Brian Jones Shares UT Racism Story That Parallels University of Missouri’s Current Issues

Lubbock native Brian Jones joined Steve Dale on Jack Dale's Sportsline to discuss race relation issues dividing the University of Missouri and how they relate to his time at the University of Texas.

Jones provided unique insight into the struggles at University of Missouri, revealing how when he was a student in Austin there was similar racial unrest that didn't settle down until the athletes got involved.

"We had a situation where there was a fraternity there and they had posted some racial epithets on a vehicle and were distributing shirts with caricatures of Michael Jordan and Sambo," Jones said.

Jones explained that he and other players went to their coach and said they wouldn't practice until the "lunacy" was addressed. It was, and "we moved on."

According to the former UT athlete, "there was a lot of solidarity between the black players, the white players" during the situation.

Jones doesn't feel like the race relations since that experience in 1990 have improved.

"They're a lot more covert," he told Steve Dale. "It's disheartening that we're still sitting here fighting the same battles that we were fighting when I was back in college. It's amazing that we haven't been able to put this racial piece behind us. But a lot of people don't want to put it behind us. They find some solace in the fact that they can look down on others because their hue or pigmentation is different than another person's."

The football team at Missouri threatened to boycott a game to support a student, Jonathan Butler, who'd gone on a hunger strike until the president, Tim Wolfe, resigned or was removed. The hunger strike followed the scrawling of a swastika in human feces on a dorm wall and general racial unrest on the campus.

President Tim Wolfe resigned Monday, and the Missouri Football team will play as scheduled against BYU this weekend.

Dale covered Jones when he was playing high school sports in Lubbock, Texas and during his time at UT as well. He also gives his prediction for the College Football Playoff.