sharing his thoughts on a food donation partnership with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the Salvation Army’s Emergency Service Center in Aurora, Colo., on Tuesday Nov. 17, 2020. Food donated by the Church of Jesus Christ was unloaded and and was redistributed to a number of charities in Colorado. (Marc Piscotty, for the Deseret News)

Food donated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a partnership with the Black 14 Philanthropy, is unloaded at the Salvation Army’s Emergency Service Center in Aurora, Colo., on Tuesday Nov. 17, 2020. The food was redistributed to a number of charities in Colorado. In attendance was Black 14 member John Griffin, of Denver, who helped organize the donation and was on hand to share his thoughts on the partnership. (Marc Piscotty, for the Deseret News)