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Wilmeth Sidat-Singh

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Wilmeth Sidat-Singh
Poster from Office for Emergency Management, Office of War Information News Bureau, 1943
Nickname(s)The Syracuse Walking Dream
BornFebruary 13, 1918 (1918-02-13)
Washington, DC
DiedMay 9, 1943(1943-05-09) (aged 25)
Lake Huron
AllegianceUnited States
Service / branchUnited States Army Air Forces
United States Air Force
Years of service1943

Wilmeth Sidat-Singh (February 13, 1918[1] – May 9, 1943) was a U.S. Army Air Corps officer with the Tuskegee Airmen, and an American basketball and football player who was subject to segregation in college and professional sports in the 1930s.

Early life

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His parents were both African-American. After the death of his father, Elias Webb (a pharmacist), his mother, Pauline, married Samuel Sidat-Singh, a medical student from India who adopted Wilmeth, giving him his family name. After his graduation from Howard University, Dr. Sidat-Singh moved the family to Harlem and set up a family medical practice. Wilmeth showed great talent as an athlete and became a basketball star, leading DeWitt Clinton High School to the New York Public High School Athletic League championship in 1934.

Basketball, Football, Law Enforcement Career

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Sidat-Singh received an offer of a basketball scholarship from Syracuse University and enrolled in 1935. Former lacrosse coach Roy Simmons Sr. saw him playing an intramural football game and asked him to join the football team. Sidat-Singh starred for Syracuse, playing a position equivalent to modern-day quarterback and starring for the basketball team as well.[2]

Syracuse University and nearby Cornell University were among the first collegiate football teams to include African-American players as starting backfield players. A 1938 news report in the Baltimore Sun reports on one such game where Sidat-Singh led Syracuse to victory over Cornell.[3] In that era, when games were played in Southern segregation states, African-American players from Northern schools were banned from the field. Because of his light complexion and name, Sidat-Singh was sometimes assumed to be a "Hindu" (as people from India were often called by Americans during this time). However. shortly before a game against the University of Maryland, a black sportswriter, Sam Lacy, wrote an article in the Baltimore Afro-American, revealing Sidat-Singh's true racial identity. Wilmeth Sidat-Singh was held out of the game and Syracuse lost that game 0-13.[2] In a rematch the following year at Syracuse, Sidat-Singh led the Orange to a lopsided victory (53-0) over Maryland.[4]

With unofficial bans on black players enacted in both the National Basketball League (NBL) and National Football League (NFL) Sidat-Singh played briefly for a professional barnstorming basketball team in Syracuse and then joined the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.

Military Career, Tuskegee Airmen, Death

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After U.S. entry into World War II, he applied and was accepted as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the only African-American unit in the U.S. Army Air Force, and won his wings as a pilot.

Sidat-Singh died in 1943 during a training mission when the engine of his airplane failed. "He died on a training flight when his stricken plane went down in Saginaw Bay, his parachute tangled in the fuselage." He drowned in Lake Huron.[5][6]

Legacy

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In 2005, Syracuse University honored Wilmeth Sidat-Singh by retiring his number and hanging his basketball jersey (#19) in the rafters of the Carrier Dome.[7]

On Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013, the University of Maryland publicly apologized to surviving relatives from the Webb family at a ceremony during a football game with Syracuse University.[8][9]

Fraternity Membership

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Wilmeth Sidat-Singh was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity initiated into Kappa chapter on May 2, 1938.[10] The original initiation document has a poem written about Sidat.[10][11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ *"On the Sport Front," article by Harold Jackson published in The Afro American on July 10, 1943, p. 19, "[Sidat-Singh] was born on February 13..."
  2. ^ a b Vasudevan, Anish (October 23, 2022). "'AS EVER, SINGH': Wilmeth Sidat-Singh was Syracuse's 1st Black star athlete". The Daily Orange. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
  3. ^ Rice, Grantland (October 16, 1938). "Syracuse tops Cornell team in last period". The Baltimore Sun. p. 24. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  4. ^ Mike Morrison, ed. (July 7, 2017). "2017 Football Media Guide" (PDF) (Press release). Syracuse, NY 13244: Syracuse University Athletics. Retrieved May 26, 2020.{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  5. ^ Waters, Mike (May 25, 2020). "Remembering the former SU players who died in the military". syracuse.com. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  6. ^ "For years no one knew what this plaque in the Wilson Building signified". Washington Post. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  7. ^ Orange Hoops. "#19 Wilmeth Sidat-Singh". Orange Hoops. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
  8. ^ Rhiannon Walker. "Amending a Wrong". SBS Stories Beneath the Shell News. Retrieved December 14, 2013.
  9. ^ Barker, Jeff (November 8, 2013). "Maryland football trying to do right by Sidat-Singh, 76 years later". Baltimore Sun. College Park, MD. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  10. ^ a b "Third District History and Archives Monday Pearl 3/4/19 – Oh Nellie!". THIRD DISTRICT OF OMEGA PSI PHI FRATERNITY. March 4, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  11. ^ Rice, Grantland; Martin, John S. (December 1938). Theodore R. Fortson (ed.). "Saga of Sidat-Singh". Omega Bulletin. Detroit, MI. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
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