By William McDonald, Jr
Credit: Family
On May 9, 1971 as I glanced at the front page of my local newspaper, I was astonished to see the image of a young Black man racing toward his victory to become the newly-crowned State Champion in the 440 yard dash in a blazing speed of 48.2 seconds.
The “Super Rookie” as his coach called him, was Edwill “Chico” Rollins II. His extraordinary achievement 50 years ago this month as a sophomore at Tyler Lee (now Legacy) has stood the test of time as an extraordinary achievement.
Rollins was a giant of a man at 6’2” and 180 pounds on whose shoulders future Tyler athletes would be measured because his talent raised the bar of excellence for all who followed him on the track and football field.
This victory was at a time when the nation, like today, was divided with racial protests as the Tyler community was being forced by Federal Judge William Wayne Justice, to accept integration.
Rollins was doing his part to show that African Americans could lead not only on an athletic field but in the race of life. He stood tall on a campus where racist attitudes of white privilege sought to discourage minority students in their march toward equality.
By his senior year he achieved his childhood dream of earning a track scholarship to UCLA. During his junior year he raced to the fastest time in the state with a winning time of 47.5 seconds at the Tyler Rose relays.
In the fall of 1971, in front of 13,000 fans at Rose Stadium Chico caught a 44 yd. leaping bomb with 23 seconds left in a football game against John Tyler High and scored as time ran out on a four yard run, to lift his team to a 20- 13 victory.
In the same game he scored on a 65 yard dazzling run against a Lion team whose defense was being led by several future NFL players including a young linebacker Earl Campbell. A couple years later this John Tyler team would win a State Championship.
Rollins understood that in sports it takes a team effort to win and although his exploits that day were extraordinary several other athletes helped shape the victory. Black teammates Howard University alum Melvin Waits; Angelo State athlete Mark
Robertson; and Baylor’s Wharton Foster; along with other young men, all made their mark by striving for excellence.
These athletes integrated the Lee team at a time when according to Wendell “Doc” Jeffrey, the Senior Captain of the 1973 Lee football team and Angelo State University Hall of Famer remembers Black football players were threatened with being shot for integrating this team whose mascot was the confederate Rebel with the largest Confederate flag to run under before games in the country.
Elvie “Nitta” Rollins Givens, as the first Black Lt. officer of the Southern Belles drill team, reflected on how she and her brother Chico refused to sing Dixie and would be part of the effort to change the mascot and rebel flag symbols of the Confederacy at the school by 1972.
Rollins remembers a cross was burned on the front lawn of their home because of her brother’s integration of the Lee teams and how this put a fire in Chico to prove he would not be deterred from achieving greatness.
The torch had been passed from the greatest athletes of Emmett Scott High School Bulldogs closed due to integration of athletes from both Lee and John Tyler.
During one pep rally Nitta recalls white students were yelling ” Rebels, Rebels” and Black students started chanting “Bulldogs, Bulldogs” and a white coach took the microphone to quiet the crowd by saying “We’re one school now and there ain’t no more Bulldogs,” and the fight was on.
In that climate when many Pep rallies ended in racial fist fights it was up to Rollins to be a leader thru his athletic feats and natural charm, to help build a bridge of hope for co -existence in a period of turmoil.
By his senior year Rollins was selected MVP and team captain of the football team, along with being selected by his peers as the first African American to be Mr. Robert E. Lee.
His parents Deacon Edwill “Hammer” Rollins, WWII Sgt. and a former professional Black Trojan baseball player, and mother Maudine Rollins, Texas college graduate and Tyler ISD Teacher were proud of their son for being a healing source of strength in a city divided during his high school years.
After attending UCLA, Rollins graduated from the University of Houston and received his teacher certificate from UT Tyler for business and physical education. He was inducted into the Tyler ISD Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015.
Today there is recognition of the courage of 16 -year-old track athlete Trude Lamb, who along with teammates refused to wear the Lee name on their uniforms; resulting in 2020 a name change for their school honoring a confederate general and slave owner.
The race for justice is not finished when the name Confederate Avenue still runs north and south throughout the African American neighborhoods of Tyler and intersecting with Martin Luther King Blvd.
On September 7, 1998 Rollins left this earth to reach the greatest finish line of life. While no man lives a perfect life, 50 years ago in May 1971 a shining comet who was young, gifted, talented and Black completed the perfect race of his life to make the City of Tyler, Texas proud of this humble and charismatic giant Rollins who demonstrated that even in a time of turmoil, racism and chaos you can overcome.
