More Pioneer Athletes Wrap Up Black History Month at Cal Poly
2/28/2021 9:00:00 AM | General
Editor's Note: Each Monday and Thursday throughout February, Cal Poly Athletics celebrated Black History Month with a series of posts on GoPoly.com.
On Feb. 1, we published a story on four of the earliest Black student-athletes to attend Cal Poly -- Sam Guyton (football and baseball from 1919-21), Basil Perkins (basketball in 1935-36), Willard Moore (also in basketball in 1945-46) and Marshall Samuels (football from 1946-50).
Today, on the final day of the month and the final installment of the Black History Month series, we highlight four more Black student-athletes from Cal Poly, three of whom competed in the late 1940s through the 1950s as well as one of Cal Poly's Black pioneers in women's basketball.Perry Jeter
Perry Jeter was one of Cal Poly's first African-American baseball players since the school offered four-year courses in 1941, roaming the outfield for the Mustangs during the 1954, 1955 and 1956 seasons.
Jeter, however, is more well known for his exploits on the football field.
Jeter, a star halfback from 1953-55, held or shared numerous school rushing and scoring records at the time and was a member of the 1953 team that posted a perfect 9-0-0 record. For 12 years, Jeter's record for most touchdowns in a season (13) stood.
He rushed for 543 yards in 1953, 877 yards in 1954 and 320 yards in 1955 for a career total of 1,740 yards on 261 carries (6.7 average per carry) and 28 touchdowns. He scored 203 points in 29 games.
Jeter received All-California Collegiate Athletic Association and Little All-America honors at Cal Poly, then played professional football for the Chicago Bears in 1956 and 1957. With the Bears in 1956, he rushed for 316 yards and two touchdowns — both against the Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 4, 1956, in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — while catching five passes for 52 yards.
In his NFL career, he also returned eight punts for 69 yards, including one of 51 yards for a touchdown in his first professional game Sept. 30, 1956, at Baltimore, and averaged 20.9 yards on eight kickoff returns.
Jeter was drafted in 1955 prior to his final season at Cal Poly, a practice many NFL teams used at the time. Mustang head coach Roy Hughes offered what Bears founder and then-head coach George Halas described as "the most accurate appraisal of a player I have ever received."
Wrote Hughes following the 1954 season, "Jeter is a very elusive runner with good speed. He's a great punt returner and is terrific in the open field. He has the best change of pace of any boy I ever coached. He's the Buddy Young type. Perhaps he's not as fast as Young in the straightaway, but he's much more elusive."
In April 1956, another letter from Hughes arrived on Halas' desk.
"Jeter had a very good year in 1955. He's a top prospect, one of the finest I've had the pleasure of coaching. He will give you a supreme effort, He has definite professional possibilities as an offensive halfback both running and in pass receiving."
"Every word Hughes wrote has been proven true," said Halas.
Jeter opened his pro career with a five-yard touchdown run in the first preseason game of 1956. A week later, he scored on an 81-yard punt return and a 10-yard run, followed by a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the third exhibition game. Jeter solidified his spot on the Bears' roster by rushing for 86 yards on just nine carries against the San Francisco 49ers.
Following his NFL career, Jeter coached football, basketball and track for most of his 25 years in the Steubenville (Ohio) City School District. He is a charter member of Cal Poly's Athletics Hall of Fame, inducted in 1987, and also was inducted into the Minor Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
Jeter died in May 2019.Doss Sims
Doss Sims once held the school record in the high jump with a mark of 6 feet, 2 3/4 inches in 1950 in a dual meet against Cal State Los Angeles at Snyder Field in Los Angeles.
Sims (No. 17 in photo at right), who also competed in the long jump and hurdles events, in addition was a forward for three seasons from 1948-51 on Cal Poly's basketball teams and was a running back on Roy Hughes' football squads. He also participated in intramural softball and was named to the All-Intramural Softball Team in 1952 as an infielder.
Sims, who missed several games due to an ankle injury, rushed for 176 yards on 46 carries in his final football season with the Mustangs in 1950. Early in the year, he had received orders to report for U.S. Army duty in October at Camp Stoneman in Pittsburg, Calif., as the United States had just entered the Korean War, but received a deferral until the end of Fall Quarter.
A native of Oakland, Calif., Doss transferred from City College of San Francisco to play for the Mustangs and graduated from Cal Poly in 1952 with a degree in physical education. He landed on the President's List.
He went on to play baseball as a pitcher and outfielder with the Quaglino's Jays in a local semi-pro league. He recorded several complete-game decisions, including a 13-1 loss to the King City Merchants on June 29, 1952, in which he gave up 13 runs and 10 hits.
Sims also continued his basketball and softball careers in the San Luis Obispo city leagues.Freddie Ford
Freddie Ford, who once pinned an opponent in just 17 seconds and captured a Pacific Coast Intercollegiate title, is believed to be one of Cal Poly's first African-Americans in the sport of wrestling.
Ford claimed the 1958 PCI title at 167 pounds in San Jose and qualified for the NCAA National Championships, which were held in Laramie, Wyoming.
The Mustangs were 16-0 under head coach Sheldon Harden during the 1957-58 season thanks in part to Ford's heroics on the mat, which included a fall in 17 seconds in a dual meet against Cal State Los Angeles.
Ford also played football for the Mustangs as a running back, earning Associated Press Little All-American honorable mention praise in 1958 after rushing for 515 yards on just 65 carries. He averaged 7.9 yards per trip and scored eight touchdowns to lead Cal Poly to a 9-1 record.
It was football that Ford pursued after his Cal Poly days.
He was a running back for the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers of the American Football League in 1960, followed by two seasons with the Wheeling Ironmen of the United Football League in 1962 and 1963.
Ford rushed for 194 yards and two touchdowns in nine NFL games, then added 846 yards and nine scores in two UFL seasons. He also returned punts and kickoffs as a professional football player.Sharon Chatman
Sharon Chatman played basketball for Cal Poly from 1965 to 1969. The point guard twice had triple-doubles while leading the first Mustang squads to step onto the court. Chatman also went on to coach the Mustangs in 1973-74 and 1974-75, eight and seven years before the NCAA sponsored its first-ever Final Four for women.
After retiring from coaching in 1986 (for which she's enshrined in the San Jose State Hall of Fame), Judge Chatman graduated from the Hastings College of the Law in 1989. After becoming a Santa Clara District Attorney's Office prosecutor, in 2000, she was appointed by Gov. Gray Davis to the Superior Court of California.
She served on the national faculty for the Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence and National Institute on Fatherhood, Visitation and Domestic Violence, and received numerous awards, including the Santa Clara County Bar Association Unsung Hero Award, the NAACP Social Justice Award, Commission on the Status of Women's Woman of Vision Award and the California Judges Association Alba Witkins Humanitarian Award.
Born and raised in Bakersfield, Chatman fell in love with basketball. After her playing career ended as well as her two-year coaching stint at Cal Poly, Chatman coached basketball at Andrew P. Hill High School in San Jose, then at De Anza College in Cupertino. A 10-year tenure as head coach at San Jose State from 1976-86 resulted in a 142-121 record and Chatman was inducted into the San Jose State Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
Chatman died in December 2020 at the age of 73 from complications due to a brain tumor.
On Feb. 1, we published a story on four of the earliest Black student-athletes to attend Cal Poly -- Sam Guyton (football and baseball from 1919-21), Basil Perkins (basketball in 1935-36), Willard Moore (also in basketball in 1945-46) and Marshall Samuels (football from 1946-50).
Today, on the final day of the month and the final installment of the Black History Month series, we highlight four more Black student-athletes from Cal Poly, three of whom competed in the late 1940s through the 1950s as well as one of Cal Poly's Black pioneers in women's basketball.
Perry Jeter
Football and Baseball 1953-54
Perry Jeter was one of Cal Poly's first African-American baseball players since the school offered four-year courses in 1941, roaming the outfield for the Mustangs during the 1954, 1955 and 1956 seasons.Jeter, however, is more well known for his exploits on the football field.
Jeter, a star halfback from 1953-55, held or shared numerous school rushing and scoring records at the time and was a member of the 1953 team that posted a perfect 9-0-0 record. For 12 years, Jeter's record for most touchdowns in a season (13) stood.
He rushed for 543 yards in 1953, 877 yards in 1954 and 320 yards in 1955 for a career total of 1,740 yards on 261 carries (6.7 average per carry) and 28 touchdowns. He scored 203 points in 29 games.Jeter received All-California Collegiate Athletic Association and Little All-America honors at Cal Poly, then played professional football for the Chicago Bears in 1956 and 1957. With the Bears in 1956, he rushed for 316 yards and two touchdowns — both against the Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 4, 1956, in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — while catching five passes for 52 yards.
In his NFL career, he also returned eight punts for 69 yards, including one of 51 yards for a touchdown in his first professional game Sept. 30, 1956, at Baltimore, and averaged 20.9 yards on eight kickoff returns.
Jeter was drafted in 1955 prior to his final season at Cal Poly, a practice many NFL teams used at the time. Mustang head coach Roy Hughes offered what Bears founder and then-head coach George Halas described as "the most accurate appraisal of a player I have ever received."
Wrote Hughes following the 1954 season, "Jeter is a very elusive runner with good speed. He's a great punt returner and is terrific in the open field. He has the best change of pace of any boy I ever coached. He's the Buddy Young type. Perhaps he's not as fast as Young in the straightaway, but he's much more elusive."
In April 1956, another letter from Hughes arrived on Halas' desk.
"Jeter had a very good year in 1955. He's a top prospect, one of the finest I've had the pleasure of coaching. He will give you a supreme effort, He has definite professional possibilities as an offensive halfback both running and in pass receiving."
"Every word Hughes wrote has been proven true," said Halas.
Jeter opened his pro career with a five-yard touchdown run in the first preseason game of 1956. A week later, he scored on an 81-yard punt return and a 10-yard run, followed by a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the third exhibition game. Jeter solidified his spot on the Bears' roster by rushing for 86 yards on just nine carries against the San Francisco 49ers.
Following his NFL career, Jeter coached football, basketball and track for most of his 25 years in the Steubenville (Ohio) City School District. He is a charter member of Cal Poly's Athletics Hall of Fame, inducted in 1987, and also was inducted into the Minor Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
Jeter died in May 2019.
Doss Sims
Men's Basketball, Football and Track and Field, 1948-51
Doss Sims once held the school record in the high jump with a mark of 6 feet, 2 3/4 inches in 1950 in a dual meet against Cal State Los Angeles at Snyder Field in Los Angeles.Sims (No. 17 in photo at right), who also competed in the long jump and hurdles events, in addition was a forward for three seasons from 1948-51 on Cal Poly's basketball teams and was a running back on Roy Hughes' football squads. He also participated in intramural softball and was named to the All-Intramural Softball Team in 1952 as an infielder.
Sims, who missed several games due to an ankle injury, rushed for 176 yards on 46 carries in his final football season with the Mustangs in 1950. Early in the year, he had received orders to report for U.S. Army duty in October at Camp Stoneman in Pittsburg, Calif., as the United States had just entered the Korean War, but received a deferral until the end of Fall Quarter.
A native of Oakland, Calif., Doss transferred from City College of San Francisco to play for the Mustangs and graduated from Cal Poly in 1952 with a degree in physical education. He landed on the President's List.
He went on to play baseball as a pitcher and outfielder with the Quaglino's Jays in a local semi-pro league. He recorded several complete-game decisions, including a 13-1 loss to the King City Merchants on June 29, 1952, in which he gave up 13 runs and 10 hits.
Sims also continued his basketball and softball careers in the San Luis Obispo city leagues.
Freddie Ford
Wrestling and Football 1958
Freddie Ford, who once pinned an opponent in just 17 seconds and captured a Pacific Coast Intercollegiate title, is believed to be one of Cal Poly's first African-Americans in the sport of wrestling.Ford claimed the 1958 PCI title at 167 pounds in San Jose and qualified for the NCAA National Championships, which were held in Laramie, Wyoming.
The Mustangs were 16-0 under head coach Sheldon Harden during the 1957-58 season thanks in part to Ford's heroics on the mat, which included a fall in 17 seconds in a dual meet against Cal State Los Angeles.Ford also played football for the Mustangs as a running back, earning Associated Press Little All-American honorable mention praise in 1958 after rushing for 515 yards on just 65 carries. He averaged 7.9 yards per trip and scored eight touchdowns to lead Cal Poly to a 9-1 record.
It was football that Ford pursued after his Cal Poly days.
He was a running back for the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers of the American Football League in 1960, followed by two seasons with the Wheeling Ironmen of the United Football League in 1962 and 1963.
Ford rushed for 194 yards and two touchdowns in nine NFL games, then added 846 yards and nine scores in two UFL seasons. He also returned punts and kickoffs as a professional football player.
Sharon Chatman
Women's Basketball (Player from 1965-69, Coach from 1973-75)
Sharon Chatman played basketball for Cal Poly from 1965 to 1969. The point guard twice had triple-doubles while leading the first Mustang squads to step onto the court. Chatman also went on to coach the Mustangs in 1973-74 and 1974-75, eight and seven years before the NCAA sponsored its first-ever Final Four for women.After retiring from coaching in 1986 (for which she's enshrined in the San Jose State Hall of Fame), Judge Chatman graduated from the Hastings College of the Law in 1989. After becoming a Santa Clara District Attorney's Office prosecutor, in 2000, she was appointed by Gov. Gray Davis to the Superior Court of California.
She served on the national faculty for the Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence and National Institute on Fatherhood, Visitation and Domestic Violence, and received numerous awards, including the Santa Clara County Bar Association Unsung Hero Award, the NAACP Social Justice Award, Commission on the Status of Women's Woman of Vision Award and the California Judges Association Alba Witkins Humanitarian Award.
Born and raised in Bakersfield, Chatman fell in love with basketball. After her playing career ended as well as her two-year coaching stint at Cal Poly, Chatman coached basketball at Andrew P. Hill High School in San Jose, then at De Anza College in Cupertino. A 10-year tenure as head coach at San Jose State from 1976-86 resulted in a 142-121 record and Chatman was inducted into the San Jose State Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
Chatman died in December 2020 at the age of 73 from complications due to a brain tumor.
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