Boise’s Broncos Have Been Built Different for Over Eight Decades
Aurelius Buckner was very mindful, very demure in integrating Bronco sports teams
Patrick Walsh
Boise State football has always seemed to be ahead of its time. In 1949, Charles Schnagle – a student at then-Boise Junior College – advised Notre Dame head coach Frank Leahy on T-formation plays. In 1986, the school unveiled the first-ever non-green football field. But you have to go back 80 years to find one of the first times the Broncos broke the mold.
That mold-breaker would come in the form of an athletic young man that was a multi-sport standout at nearby Boise High School. Even though he didn’t seek the attention of making history, the mild-mannered Aurelius Buckner would do just that.
Third Time’s the Charm
In 1944, Boise Junior College was trying to restart its dormant football program for a third time. After school president Eugene Chaffee joined the armed forces in 1942, acting president Francis D. Haines declared football would not be played at the school. A month later, he would retract that declaration as updated guidance from the War Department encouraged football participation to help keep America’s youth in top physical shape. However, the young men that the nation’s colleges were training would be drafted into service, forcing many programs – including the Broncos – to cancel games or entire seasons.
A year later the program faced the same challenge. Now on its third coach since the United States entered World War II, coach L.T. Dolphin shifted the school’s football focus to an intramural program. But as the summer’s sun faded into the colors of autumn and a new school year began, things had changed. Entering the fall of 1944, D-Day had turned the tide of the war in Europe and Boise Junior College had a new crop of young men enrolled – just enough to field a six-man football team. This is when Buckner made history without seeking glory.
A Silent Fanfare
As a call went out to BJC students to sign up for intramural and varsity sports, Buckner followed what he knew. Lettering in football, basketball and baseball at Boise High School, he signed up to play sports at his new school. By doing so, he became the first Black athlete to play for the Broncos. History was made, and it didn’t follow a trumpet or declaration or great fanfare. A young man just wanted to play ball.
Buckner would go on to be a leader and surely his leadership skills were honed on the patchy grass field the Broncos played on, as well as the hardwood court. The 1944 season would be the only year in which Boise Junior College competed in six-man football – the final surge of World War II sapped manpower and interest from the team. The lone game scheduled in 1945, an Oct. 27 contest against the Pocatello Marines, was canceled.
As the team’s roster took form, Buckner became one of 13 players on that six-man football team in 1944, a squad that included 12 freshmen and one sophomore. Jim Reed would lead the team as captain, but it was Buckner and fellow Boise native John Tate that led the program with five touchdowns each.
Cut from the Same Cloth
The team would post a record that would be similar to the Bronco teams over the next eight decades with a winning percentage of .833 derived from a record of five wins and one loss, an 8-6 decision to the Gowen Field Beavers, a team of meticulously in-shape servicemen.
This integration would take place more than 20 years before two of the powerhouse conferences of the day – the Southwest Conference (in 1966) and Southeastern Conference (1967) – would integrate. The team based in Boise would also do so with far less public consternation than its southern counterparts.
“I’d run into a crackpot every now and then,” he said in a 1998 interview with Boise State, “but race just wasn’t a big deal. My teammates and I stuck together, and we were all good friends. I know that if I heard anything like that, my buddies would have cleaned their clocks — on or off the field. But I really don’t recall being subjected to racial taunts by opposing fans or players.”
Gridiron x Hardwood
That same year Buckner broke through on the gridiron, he also became the first Black athlete for the Broncos in basketball. He would finish his freshman season as the team’s high scorer and was described as “playing a good cool game and bucketing the majority of points, using the one hand push shot technique.”
Just a Glimpse at What Was to Come
Buckner would continue to break barriers long after he left the campus located off Broadway. He became the first black member of the Idaho Commission on Human Rights, serving two terms on the organization that was formed in 1968.
“They asked my mom, and she was like, ‘Everyone likes Buck,’ ” Buckner’s daughter, Cherie Buckner-Webb said. “He wasn’t a boat-rocker, but he was a big part of the community. He wasn’t going to scare anyone, which was what you had to be realistic about.”
His even-keeled personality kept conflict at bay, a personality that included a drive to contribute to his community. That drive was gleaned from his grandfather and great grandfather, who founded St. Paul Baptist Church in Boise. That same drive would be passed on to his children, including Cherie Buckner-Webb who would in Idaho’s House of Representatives, becoming the first Black elected state legislator. She followed that by serving three terms in the Idaho Senate. It would be passed on to his grandchildren, including grandson Phillip Thompson, who has transformed that church founded by his family into what is now the Idaho Black History Museum.
Breaking molds and creating history wasn’t the goal of Buckner, playing football (along with basketball and baseball) was. He found a way to keep playing football for one more year, even if it did mean playing the six-man variety with a short schedule.
It was an uncommon season for an uncommon young man. Apparently, even 80 years ago, Bronco players were Built Different.
1944 Roster
| Name | Yr. | Hometown |
| Phil Bailey | Fr. | Boise, Idaho |
| Aurelius Buckner | Fr. | Boise, Idaho |
| Lynn Cox | Fr. | Boise, Idaho |
| Walter Emmons | Fr. | Boise, Idaho |
| Herb Everitt | So. | Meridian, Idaho |
| Don Keifer | Fr. | Boise, Idaho |
| Ray Koll | Fr. | Boise, Idaho |
| Marty Lund | Fr. | Ellensburg, Wash. |
| Chuck Massie | Fr. | Boise, Idaho |
| Bob Oliver | Fr. | Boise, Idaho |
| Jim Reed | Fr. | Boise, Idaho |
| Nick Roberts | Fr. | Boise, Idaho |
| John Tate | Fr. | Boise, Idaho |
Coach: L.T. Dolphin
Manager: Dick Parker
Team Captain: Jim Reed
1944 Schedule & Results (5-1)
| Date | Time | Opponent | Location (Stadium) | Result | Score |
| - | - | St. Teresa’s | Boise, Idaho | W | 18-12 |
| - | - | Gowen Field C.N.T. | Boise, Idaho | W | 12-6 |
| - | - | Gowen Field Beavers | Boise, Idaho | L | 6-8 |
| Oct. 19 | 4:30 p.m. | College of Idaho | Boise, Idaho (BJC Field) | W | 32-6 |
| - | - | Gowen Field C.N.T. | Boise, Idaho | W | 24-12 |
| Oct. 26 | - | at College of Idaho | Caldwell, Idaho | W | 28-20 |
Game 1 – Date Unknown vs. St. Teresa’s (W, 18-12)
Touchdowns: Koll, Ray; Bailey, Phil; Everitt, Herb
Game 2 – Date Unknown vs. Gowen Field C.N.T. (W, 12-6)
Touchdowns: Tate, John; Buckner, Aurelius
Game 3 – Date Unknown vs. Gowen Field Beavers (L, 6-8)
Touchdown: Oliver, Bob // GFB: Unknown, Safety
Game 4 – Oct. 19 vs. College of Idaho (W, 32-6)
Touchdowns: Koll, Ray (3); Buckner, Aurelius; Reed, Jimmie
Game 5 – Date Unknown vs. Gowen Field C.N.T. (W, 24-12)
Touchdowns: Buckner, Aurelius (3); Tate, John
Game 6 – Oct. 26 at College of Idaho (W, 28-20)
Touchdowns: Tate, John (3); Reed, Jimmie