Film Screening | Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game

When

Sunday March 12, 2023: 6:00pm to 7:30pm  Add to Calendar /   Add to Google Calendar

Where

Downtown Library: 1st Floor Lobby

Description

Join us for a special event with filmmaker Brian Kruger, who will discuss and screen his documentary Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game.

It was one of the most disgraceful incidents in University of Michigan football history, and ultimately, one of the most inspiring. This film tells the long-forgotten story of the 1934 game between The University of Michigan and Georgia Tech. 

When the Yellow Jackets agreed that season to come to Ann Arbor, Michigan for a game, they insisted on one condition - Michigan had to sit out the lone African-American player on the team, a talented end from Detroit named Willis Ward. Many of his teammates were outraged when athletic officials at The University of Michigan agreed to the demand. The most outraged Wolverine was his roommate; a lineman from Grand Rapids named Gerald Ford. Ford threatened to quit the team in response the benching of Ward - and changed his mind only after Ward convinced him that he had to play. 

The incident also galvanized the Michigan student body and Ann Arbor community, which held loud and vocal protests against the decision to keep Ward out of the game. In the end, the Ward incident helped The University of Michigan turn an important corner in race relations, and made an impact on Gerald Ford that stayed with him all the way to the White House. When Ford passed away in 2006, President George W. Bush referenced the Willis Ward incident in his eulogy.