114.631.1

The plaque honoring Jack Trice, the first African-American student to play on Iowa State College's football team. The right side of the plaque reads: "On October 6, 1923, Jack Trice played his only major college football game, a game in which he was fatally injured. Its first black athlete became the only student to die competing for Iowa State. Jack's strong character and values were attested to by this fine brief record as an athlete and student, by the praise of all who knew him, and by a letter he wrote on the night before his one tragic game. This statue was erected by the students of Iowa State to memorialize the ideals of moral courage and ethical competition so embodied in the story of Jack Trice.--1987: sculpture by Christopher Bennett." On the left side of the plaque is the letter that Trice wrote in the Curtis Motel in Minneapolis on Oct. 5, 1923, the day before he was injured in the Iowa State College game against the University of Minnesota. This plaque now resides beneath Christopher Bennett's sculpture of Trice on the grounds of the Jack Trice Stadium and playing field on the campus of Iowa State University. (See also: 114.631.2; 114.631.3)