When Nevada laces up its cleats at Texas A&M on Saturday, it will face an SEC team for the first time.
But if not for a dose of heavy racism in the 1940s, the Wolf Pack already would have played an SEC foe.
In 1946, Nevada was scheduled to play at Mississippi State, one of the 10 founding members of the SEC, which formed in 1932. But 15 days before the contest, Nevada cancelled the game. The reason: Mississippi State wouldn’t let Nevada’s two black players – Bill Bass and Horace Gillom – take the field.
“They told us that they didn’t want our black players to play,” said Dick Trachok, the former Wolf Pack player, coach and athletic director who was a sophomore during that season.