This podcast contains language that some listeners might find offensive.

Collis Temple, Jr. was a great high school basketball player.

A six foot eight center, he dominated as a rebounder and an inside scorer.

A bunch of big time colleges scouted Temple his senior year.

I was being recruited by the University of Kansas.

I was being recruited by Nebraska, Oklahoma,

and by Colorado, and those were the teams that were recruiting black athletes from the South for the most part.

Even though he lived in Louisiana in a tiny rural town called Kentwood,

Temple wasn't expecting to hear from the state's flagship university.

It was 1970, and the LSU basketball team had never had a black player.

Temple did eventually get invited to join the roster.

The man who recruited him wasn't from the admissions office or the athletic department.

The phone was sitting in the kitchen.

I happened to pick it up, and I said hello, and then he said,

this is Governor John McKitham, and I said, oh really?

Okay, I told my dad this person on the phone says he's the governor, and he wants to talk to you.

John McKitham told the temples that their son belonged at LSU.

The governor said that times were changing, and that Carlos would be safe on campus in Baton Rouge.

The Temple family saw this as a chance to make history, and an invitation that was long overdue.

My dad's attitude was, well, we all paid taxes, so that Louisiana State University could be built.

And it's about time that we get a chance to participate in the educational opportunities, because it's the best school in the state.

Carlos was 17 years old when he moved into the athlete's dormitory.

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