top of page

CHAMPIONS IN THE MAKING

Gerard Robinson

Jul 27, 2024

How the famous Black power salute at the ‘68 Olympics inspired my football coach to put Pumas on our team’s feet

OF ALL THE MOTIVATIONAL SPEECHES my flag football coach gave our middle school team, the one that stands out most is when he gave us two pieces of gear that he said would help in our quest to become champions.


“Thinking like a champion requires you to look like a champion,” he told us. 


It was 1977 on the playground of St. John the Evangelist, a small, private Black school located in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, where I grew up.


The first piece of gear was a pair of white football pants complete with pockets for hip, thigh, and knee pads. Previously, we had only worn shorts.


The second piece of gear was a set of Puma Formstrip football cleats. Initially, I didn’t think much about the cleats because they were standard wear for flag football. But the coach’s rationale for choosing Puma ended up being much deeper – both politically as well as philosophically – than I could fully appreciate at the time.


“Why do we have to wear Puma shoes?” one of my teammates asked.


“Puma has done a lot for our community,” the coach replied. He went on to explain that athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who were track stars at San Jose State University (SJSU) in Northern California, had worn Pumas at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. Smith became the first Olympian to run the 200-meter race under 20 seconds and won the gold medal for it. Carlos won the bronze medal and Peter Norman of Australia won the silver medal.


I was 2 years old in 1968. I had never heard of those guys, even though when they raised their clenched, black-gloved fists on the victory podium at the 1968 Olympics to protest societal racism, it represented the “most famous protest in modern sport history.”


As the world prepares to watch the 2024 Paris Olympics, and as sneaker giants continually resort to new and innovative ways to use the global sports competition to showcase their footwear, I believe the story of Smith and Carlos – and the unique way that I came to know about the groundbreaking Black athletes – takes on added importance. I also believe it deserves more attention in America’s textbooks. Sports are a medium for the advancement of human rights. Black American athletes use sports as a talking drum for domestic and international discussions about social, political and economic freedom.


Tommy Smith and John Carlos held their Pumas in their hands at the winners' podium in the 1968 Olympics.

A tradition of protest

Smith and Carlos were by no means the first athletes to use the Olympic Games as a canvas for an athlete to tell a story about injustice or oppression somewhere in the world.


For instance, at the 1906 Olympic Games in Athens, Irish long jumper Peter O’Connor climbed a 20-foot flag pole, tore away the Union Jack flag of Britain, and waved a green Irish flag with the words “Erin go bragh” – which means “Ireland Forever” – to protest the conditions of the people in his homeland. 


Similarly, at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games, Czechoslovakia gymnast Vera Caslavska turned her head downward while looking away from the Soviet Flag during the playing of its national anthem to protest the invasion of her country in August of that year. People around the world praised her, including Americans that supported her silent protest against Russian oppression in her homeland.


But while Caslavska found American support for her protest actions, the same was not universally afforded to two American medal winners of the 200 meter dash, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, after they bowed their head and raised a fist in the air during the playing of the “Star-Spangled Banner” to protest racial oppression in their homeland.


In response to that silent gesture, Douglas F. Roby, the president of the International Olympic Committee, stripped Smith and Carlos of their Olympic credentials and demanded they depart from the Olympic Village. Without Olympic credentials in hand, they had to leave Mexico City within 48 hours. Many Americans were appalled by the action of Smith and Carlos. One famous American journalist called them, “a pair of black-skinned stormtroopers.”


Preparing to compete

My coach obviously didn’t view them that way. He saw them as the champions they were. And he wanted us to see them that way, too. And long before Gatorade urged people to “be like Mike” – the basketball megastar behind the top-selling sneaker of all time – our coach was essentially encouraging us to be like Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Which is why he outfitted us in those Puma Formstrip football cleats in 1977. He was preparing us to become a next-level champion on one of the nationally competitive Los Angeles area high school tackle football teams and, eventually, to play at a top Division I or II football program. 


While Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s black glove-covered fists get most of the attention, what the athletes had on their feet – or rather didn’t have – was equally important.


They had the Pumas at the podium, but not on their feet. Why?


“We wore our black socks and no shoes to illustrate the poverty of many kids throughout the South in the 60s,” Carlos said.


Smith hoisted a Puma shoe with his left hand and on the right hand is a black glove. Carlos stood behind the podium holding a Puma shoe behind his back. “We wanted the world to know that the Puma shoe company had supported black athletes,” Carlos said.


“They [Puma shoes] were as important as the black glove and sock,” Carlos said. “I took my shoes [sic] and put it where everyone could clearly see the Puma logo.” 


Puma released a sneaker in 2008 that pays homage to Tommie Smith and his iconic protest at the 1968 Olympics.

The protest in Mexico City in 1968 must be looked at in a broader context of the social upheaval and violence that was happening in the United States that year. 


For example, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Carlos met with Dr. King 10 days before the assassination. A year earlier, King learned about Carlos and Smith through their involvement with the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) founded by SJSU professor Harry Edwards in October 1967. King publicly supported the goals of OPHR, which included Black athletes’ boycott of the Olympic Games in Mexico City. King informed Carlos of his desire to support his work upon returning from Memphis. But King never returned.  “Dr. King was in my mind and heart when I raised my fist on that podium,” Carlos said. 


Beyond winning

In retrospect, my flag football coach nurtured more than a winning mindset. When he told us “many are winners, few are champions,” he challenged us to think beyond a simple win. He insisted that we look like champions with football pants and Puma cleats. Telling us the story of Smith and Carlos at the Mexico Olympics in 1968 helped us to see ourselves as part of a larger legacy regarding race, responsibility, and rights. Our team built upon the foundation of this championship mindset during the fall 1977 season: We won the league championship with an impressive 10-1 record.


Gerard Robinson is a Professor of Practice in Public Policy and Law at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.


bottom of page