Alumni Field and The Heights Room

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• September 1933– Casper Augustus Ferguson, BC ’37, becomes the University’s first black student. “The 1937 Sub Turri yearbook suggests Ferguson had at least one friend among the 281 graduates. In a three-sentence biography beneath his portrait, David Futransky is described as ‘an inseparable pal of Cap Ferguson.’ ‘You want to know about Casper? He had style,’ Futransky, who turns 99 this year, said from his home in Maryland. ‘There was a tidiness and sharpness about him. Such a mellow, kind gentleman.’ One of a handful of Jews in the class, Futransky asked Ferguson to be his lab partner during his freshman year, and they remained lab partners until graduating.” (Zachary Jason, "The First," Boston College Magazine / Photo: Ferguson’s Sub Turri yearbook photo, courtesy Sub Turri)
• August 1937 – Running back on the football team, Lou Montgomery (BC ’41) was BC’s the first black athlete. Montgomery was a native of Brockton, Mass., and played his first season for the Eagles in 1937. Montgomery was benched when the Eagles played segregated teams from the South—and did not accompany the team to bowl games played in New Orleans and Dallas. This then-commonplace agreement was known as the “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” an understanding that schools with black players would bench them when playing against southern schools. Between his junior and senior year, Montgomery would be benched six times, including three home games and two bowl games. In the 2011/2012 academic year, Lou Montgomery was memorialized with the retirement of his number (21) at a halftime ceremony in Alumni Stadium (Allie Weiskopf, "Ahead of their time Black athletes break through at BC," The Heights / Photo courtesy of ‘Til the Echoes Ring Again: A Pictorial History of Boston College Sports by Jack Falla)
• 1948 – Ralph King, ’49, was a standout runner at BC. In 1948 he was elected the first black captain of a BC varsity sports team. He led the team in the 100-yard sprint. (Allie Weiskopf, "Ahead of their time Black athletes break through at BC," The Heights / Photo courtesy of ‘Til the Echoes Ring Again: A Pictorial History of Boston College Sports by Jack Falla)