Glosson Brothers Memoirs

BERNETIAE REED: We needed that time to come up with a plan.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Okay

WOMAN: Okay, and we are rolling.

REED: This is Bernetiae Reed, and I'm here in San Antonio Texas. It's November the 18th, 2017, and I'm here with Clyde Glosson and with Edwin Glosson, two brothers, and I would like for them to start by saying their names, and giving where they were born and when they were born.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: My name is Clyde Pierson Glosson. I was born in San Antonio, Texas, January 22nd, 1947.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: My name is Edwin Glosson, born in November the 8th, 1949. I'm 69 now.

REED: And, tell me who your parents were, what their names were, what they did.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: My father's Reverend J. C. Glosson, retired 00:01:00minister who pushed education, you know. You can do mom.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: My mother's name was Carrie Lee Nance and, she's from Kyle, Texas. She married my father. They stayed married 66 years.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: 67 years.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: 67? Alright. [laughter]

REED: And, what did-- well I maybe I didn't hear that part, but tell me what they did for a living.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Well, mom was a domestic and a housekeeper, and she took her skills of love and understanding at the home of these-- of where she 00:02:00worked and she taught them, the children, about God, about responsibility, and she brought it home to us too. Responsibility, completing the job, and never giving up, and you can always make it. That was mom. I mean, you never heard her being discouraging to you at all. She was always, "You can do it, you can do it, you can do it." You know? And, she turned out you know some wonderful, I would say, children.

REED: Do you know some of the families she worked for?

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Oh sure. Lawyer Burkett [sp?]. She, it was funny, she worked for Lawyer Burkett[?], and he had a son named Stephen[sp?], and Stephen was the same age as my older brother Julius, and Julius would cut their grass during the summer, and Julius's high school--he went to Highlands, and they 00:03:00played Alamo Heights where Stephen went. Stephen played football, and Julius, I guess, he did real well. And so after the game Stephen and Julius were talking. And so, the Alamo Heights coach asked Stephen Burkett, "Well, how do you know him?" He said, "Well, his mom works for my dad and Julius cut the grass." He said, "Then next year, you need to cut the grass so you can be like him."

[laughter]

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Yeah, yes.

REED: How about your father? What did he do?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Our father, he worked for the railroad, and he was a pastor at Bethany Baptist Church here in San Antonio. As Ed said earlier, we grew up worshipping God, loving God because of our parents. My father went to Prairie View University. Our whole family went to Prairie View. My sister 00:04:00Joyce Glosson Dorn went to Prairie View. My sister Mary Harris, she went to Prairie View. Joyce's daughters, what their--

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Rochelle --

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Rochelle and Renee Dorn they went to Prairie View. His son's graduating from Prairie View this coming May.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: - Yay, [laughs] yes. And, I took a course at Prairie View too. I guess I didn't want to be left out. But, Prairie View it's-- I'll put it this way. My dad had the best experience. He said that Prairie View-- he told us, he said "Kids, you've got to go college, because you're going to find your mate in college. You know? And so, he pushed education. You're either going to college, or you're going in the military. That's what dad-- those were dad's words.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: That's right. EDWIN N. GLOSSON: And my father wasn't but five-foot-four. Little bitty man about 120 pounds, but we didn't talk back to dad, and we respected who he was. But, education was it. Education was the key, he said, to success, and you're gonna get it, you know.

REED: And, what is the history of Prairie View?

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Historically black college started, what 1867, or somewhere there about. And it's, Prairie View fell under, I guess, the governorship of Texas A&M, and it's about 45 miles from Texas A&M, and it's an agriculture school but man-- it turned out-- and also military and engineering.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Yeah, but it was also a plantation first.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Okay.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: It was a plantation first.

REED: What do you know about that? Was it named the same thing? Do 00:06:00you know about that?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: I don't know. But, I got that information from Ed's son.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Oh, okay [laughs].

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: And, he told me, he said, Prairie View was a plantation first, and then they turned it into a college. Yes. See 'cause I went to the University of Texas-El Paso and Trinity University, and Ed went to University of Missouri, and my older brother Julius went to University of Colorado, and we did not go to Prairie View, because we had scholarships, because we were athletes.

REED: Where did you get your height from in your family?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Our mother.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Our mothers side, yes.

REED: How far back can you go with your heritage?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Well we can take our heritage back to 1816.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Mh-hm.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: With the-- my mother's side by a man by the name of Ezekiel Edward Nance who started Kyle, Texas and then our father goes back to 00:07:00Peter Glosson who came here during the Texas Revolution, and he worked on the Skull farm. Well it was really called the Elam Plantation because it was two girls--Elam had two girls, and they married into the Skull family. Now, Peter Glosson worked on that plantation, and the name Glosson came from the overseer on that plantation.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: And, I think Glossons are from, another Glosson in your home state of Carolina.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Yeah, North Carolina. Orange County. We traced it back to Orange County.

REED: Tell me more about what you know of this. What was the full name of the overseer? And what are--

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: I don't know his full name.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: But we do--

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: But, his name was Glosson, I know that.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: But, we do know Ezekiel Nance came from [pause, to 00:08:00Clyde] Arkansas?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Tennessee.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Tennessee to Arkansas to Texas. Okay? He was Anglo. He had so many children, and one of his sons, I guess in the 1850 or 60s--

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: The 1800s

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Yeah, he was born and my mom's dad is the son of his. And, there was 2 sets of families. A black set and a white set. And we go back-- that's how far back we've traced, and when we went to a funeral--I remember, I was a small child, and we went to a black funeral and when we walked into the church this side had all of the black Nance's; this side all of the white Nances, and we would go down, and my uncle would go, "That's your cousin, and that's your cousin," and they knew each other.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: You know, what was-- what is amazing about it is that they all were named after one another. My uncle, Tom Nance, he was a mulatto, and then Tom Nance was a Caucasian.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: [laughs] CLYDE P. GLOSSON: They were related. We'd sit there talking, and every once and while, I'd go to the farm and we'd sit there, we're talking, talking about old times, how we used to come up in the Kyle and visit, we'd remember how we were little kids playing having a good time. But, my father's side the Glossons, they were in the--part of the Texas revolution. When I talked to Elam Skull, he told me that Travis and Skull came from 00:10:00Alabama and our family came there with them, with Skull and you know that Travis died at the Alamo. Yes.

REED: How is the name Skull spelled?

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: S-K-U-L-L, I believe

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Yeah S-K-U-L-L. Right.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Matter of fact, the Skulls have a book out.

REED: We'll get more into that. Do we need to change that chair?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Are you ready?

MALE: We are rolling.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Alright. Okay.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Okay.

REED: We're gonna pick up where we were at. We just changed out a couple of chairs. But, I wanted to go back to those early days. We were talking about the Skulls.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Yes.

REED: And, what you can tell me about that? Also, who was it that was in Orange County North Carolina?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: In Orange County, North Carolina, Elam Skull was 00:11:00telling me this story, he had two Glossons, two men. One stayed in Carolina, and one came to Texas. So, the one that came to Texas, we took his name.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Mh-hm CLYDE P. GLOSSON: One of my ancestors by the name of Peter Glosson, married Emma Richardson. Emma Richardson's mother was Elsie Boone. So we traced that back to Elsie. So, we start at Elsie Boone to Emma Richardson and from-- Emma Richardson married Peter Glosson, to my grandfather James Glosson, and from James Glosson to my father Julius Calvin Glosson.

REED: What did your family-- what did those ancestors do? They were 00:12:00slaves? What crops?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: They worked on the plantation.

REED: Do you know what was raised on the plantation?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Not in La Vernia but in Kyle, it was cotton.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Yeah, cotton and all kind of mills, there's some mills I remember that.

REED: So, where did they come first? Where was the first homestead in Texas?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: The first homestead in Texas was in La Vernia.

REED: Can you pinpoint the location a little bit?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: It was on the Elam plantation. That was where they were the first time. Now, in Kyle we can pinpoint-- matter of fact in Kyle, the house is still there. The old-- what do you call it? Trying to think of the 00:13:00name of it.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Uh.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Is that uh--

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Not a log cabin.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Yeah a log cabin. Yeah. It was a log cabin, the log cabin's still there. Thank you Ed. Appreciate that. Yeah, that old log cabin's still there. REED: Where is it?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: It's in Kyle, Texas. Matter of fact, it might be 50 or 60 yards from the Nance farm.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Is that the one we saw?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Right.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Okay.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: What we have, we and my mother was a Nance but also a Kennedy. So you had the Nance and Kennedy farm was 150 acres and then you had the, the Nance farm. And, one of the Nance-- Tom Nance, he married Elizabeth 00:14:00Kennedy. From Elizabeth Kennedy came Carrie Glosson. Matter of fact, me and Ed we're going to visit, probably next week sometime, talk to some of our people out there.

REED: Was the log cabin the slave cabin, or was it the white-- the white family.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: No, it was the slave cabin.

REED: Do you have pictures of that cabin in your scrapbook?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Not in my scrapbook, but we do have pictures. We do have pictures. In my scrapbook-- that's dealing with the sports.

REED: I do need to get to that, but this is so interesting.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: We did see-- we went to Kyle, my brother and I, and it's fenced off but they had the Nance house, right? What we saw was the dog run? And it was a house like so and there was a-- in the middle, there was an 00:15:00open area then another house on the other side. I said that kind of unusual. He said they called it the dog-run. I said, "What's that about?" He said, "Well, the dogs stayed there, so whenever the Indians would come he could alert them." You know so, it was interesting. The house was a log cabin and it's still there and it's furnished in the furnishing of the day. Still right there.

REED: That's so special to still have the home site.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: The home site's still there.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Mh-hm.

REED: Do you have any stories of those days of the family being there of what took place at the site?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Oh yeah.

REED: Tell me.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: What about the--

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: We used to go down to Kyle. My mother would take us down to Kyle because she had a sister there, who lived there named Ceola, and 00:16:00so, we'd go visit all the time and we would just-- we would play and have a good time.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Rode the horses.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: And, we would ride the horses with no saddle.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: [laughs]

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Aunt Ceola we'd come up here and visit. My sister Joyce and my cousin Carrie Lee was talking one time and they was talking about the old days and sometimes Ceola and her children they would have to come up here on a bus and so when they were coming on the bus-- during that period of time, you know, African Americans had to go to the back and so Ceola and her children would get on the bus, they would come up. When they would get on the bus the bus driver would tell the children, "Now you go to the back," and Aunt Ceola 00:17:00said, "Wait a minute they are my children." And, they said, "well, no. They are black, and you are white. So, you sit in the front, and they sit in the back." That's a true story [laughs]. That's a true story.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: [laughs] And, Clyde was telling me once about Dudley and the snake?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Yeah, and the snake.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Right, Yeah, you tell them about that.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Yeah. My Uncle Tom would visit. Now this is still this old log cabin. When our cousin Dudley Gibson was living in it and so my Uncle Tom went to see Dudley, and they were in there sleeping and my Uncle Tom looked around and saw a snake. He said, "Dudley. There's a snake," and Dudley said, "Oh Tom, don't worry about it. He comes in here all the time. He'll go out in a few minutes.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: [laughs]

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: We had some good times back then, we really did.

EDWIN N. GLOSSOM: Good times.

REED: Did that also form part of why you were athletic? Riding the horses, doing things on the farm?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Oh yeah. Yeah, and--but, the Glosson and Nance family, all of them are good athletes. It just went from one generation to the next generation.

REED: Did you run a lot out there?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Oh yeah, yeah. You know, you just have a good time as little kids.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Baseball.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Baseball, we played baseball.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: All the sports.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Yeah, all kind of sports. Little league baseball, we ran track during the summer.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: We ran track during the summer, but there was an experience I didn't experience, but Clyde did. He was 14. He was going to--

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Junior Olympics.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Junior Olympics. Tell her.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Yeah. I was 14 years old, and we had qualified for the championship in Middleton, Texas, and the guys that went to Middleton, Texas with me, was Nathan Hartfield, Carl Hartfield. I can remember this. I'll never forget it. Edwin Ross and myself. We had a driver by the name of Washington. He was an older guy. I guess, Washington might have been about 27 years old, and he drove us down to participate. Well, we had to stay at the Y. During that period of time, you couldn't stay at a hotel, so we stayed at the Y. And, we decided we wanted to get something to eat. So, we went to a hamburger place, and 00:20:00we parked, and we ordered hamburgers. By that time, some men start rounding the corner with bats and sticks and we're looking around saying, "What's going on here?" Well, they said, "Well, you cannot eat here." Now here I am 14 years old, and I'm thinking wait a minute, you mean to tell me these grown men want to beat us with bats and sticks? But, a lady came out with our hamburgers, and she said, "Wait a minute. They came here to get hamburgers, leave these young men alone." So, she stopped them from trying to attack us.

REED: Was she white?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Yes, she was.

REED: Do you know her name by any chance?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: No, I don't. I-- there was--I'm 70 years old now and that happened at 14. But that's the experience that I will never forget.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Yeah.

REED: Do you have other stories of things that happened like that?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Oh yes. [laughs] We're talking about the 60s now. Alright.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Yeah.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: I was playing football at Trinity University and we went to play a team in Louisiana. I think in South Western, a college in Louisiana. I'm trying to remember the name of the college and--

REED: Grambling? College, oh.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: No, no. No, this was a this was a football game, and I guess it's only maybe 4 or 5 blacks on Trinity's football team and it was Marvin Upshaw, John Smith and myself, Clyde Glosson, and Lyman Davis, Melvin 00:22:00Miles. Well, not Melvin, Clarence Miles. Melvin Miles ran track with us in high school. But, I was warming up catching punts before the game started, and they were calling me all kinds of names in Louisiana. That was the first time that I experienced someone calling me a name like that. So, you know, remember, this was the 60s and this had to be '65. Somewhere from '65 to '66 in that year. But, you know, you learn over a period of time, you know, how to love people. And my father had always taught us to love. He said, "Love is the most powerful force in the world. So, when you love somebody, then you have the power of 00:23:00God within you." And so, that that didn't upset us. Because, we were being called names. We just played the game, and after the game was over we came back to San Antonio. But that's another experience I had during that period of time.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Our district, Bernetiae, was-- in high school, they'd bus us to Houston from San Antonio every other week to play a football game. One week we would go to play Jack Yates in Houston, the next week a black school from Houston like Wheatley of Houston would play us here. The next week we had to go there. And, we ended up, I guess, learning how to adjust. We thought that was a normal way of life. We saw nobody Anglo until we went to college. You know, because we played everything-- it was all black we played. And, we were really good you know, and so we would go to-- Clyde had more experience than 00:24:00me, playing at Texas Southern seeing some of the great athletes that came out of TSU and that's an experience with uh, Homer Jones.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Right you know. The PVIL. This is what Ed is talking about. You had the UIL where most African Americans in San Antonio integrated, but we stayed in the PVIL which was predominately black.

REED: What does that stand for?

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Prairie View Interscholastic League.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: So, when I was a 9th grade, we went to the Texas Southern relays, and this is what Ed is talking about, and during that period of time you still couldn't stay in a hotel. We stayed in the gym at Texas Southern University, and that's where I had the chance to see all these great sprinters and professional players like Homer Jones, who played with the giants and ran track at Texas Southern. He was a great sprinter.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Stone Johnson.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Stone Johnson from Grambling. Yeah. All these great guys they were staying right in the same area I was staying in, and they would pass by and talk, and me being what, a 9th grader, you know, I'm impressed. So, I had a-- the experience of seeing all these great athletes, and plus my brother was outstanding athlete himself. Julius Glosson, my oldest brother. And so, we wanted to be like Julius. We wanted to be in the newspaper. We wanted to be successful. We wanted to go to college. So.

REED: At this point, I want to turn it over to Edwin to take us from the beginning of the athletic career if you don't mind asking these questions since you know it.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Sure, okay.

REED: And also, maybe you can fill in your own career.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Well tell us about the first Glosson, which should be what, Uncle Titus?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Okay the first Glosson was Titus Glosson, and they called him "Rock."

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Rock.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: They gave him the name "Rock." So, from Titus then came Earl. Then came Romus and Calvin and William. They all was named "Rock" because they were tough football players, and then Julius and Clyde and then Ed. So, we came from a family of great athletes. So, it wasn't no surprise to anybody that we were good.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: But, tell me this-- tell us about the first All American.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: The first All American in the family was William Glosson he was a two year All American at Texas Southern University, and he coached at Texas Southern also.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: And also, Mississippi Valley.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Mississippi Valley, right.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Now William, I think he set the record for catching the most passes in one game.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: During this period they called it the cotton bowl, but it was Texas Southern against, I think, Prairie View, and William caught 20 passes in one game. Now, this was unusual because during that period of time, they ran the ball more than they threw the football. So, this was exceptional for that period of time.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Tell me about our family. The older-- Julius.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Okay, Julius was the first star in the UIL from San 00:28:00Antonio. Matter of fact, Julius was one of the first who integrated high school here in San Antonio. I think it was Julius and Whitmore and some other guys. They integrated. They went to Brackenridge High School. And Julius being a great sprinter and outstanding football player, he had a scholarship to University of Colorado.

REED: What does U-I-L stand for?

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: University Interscholastic League. See, that was the white one. PVIL was the black one. See we-- the PVIL has a hall of fame, and you have all the athletes from the 40s, you know, on up being honored, and each year they select them for this hall of fame. One year it's in Houston, next year it's in San Antonio. So, that's what we're doing now, is trying to remember the past and honor the people who came before us who did so much for us. You know 00:29:00so, that's what we're doing. Clyde came along, 1965, and we had a chance-- well his 10th grade year Wheatley from the all black school had a chance to run in a track meet against the white schools. That was the first time that happened and Wheatley did pretty good. So, the next year, his junior year, Wheatley tied the national record for the relay, and Clyde did pretty good also, individually. His senior year, my 10th grade year his senior year, we was -- we were asked to go to the University of Texas to run the Texas relays but something happened, and I have to let Clyde explain a little bit to you about us not going to 00:30:00that Texas relay.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Okay well, the University of Texas wanted to give me a scholarship. That's in the scrapbook. They wrote the letter, and they wanted me to come and run in the Texas relay. But, they wanted Phillis Wheatley High School to run, but our principal Dr. S.T. Scott decided not to let us go to Texas Relays, because the Alamo Heights relay was the first relay that let us run in. So he said, "No we're going to stay and go to the Alamo Heights." Well, the reality is, we didn't know that until we read it in the paper that we couldn't go to the Texas relays, and I think that if he would have let us go to the Texas relays then the other guys would've got scholarships, because we had great athletes and some of those guys didn't get scholarships to 00:31:00Nebraska or USC or University of Missouri, because they didn't get a chance to run in front of a group of people who could see them.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: So, those things we experienced.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Right.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: And, 1966 I was a senior in high school and we integrated. They did-- Wheatley was no longer in the PVIL. We became part of the UIL, and we played in the first integrated game in Texas. Wheatley of San Antonio played Kerrville Tivy and had 14 thousand people. We won eight to seven, but those things we got a chance to experience, and from that I got scholarships because of my older brothers. They just knew I was gonna be good guess. And 00:32:00so, I got these other scholarships to-- be it scholarships from across the country--So, we were blessed. God had really blessed us, and I just thank my older brothers for paving the way for me, and hopefully, I paved the way for others.

REED: Was there something more about that athletic side that we needed to cover?

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Well, Julius became the first black coach in the southwest conference. He went to-- Julius came to University of Missouri with me, one year and I don't know how he ended up at SMU. But he went to SMU and became the first black coach in the Southwest conference under the Hayden Fry. Hayden Fry is in the hall of fame for college coaches, and I was coached by Dan Devine who's also in the College Hall of Fame.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Matter of fact the picture of Hayden Fry and myself was in the scrapbook. Now, Ed mentioned the national high school record for the 00:33:00sprint relay. That's 440 yards, but I was in high school set the national record for 220 yards. I ran twenty point six. I ran twenty point four one time, and they said, "No, we're not gonna accept that." So, next time, I ran twenty point six, and when I was in college, I set the national record for the college division. I ran 20 point one. That was 200 meters that's 218 yards. So--and then in the Junior Olympics--I had the junior Olympics hundred meters for age 15 years old. I ran a 9.6. So, God had blessed me with this gift to run, and I loved running, and Ed loved it and my brother Julius also. So, we took advantage of what God blessed us with.

REED: Was the Olympics never in the picture?

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Tell her about that.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: I was there in 1968. So 1967, I pulled my hamstring muscle twice. So, I couldn't participate in '67, so I came back in 1968. I qualified to be on the sprint relay team for the United States team for the 100 meters. Now, my best race was the 200 meters, but we made mistake in California, where I didn't run the 200 meters the second time, so they wouldn't accept me in the 200 meters in the final Olympic trials in Lake Tahoe. But, they let me run the 200 meters during the summer. We would travel from city to city, like to Houston. We would run in Houston, and we'd run in other places, and those guys 00:35:00who made the team like John Carlos. John Carlos did not defeat me in the 200 meters during the summer we ran. Jim Hines and myself, we were out there running one and two so we went to Tahoe and the week before the Olympic trials I ran 20.1, and that was the fastest time in the world at that time, but they still would not let me run the 200 meters.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: And again, he felt prejudice one more time he was supposed to go to the '68 Olympics in Mexico City. They take 5 people, they said, "We're gonna take 4." They said, "You finished five so we're not gonna take you to the Olympics there in Mexico City."

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: See the thing is, they would've taken me as an alternate, because I had qualified. But, at the same time I was transferring schools. I was leaving Trinity University, going to the University of Texas- El Paso. Plus, I was going to be drafted in the NFL. So, to me, there was no money in track and field. I was not going to cause any problems. They've wanted to boycott the Olympics and whatever. If you go back and you read the story of what took place at the Olympics--

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: The black fists.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: And so, I was blessed to go to University of Texas- El Paso. Coach by the name of Wayne Vandenburg said, "Clyde I tried to get you to come to El Paso a long time ago. Why don't you come on up here now." And I told him, "sure Wayne, I'm coming." So, I left Trinity and went to UTEP, and at 00:37:00UTEP, we had the sprint relay with the fastest time in the world, and I anchored that relay team, and then from there I was drafted by the Kansas City chiefs then from the Kansas City Chiefs I went to the Buffalo Bills and played from 1970 to 1972 then I had a little time with Houston Oilers in 73, and then the world football league came around in 1974, and I went and played in the world football league. And then the world football league could not pay us anymore. They became bankrupt so--

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: He decided to teach.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: I decided to teach school. So, I came back home and started teaching school.

REED: Teaching athletics? Teaching-- What did you teach? What do you teach?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: No I uh-- history. I was a history teacher and I-- 'cause my degree was in Education. History, Health, Physical Education. I could 00:38:00teach those subjects.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: I was a journalist by trade. I ended up going to the University of Missouri, and during the summer, before I went off to college, I wrote to The Place and I asked a guy what does his father do? He said, "My father's in PR." I said, "Tell me about it." He said, "All he does is smile and talk a lot." So I said, "Okay, that's what I'm gonna do." So, I went to the University of Missouri. They said, "What do you want to major in?" I said "PR." Okay, I didn't know University of Missouri had one of the best journalism schools in the country. I happened to choose it. And so, after I started there-- in my junior year in the journalism school they said-- I started doing radio and television. I said, "Well, I ain't hot on this. I think I want to do a little something else," but it was too late for me. So, I ended up with my degree in radio and television, and my first job was at a newspaper. I didn't 00:39:00like working on a newspaper. I really preferred TV and lo and behold for 7 years I wrote to the Light. Then for 25, I was a publisher of my own newspaper. So, my career has been in print. You know. But, it was fun. You enjoy it. You meet a lot of people, and I was able to help a lot of people, because I would go to courts and speak on behalf of people that were facing a jury or a judge and ask for leniency for them or plead their case even. And, that's what Clyde would do, and I would do, and my dad did. We would try to help people as best we could. So, we did a lot of stories on injustices-- there was a lady, she had six children, and she had an extra job. Well, she had two jobs and somehow something happened with food stamps so they put her-- they wanted to put an 00:40:00ankle monitor on her for so many days. She said, "Judge please, I work part time in a restaurant, and I can't have this ankle monitor, because I'm gonna lose my job." She didn't care. She put the ankle monitor on the woman anyway. Of course, she lost her job with her 6 children. So, I wrote a story on it. Lo and behold, a week or two later, guess who called me. The judge who said, "We need to talk." And so, we had lunch to discuss the issues that faced the black community and this lady. And, we would do things like that at my newspaper. We tried to help people and fight for the rights of others. You know, a lady called once. She said, my son's in prison near in Beaumont area such a long way from me, and I can't get to see my child, and he's having trouble there with the warden. So, I said "Ma'am, I don't know what I can do, but I'll try." So, I called 00:41:00the prison there, asked for the warden, who did not come to the phone, but I told them who I was and what I wanted. And, I forgot about it. About a month or so later, the woman called me and said, "I don't know what you did but they transferred my son somewhere closer." I said, "Glory be to God, because I never talked to a soul. I just left a message." Well, that was the beauty of God at work. So, that's what I did.

REED: What's the name of your newspaper?

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: The newspaper I owned was the San Antonio Register.

REED: They're giving us all kinds of time wrapping signals here, and I would love to go on for much, much longer with both of you. So, maybe we can make notes of where we left off, and take this up another time.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Yes.

REED: Because, I think there's more.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: That would be just great, yes.

REED: I want to get through the scrapbook and your stories from there, so if we can continue another time. I'll come wherever.

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: Okay

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: We would love to.

MALE: I don't think you mentioned the name of the school you taught at.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Clyde. School--

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: The school that I taught at? Fox Tech High School, and then I taught at Jeff Davis middle school.

REED: And, that was teaching history?

CLYDE P. GLOSSON: History, yes ma'am.

MALE: [indistinguishable]

REED: Oh important, important. Okay.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Thank you.

REED: Well, we have further to go, but this was a start.

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Yes.

REED: Okay, thank you very much

EDWIN N. GLOSSON: Yes, thank you.

REED: Okay, is this okay?

[End recording]