The year was 1949. The conference was the Big Seven Conference for football. And Harold Robinson's application of himself to the Kansas State's football team turned out to be quite an historical event.

Robinson, a black kid born and raised in Manhattan, Kansas, played football for his high school team. After he graduated, he tried out for the Wildcats football team. But there were no blacks on the team in 1949. There were no blacks on any other team in the Big Seven Conference.

But that didn't stop Robinson from walking onto the field and trying out and making the team that year.

Harold Robinson, the first black scholarship athlete of the Big Seven Conference and a man who is credited with breaking the racial barrier in that conference died on Saturday, May 13, 2006 at the age of 76.

By the time Robinson began playing for the Kansas football program, the United States Supreme Court was still five years away from the infamous Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision that made it possible for black and whites to attend the same schools. The segregation laws that were on the books since 1877 from the Reconstruction period following the Civil War were still in effect in 1949. These were the laws where black and white people were to use separate water fountains, schools, bath houses, restaurants and libraries and public transportion. These segregation laws were known as Jim Crow laws.

But this segregation did not stop Robinson. Nor did it stop Ralph Graham, who was the coach of the Wildcats when Robinson walked on the field for try-outs. Graham welcomed Robinson to the Kansas State team. Graham had coached previous years at Wichita State, where there were other black players.

News of Robinson's presence on the team reached Jackie Robinson, the famous baseball player who broke baseball's color barrier in 1947. Jackie Robinson wrote Harold Robinson a letter of congratulations.

But the road was not always an easy one for Harold Robinson.

Robinson's white teammates stayed in hotels during away games, but Robinson himself was often forced to stay in private homes for both his team and his own safety. He missed an away game against Memphis State because "they didn't even allow blacks in the stadium, much less players."

Robinson's 1949 racial barrier story opened the doors to another barrier broken: Tiger Woods' late father, Earl Woods, became the first black baseball player in the conference in 1952 when he tried out for Kansas State's baseball team.

Robinson earned All-Big Seven honors in 1950. He was inducted into the Kansas State Athletics Hall Of Fame in 2004.

Robinson also served in the Army during the Korean War and he received a Purple Heart during his active time in the service.

Harold Robinson's story, which unfolded six years before Rosa Parks infamous ride on the bus that lead to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and heightened Martin Luther King Jr.'s involvement in the Civil Rights forefront, is a true testiment to the rights of all, regardless of sex, race or creed.