ROANOKE, Va. – Twenty years after Victory Stadium was torn down, the history that unfolded on its field still echoes through Roanoke. Sixty-five years ago, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Colts played a professional football game here — a matchup that would quietly change more than just sports.
As 10 News looks back, former players, spectators, and historians reflect on a night when football became a catalyst for integration at Victory Stadium — and why this moment matters far beyond the final score.
The year was 1961 and the Baltimore Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers were set to play a preseason football game at Victory Stadium. At the time, spectator seating at the venue was segregated.
“Basically, the center section of both sides of the stadium were whites only,” explains former Roanoke Mayor and historian Nelson Harris. “Seating relative other endzones were ‘black only’ seating. The NAACP with its attorney by the name of Reuben Lawson, and its president, R.R. Wilkinson, went to Roanoke City Council and said, here we have the NFL coming and having an exhibition game, and we don’t believe we should maintain segregated seating at Victory Stadium.”
“Roanoke was slowly integrating, because it was a quiet integration, some behind closed doors, but it was something that was very important to the City of Roanoke,” adds local historian Jordan Bell. “So Wilkinson wrote a telegram to all of the Black players between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Colts, kind of encouraging them to boycott the game.”
“And so, the black players on both teams said they would not play in the game, Harris continues. ”That took this conversation to an entirely new level.”
Before being torn down in in 2006 after constant flooding, the venue hosted concerts and stock car races in addition to football games.
“What happened is that it worked,” Recalls Brenda Hale, the president of the Roanoke Chapter of the NAACP. These were two brilliant guys. That was the first time we had an integrated football game.”
“Thirteen thousand people attended the game, and blacks and whites mingled in the stadium seating, there was absolutely no problems, no issues, no law enforcement problems of any kind.”
The record books will show that the Steelers won that game 24-20, but the bigger win came for equality, as other teams in similar situations followed.
Black Boston Celtics players refused to play in an game with segregated seating in Lexington, Kentucky. The following year, the Washington Redskins started recruiting black players beginning with Bobby Mitchell.
After constant flooding, Victory Stadium was eventually torn down on 2006. While the physical stadium no longer stands, the impact the venue had on sport consumption remains permanent.