never, ever disappointed me,” Christine said.16
Chuck Ealey and University of Toledo coach Frank Lauterbur receive their medals at the 1969 Tangerine Bowl.
The University of Toledo
A small package sat under the Brennan Christmas tree in 1971. It was for Christine. As she tore off the wrappings, she couldn’t believe her eyes. In the box were two tickets to the Toledo Rockets versus the Richmond Spiders at the Tangerine Bowl, in Orlando, Florida, on December 28. Christine and her dad were going to see Chuck Ealey and her beloved Rockets play in the Bowl game!17
The Rockets won handily, 28–3, led by quarterback Chuck Ealey. It was an exciting victory for Toledo. It also capped a career that opened Christine’s young eyes to the injustice and discrimination happening in the National Football League at the time.
Christine credits Chuck Ealey and the University of Toledo Rockets’ glorious, undefeated seasons as the reason she ultimately chose to become a sportswriter.
Despite being named First Team All-American by Football News, Second Team All-American by United Press International, and Third Team All-American by Associated Press and in the running for the Heisman Trophy, Chuck Ealey was not drafted to play in the National Football League in 1972.
“Seventeen rounds, 442 players, and Chuck Ealey is not picked. It makes me sad to this day, quite frankly,” Christine said.18
Christine’s dad tried to explain to her that most NFL teams didn’t believe black athletes were considered smart enough to lead a team. A childhood friend of Chuck’s who went on to play as an outfielder in Major League Baseball, Larry Hisle, said that National Football League owners and coaches apparently felt that, “intellectually, minority quarterbacks didn’t have what it took to be able to run the team.”19
Since Chuck was not destined to play as a quarterback for the National Football League, Chuck’s sports agent reached out to the Canadian Football League. The Hamilton, Ontario, Tiger Cats drafted Chuck. Chuck moved to Canada to play for the team, as quarterback.
That first year, his rookie season, Chuck led the team to the Grey Cup, the equivalent of the Super Bowl in the United States. Not only did he lead the team to the game, the Tiger Cats won the Grey Cup. Chuck was named Rookie of the Year and the Grey Cup MVP.
. . .
AFRICAN AMERICAN QUARTERBACKS IN THE NFL
THERE ARE thirty-two teams in the National Football League. In 2017 there were nine black starting quarterbacks. That is just over a quarter of the teams. Progress is being made, though, as in the late 1960s and early 1970s there often was just one African American starting in the position of quarterback in the whole league.
Marlin Briscoe was drafted by the Denver Broncos in 1968, but as a defensive back. He became the first black quarterback to start in a game when he was shifted to quarterback midseason that same year. Many black collegiate quarterbacks opted to play in different positions, simply to have the opportunity to play for the NFL. Chuck Ealey was not one of them; he only wanted to play as quarterback. Several African American quarterbacks opted to do just as Chuck did and played in the quarterback position in the Canadian Football League.
There are a number of up-and-coming black quarterbacks who will be available for the NFL draft in the near future.
. . .
Christine played a number of sports while growing up. Due to her height, in the sixth grade a group of boys nicknamed her “Frankie.”
Courtesy of Christine Brennan
Chuck is still a hero in the eyes of the University of Toledo fans. He was recently voted as the number one player among the university’s All-Century team in honor of the football program’s one-hundred-year history.
Just as the Rockets were racking up wins, Christine was chalking up some gains herself. She was growing, taller and taller. She was just eleven years old and was already 5 feet 3-1/2 inches tall and weighed 110 pounds. And she gained a hurtful nickname that year from some of her sixth-grade classmates. “The boys at school have called me Frankie (short for Frankenstein) for some time,” she wrote in her diary.20
Christine not only kept growing as she entered high school, she also developed the thick skin that served her well later in life.
DID YOU KNOW?
Despite his incredibly successful collegiate career, Chuck Ealey is not a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.
THREE
BOX OUT
“This ain’t no dress rehearsal.”
—Jim Brennan, Christine’s dad1
CHRISTINE WAS one of the millions glued to their televisions for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany.
The 1972 Games “etched the Olympics into my soul,” Christine said.2
What began as a week of competition and celebration suddenly turned into tragedy. Eight Palestinian terrorists entered the Olympic Village and kidnapped eleven members of the Israeli team. Two were murdered during the initial struggle. Christine couldn’t bring herself to leave the couch in the living room as the events unfolded outside the Israeli Olympians’ dormitory. She chose to spend her last day of summer vacation before entering high school watching the news.
After a daylong siege, the captors negotiated a deal. They were to be transported to the airport, along with their hostages. At the airport, an ill-trained West German police force opened fire on the terrorists. Five of the eight Palestinians were killed, as were all nine Israeli athletes, and one police officer.3
One of the athletes killed was a man named David Mark Berger. He competed in the Maccabiah Games in 1965 and 1969, where he won a gold medal and was chosen to represent Israel in the Olympics.4 He was just twenty-eight years old on September 6, 1972, the day he was murdered.
It was announced that David was born and raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a short distance away from the Brennans’ new family home in Ottawa Hills. Christine’s mother came out of the kitchen and into the family room when she heard the news.
“Can you imagine what his parents are going through?” her mother said.5
The tragedy was beyond understanding for young Christine, especially since a bright young man from Ohio was one of the victims. She tossed and turned all night, and not because the next day was the start of her first year at the high school. Christine couldn’t stop thinking about the eleven men killed during the height of their athletic careers. They left their homes to compete in the Olympics, healthy and full of hope. Their loved ones never saw them alive again.
“I couldn’t let go of that thought that night,” Christine said. “In some ways, I never have.”6
Through all the coverage of the Olympics, and then all
