Blue White Illustrated

team. With nine days left before the opening game at the Armory against Susquehanna on Dec. 9, the student newspaper reported on the development of the team: "The abundance of new material makes it almost impossible to hazard a guess so early in the season as to who will fill the empty positions or beat out some of the regulars. Among those showing up well in practice are Yeckley, Metzgar, Sheldon, Vosburg, Hartz, Posey, Loveridge, Green, Craig and Young. From this number there are sure to be a few who will find a birth [sic] among the regulars." Posey made the team as a forward. Penn State opened its 14-game season, an equal seven games home and away, with an easy 41-9 win over Susquehanna. Posey entered the game at the start of the second half and helped turn it into a rout with four field goals. He led the team in scoring, with starters Blythe and Shore getting three field goals apiece. "Posey and Green, the second pair of forwards, were very fast and caged baskets with great rapidity," the State Collegian noted. Posey was one of seven players select- ed for a four-game eastern road trip from Dec. 14-17 that resulted in a 37-18 victory over Pratt Institute in Brooklyn but losses to Penn, Columbia and Army. However, when the student newspaper reported on the outcome of the games in its first edition after the holiday recess, it pointed out that Green had been on the seven-man traveling squad instead of Posey. Why Posey missed the trip is strictly conjecture based on what hap- pened in the next two games. On Jan. 16 at the Armory, Penn State defeated the Pittsburgh Collegians (not to be confused with the Pitt varsity), 19-14. Posey played part of the second half but didn't score any points. Be- cause a scheduled home game with a team from Johnstown was canceled, Penn State's next game wasn't until Feb. 3 against Albright at the Armory, and Posey was in the starting lineup in place of Shore. Posey played the entire first half, scoring three field goals as State took a commanding 26-4 lead, and then he sat out the rest of the game as the reserves took over in a 50-9 rout. Now, here is where the tale of Penn State's first black varsity athlete gets murky. Cumberland Posey did not play another basketball game for Penn State. After the Albright game, his name ap- pears only one more time in the student newspaper, and that was in a season wrap-up story published on March 9, 1911. Even then, his name was buried at the end of a lengthy paragraph praising the starting forwards, McEntire and Shore – and it was misspelled: "Posy '13, Green '13, and Craig '14 were other for- wards who distinguished themselves in varsity encounters." Only the five players who started most games earned letters, and only 11 men are seen in the year- book's team photo. In recent years, there have been some claims that Penn State denied Posey a varsity letter because of his race. That is complete nonsense. Back then, there were strict rules on earning varsity let- ters, based on a very high amount of playing time. Sometime after the Albright game, Posey apparently left the team for aca- demic reasons. Although his academic records are no longer available, that is the explanation cited in three books. "Lack of attention to his studies caused his grades to fall, and after he was dropped from the basketball team for low grades, Posey quit school," wrote the authors of "African- American Business Leaders: A Biographi- cal Dictionary." Another book, "Black College Sport," quotes a May 5, 1951, arti- cle in the Pittsburgh Courier as stating Posey left Penn State when permission was refused to make a trip with the varsi- ty floor squad because his studies were not up to the required minimum. That's it, the heretofore unknown sto- ry of Penn State's first African-Ameri- can athlete. There are more details to Cumberland Posey Jr.'s less than two years on the Penn State campus. I have resumed writing that book on Penn State's black athletes, and Posey has his own chapter. It won't be finished for at least another year, if not more. Yes, Posey deserves a book of his own. Hmmm... ■ A new Penn State football book by Lou Prato with a forward by Adam Taliaferro The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions Price: $14.95 plus shipping Published by Triumph Books (soft cover) Autographed copies available via louprato@comcast.net or through Lou Prato & Associates at 814-954-5171 Autographed copies of Lou's book We Are Penn State: The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions are still available via louprato@comcast.net or through Lou Prato & Associates at 814-954-5171. Price: $19.95 plus tax where applicable and shipping

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