Hey, nice guy. What's easy now? Rambo 59. Get on the ball Rambo. Welcome to the Forgotten quarterbacks, hosted by W Earl Kitchens. Our podcast is dedicated to preserving the legacies of black quarterbacks who've. Played the game of American football, and now here's your host, w Earl Kitchens. Hello again, and welcome to another edition of the Forgotten Quarterbacks. I'm your host of your Earl Kitchens and we are glad to be with you on another journey today as we bring you information about the legacies and histories of former black quarterbacks. Some of them will even be current black quarterbacks. On our weekly podcast today, we delve deep into our. Archives to bring you today's noteworthy story about, uh, quarterback you probably had not heard of ever. Uh, you may have heard of him as A-H-B-C-U football coach, but to know his journey from before becoming. A college football coach not spoken about very, very much, but we are honored to bring you today's story about the University of Nevada, the Wolf Pack, their first black quarterback, and that gentleman's name is Legendary Coach Alva Taber. Many black quarterbacks have been acknowledged for being the first, of course, black quarterback at their alma mater, especially at many of the black, uh, excuse me, many of the white colleges throughout America. And some have gone on to have great personal careers or professional careers or collegiate careers. Uh. In the realms of coaching and other aspects, and while others have been, you could say, flying under the radar. In 1947 and 1948, the University of Nevada had a talented black quarterbacks by the name of Alva Tabor. Now, Tabor did not. Start his journey in college football at Nevada, being a native of Savannah, Georgia, he had already played two seasons with Tuskegee, uh, Tuskegee Tigers over in Tuskegee, Alabama. And you know, during those forties a lot of things were a little different because you had a war going on and. Post-war. So a lot of things were different. Some guys went to the war and came back. Some guys, you know, just happened to be a, I guess, fallout of the, of the war. But Tabor, for whatever reason, it's interesting, uh, and, and I wasn't able to find the backstory to how he ended up getting from Tuskegee to. Nevada, he ended up there and while his time there was very limited, he did not get a lot of playing time. Of course, we all know that during the, the time of segregation, uh, especially in college football, where sometimes colleges had to limit the number of black. Players they had on their team, and they would limit the number of black players who could be on the field for those teams. And because of that quarterback was probably one of those positions that you didn't really necessarily pay much attention to because. As coveted of a position as it is, you weren't going to see many black quarterbacks play on many white college teams. Fortunately enough, the Mid West, the teams in the Big 10, uh, allowed for a few to do that. Uh, a few teams out west, uh, UCLA in particular had. A black quarterback, uh, here and there. So Nevada, uh, accepts Alva tab into their university as a student slash athlete, and here he is playing in Nevada. I mean, you just think about being. In Nevada in 1947 and 1948, when many of the black Americans who were known at that time of playing football, collegiate football in particular, uh, were either in the Midwest, the northeast, or, or the south, uh, for the most part. Uh, some parts of the south, not all of the south, but. For you to be in Nevada, which basically is like the west coast in 1947 and 48, and then to be on the roster as listed as quarterback, you know that there had to be someone above. Making that happen. And of course, putting that seed in a coach's heart, I'll say that, that put it in a coach's heart first and then the mind to have a quarterback of color play for that team. And again, you, you got the coach, the assistant coaches, and the most important part of that whole equation, his teammates, but. Uh, Tabor was a phenomenal guy. He wasn't just your normal guy, and he, along with his teammate, went to Nevada and performed very, very well. The irony of of some of this is the fact that. Another Nevada quarterback who played in the two thousands was a guy who has become the poster child for being kicked out of the NFL for no reason other than standing up for civil and human rights. So when you, as we give you this story about Alva Tabor. Parallel that with the story of Colin Kaepernick. Both of those guys played at the University of Nevada. Both of those gentlemen, in their own respect, performed in the NFL one as a player, one as a coach. But let me get back to. Alva Tabor and Nevada. So he was expected to be a backup quarterback, but in a, a controversial game against Tulsa in 1948, Tabor and his teammates defeated to by the score of 65 to 14, phenomenal game. He scored one touchdown in that game and that. Probably capped off his entire collegiate career as a football player, especially as a quarterback. Now, former head coach Joe Eski said this about the game. If we had to, we would've played the game in the goddamn parking lot. That was his sentiment about that particular game. He didn't care. He wanted to play the game and he was gonna play Alvin Tabor and he did play Alvin Tabor Tabor for his part in that game called that particular game against Tulsa, the highlight of his sports career at the time. The highlight, uh, and again, his being at. Tulsa paved the way for, for future quarterbacks to play at Nevada. Other quarterbacks include Fred Gatlin, of course, Colin Kaepernick and Tyler Stewart. Uh, Tabor Success was also dependent on his teammate, uh, gentleman by the name of Howard, who was the running back. Sherman Howard was the running back for Nevada in those days, and Sherman Howard was a a hell of a football player, hell of a football player. So Tabor completes his two years at Nevada and of course. When we talk about these types of stories during those years, you aren't going to get the filler about some of the things that happen during that course of time unless you speak to the individual directly and when those individuals have passed and. Yeah, the media did not write their stories and did not take time to talk to them about their plights and things they had to deal with. Then we miss some of the most important and integral parts of the stories and the legacies and the histories of not only the teams, but those players, but albeit that Tabor continued to. Find his way in football. And after playing at Nevada, he went on to go into the coaching ranks starting at Texas Southern University out in Houston, where he was an assistant coach. He was there for two years, and after being at Texas Southern for two years, he became the head coach at Wiley College in 1954. And when we bring you the. Forgotten quarterbacks from Wiley College. We'll, we'll probably touch back on Tabor, but he, he became the head coach at Wiley and, and developed that program and went on to also serve as a head coach at Fort Valley State, and probably the most known college he was known at doing a phenomenal job at was. Was at Southern University. I think Southern is probably the one school that he's probably most recognized for. Uh, all in all, Alva Tabor coaching record was 41, 40 and four, but it didn't stop there. Tabor were going to have success in the pro ranks working as a scout and then as an assistant coach for the New Orleans Saints, and he became the first. A black full-time coach in the NFL when he was hired by the Cleveland Browns in 1972, where he served as special teams coordinator from 72 to 79. Al Alva Tabor, an outstanding coach, a legacy quarterback. Legacy Black Quarterback who we are honored to talk about today and give you his story and his history. We hope you have enjoyed this story about coach and player Alva Tabor. As always, we welcome you to join us again for another edition of The Forgotten Quarterbacks each Sunday at 1:00 PM. I am your host of your old kitchens, and until next time, we hope you have a great day. Take care. Thank you for joining us here on the Forgotten quarterbacks with Host w Earl Kitchen. Join us as we discuss more about the legacies of black quarterbacks who've played the game of American football.