'A Rochester Renaissance man.' Yet few in Rochester remember his name

Aug. 10—William O'Shields was a star in football, basketball, and track in 1917-1918 at Rochester High School, but he has never received the acclaim locally that often accompanies athletic prowess.

"Things were tough in those days," O'Shields, the only Black athlete at the school during his time at RHS, recalled many years later. "And I guess I was a little distant. But I believe that by keeping my cool, and I'm not bitter about anything, progress has been made."

O'Shields made those remarks during a return visit to Rochester in 1971—shortly after retiring from a long and storied career as a coach, teacher, and administrator at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. At Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, where O'Shields spent 22 years, the school's stadium is named for him, and he was inducted into the university's Hall of Fame.

But O'Shields is little remembered locally these days, despite leading Rochester High School teams to state championships in football and basketball.

In 1945, nearly 30 years after he graduated, the Rochester High School student newspaper touted O'Shields as "probably the greatest athletic star ever to come out of this city. In football and track, this Negro sensation was without peer, and he led the Rochester 11 to state honors two consecutive years."

There have been outstanding athletes, including Olympians, from Rochester since that claim was made. But O'Shields, for whatever reason, has largely faded from community memory.

Granted, his athletic exploits took place a century ago, when football players still wore leather headgear.

He was, according to author and historian Michelle Sikes, "the first African-American to make the [Minnesota] high school all-state team."

But his accomplishments came at a time, with the Ku Klux Klan becoming active in Rochester that being a highly visible Black person was not necessarily accepted. Rumors of Klan activity in Rochester first appeared around this time.

On September 28, 1923, the city awoke to find copies of the KKK's Minnesota publication, Call of the Wild, on the doorstep of every home and business in town. The Ku Klux Klan sponsored a float in Rochester's Fourth of July parade of 1926.

"Life might have gotten more uncomfortable and even threatening for Black people at that time," says Virginia Wright-Peterson, author of "Rochester: An Urban Biography."

According to some reports, William's parents—Richard and Esther O'Shields—and their three children may have constituted the only Black family in town, in a time when Rochester's population was 13,700. (In the 1920 Census, Minnesota's population was 2.4 million, with just 8,800 Black inhabitants—0.3 percent).

In Rochester, the O'Shields family lived in what is now the 500 block of Third Avenue Northwest, just a few blocks west of what is now Kemp's and, even then, not many feet north of the railroad tracks. The house is gone, but the tracks are still there. Richard O'Shields, according to the 1919 city directory, was a shoemaker with a shop at 25 First Ave. SW, where Victoria's Restaurant is now.

"The guidance of my father played a major role in my understanding of the situation," William later said in reference to navigating society as a Black man.

William was born on Nov. 21, 1898, in Rochester. He attended Northrop School, and then Rochester High School, where he joined the football, basketball, and track and field teams. The football team won unofficial state titles two years in a row.

In 1918, with O'Shields as captain, the squad looked to be on track for another stellar season. Then the influenza epidemic hit. By October, a few games into the season, Rochester officials closed churches, theaters, schools, and other meeting places.

The St. Marys Isolation Hospital—specifically set up for influenza patients—treated 360 patients during the epidemic. Forty-one of them died, including six of the Franciscan sisters who had volunteered to serve as nurses in the unit.

When O'Shields registered for the military draft that year, he was listed as six feet tall and of medium build.

O'Shields was known around town for more than just team sports. The school paper recalled that "Bill also did a lot of motorcycle racing and stunting, which was popular in those days." Supposedly, he was able to ride his motorcycle while standing on his head on the seat. In 1919, the 21-year-old O'Shields had to pay a $10 fine for "speeding on a motorcycle."

After graduating from RHS, O'Shields enrolled at the University of Minnesota, where he earned three letters in track and field.

Wright-Peterson says the family relocated to the Twin Cities in the early 1920s.

"If the family had stayed here, perhaps we would have heard more about William as his career evolved," she says.

O'Shields attended the University of Minnesota for three years (1925-27), and lettered in track all three seasons. He also played varsity football for one season before "temporarily dropping out for financial reasons," according to his bio on the U of Minn. website. He returned to finish his B.S. degree in education in 1932.

O'Shields started the recreation program at the Hallie O. Brown Settlement House in St. Paul, a nonprofit founded in 1929 to "serve African Americans denied services from other agencies." It was, for O'Shields, the start of a long career in social organizations and educational institutions that served Black Americans.

From St. Paul, O'Shields went to Tuskegee Institute in Alabama as a physical education instructor and track coach.

"In 1934, he accepted a job from the legendary Cleve Abbott, the leader of Tuskegee's vaunted track and field program for both men and women, as head track and field coach and assistant football coach," according to a 1938 profile of O'Shields in the New York Amsterdam News. "At Tuskegee, O'Shields began to enter his students in major inter-racial track and field meets, in particular the prestigious Penn Relays."

Under his guidance, the school's track team became a national force in the sport.

"Those 10 years in the South were rewarding," O'Shields said in 1971. "And we saw change there. When I first went there, you had trouble finding a washroom which you could use. Later, you were almost invited in."

William married Myrtle Dejoie, from New Orleans. They had one son, William Richard, who was born in January of 1938.

During World War II, O'Shields spent three years with the American Red Cross as Assistant to the Director of Operations for Colored Personnel in the South Pacific.

Immediately after the war, O'Shields returned to the University of Minnesota to complete a master's degree in 1946, and then took a position at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania as a coach, teacher, and director of athletics in 1947.

"O'Shields arrived at Cheyney in 1947 as the first male teacher in the health and physical education program and the leader of the school's athletic program," according to his bio on the Cheyney website. "During his long career at Cheyney he coached track and field, cross country, basketball, and football."

In 2005, Cheyney's football stadium was renamed O'Shields-Stevenson Stadium, to honor the former Rochesterite.

He was a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1948 and 1952, and coached Olympic sprinters and a gold medal winner in the women's high jump.

While in Helsinki, Finland, during the 1952 Olympics, William served as a correspondent for the Minneapolis Spokesman newspaper: He wrote regular columns covering the events for the Associated Negro Press.

Although his teams at Tuskegee and Cheyney won numerous championships, O'Shields later said the University of Minnesota Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement he received in 1969 was his greatest honor. "It gives me great pride," he said. "To be honored by your school is a wonderful thing."

During his career as athlete, coach, and administrator, O'Shields often counseled that progress on racial issues would take time and would require resilience.

"I have pioneered advances which I don't feel would have been accomplished without patience," he said later in life.

"From the personality of the grandfather that I knew, he was very level-headed and a very strategic thinker, extremely smart," says Kimberly O'Shields, William's granddaughter. "I think you needed those survival techniques in order to learn how to not just survive, but how to find your way."

And he has left a long family legacy as well.

"My grandfather wanted us to be well-rounded, even as little kids," says Kimberly, who says William was like "a second dad" to her mom, William's daughter-in-law. "We grew up in Gary, Indiana, so golf was not something we were exposed to, but my grandfather exposed us to golf anyway. One of my first memories of him was teaching us to play golf. He wanted us to play tennis. He encouraged us to try everything."

Kimberly is the founder and CEO of Continuum Solutions, a group that focuses on creating healthier living environments in educational and corporate settings, especially HBCUs (Historically Black College and Universities). And that includes Cheyney University.

"It's meaningful to be involved with Cheyney," says Kimberly. "They know the impact my grandfather had in shaping and molding students at Cheyney University and especially with athletics. He left a legacy at Cheyney University, which is also the first HBCU."

One of William's great-grandchildren, also named William O'Shields, was just accepted at the University of Minnesota, nearly 100 years after his great-grandfather attended the school.

"It means something to have those ties to Minnesota, especially knowing how important that was to our family," says Kimberly. "My grandfather was really a Renaissance man, especially for an African-American in the early 1900s. He was doing things that a lot of Black people of that generation weren't afforded opportunities to do."

Even after many years living elsewhere, O'Shields never forgot his youth in Rochester.

In 1976, when he was invited to a centennial celebration at Northrop School, O'Shields responded with a warm letter of acceptance. "Northrop will always occupy a very important place in my memories," he wrote.

O'Shields died on July 7, 1981 in Cheyney, Pennsylvania. Per his wishes, he was returned "home" to Minnesota, and was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Saint Paul.