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FSU Baseball: Legacy of integration for Noles started on the diamond

When most people think about the integration of the athletics programs at Florida State University, the first assumption is that it was the football team who saw the first African-American player on the roster – when, in fact, the FSU baseball team had the first person to have that honor nearly three years before.

While the school had integrated and admitted African-American students for the first time starting in the summer of 1962, it would be a full three years before the athletics program would follow along.

In 1965, a Tallahassee native and freshman name Fred Flowers would be the first one when he suited up for the Seminoles on the diamond – the same season a transfer outfielder from North Carolina named Mike Martin joined the FSU baseball roster.