OSU's Anti-Apartheid Movement
economic, and social discrimination based on race. From 1948 to 1994 the white
population represented by the National Party controlled the government and used
military and police to enforce the disenfranchisement of non-whites. Any groups
or individuals who attempted to resist were labeled as terrorists. (1) In the 1970s, the
United Nations condemned apartheid as a violation of human rights and various
organizations in the international and United States sports community barred South
Africa from athletic competition. In the early 1980s the issue of apartheid and its
connection to sports became a fierce debate at OSU. (2)
OSU’s African Students’ Association (ASA) voiced its opposition to the wrestling
team’s connections, specifically the head coach’s relationship, to the South African
Wrestling Federation (SAWF). The wrestling team’s head coach Dale Thomas began his
career at OSU in 1957 and it lasted through 1990; the Dale Thomas Wrestling room is
named after him due to his exemplary record with the wrestling team. Thomas not
only led the team to numerous victories, he also traveled internationally to teach
wrestling techniques in other countries, and often hosted workshops at his ranch
so coaches could apply the techniques learned with their own teams. In September
of 1980, one of his workshops became controversial when Thomas hosted seventeen
South African coaches. He had traveled to South Africa several times before and had
pre-existing relationships with the South African wrestling community. In the next
two years, 1981 and 1982, he arranged to take a group of student athletes to South
Africa. In 1982, he also invited South African wrestling coaches and athletes to one
of his workshops as part of an Oregon Cultural Exchange Program.
During these three years the ASA, which represented about one hundred and fifty
students, wrote letters to the media, hosted prominent public figures representing
the non-white South African perspective, and actively lobbied the university administration
to oppose Thomas’ relationships with the SAWF. The controversy sparked a great
deal of interest and divided the local community. Numerous community members
wrote letters to newspapers both in opposition and in support of Thomas. Those in
favor of Thomas argued that sports and politics should remain separate, while those
in opposition argued that Thomas’ actions were indirectly condoning apartheid. The
university administration’s stance on the matter was that the trips and workshops
were not sponsored by the university, so OSU could not prevent Thomas and the
students from going as private citizens. Notably, within the sports community, the
NCAA had strict rules regarding wrestling competitions during the off-season that
would jeopardize a student athlete’s eligibility to compete in seasonal events, and
the Wrestling Division of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) upheld the international
sports completion ban against South African. Due to the ASA’s efforts, Thomas’
activities were scrutinized and investigated by these organizations.
It was the work of the ASA that brought the issue of apartheid to the attention of
the OSU and Corvallis community as well as the media, and after 1982, the exchanges
between Oregon and South African wrestlers stopped. Unfortunately, it was not
until the late 1980s that individual nations across the world began to officially pass
sanctions against South Africa, and not until 1990 that the transition toward equality
began. In 1994 apartheid finally came to an end with the election of Nelson Mandela.
