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By Bob HiltonDuring the three seasons (1909-11) he played left tackle for the State University of Iowa, 6-foot-2, 177-pound Archie Alexander never missed a game because of injury, according to biographer Charles E. Wynes.But he did miss three games because opposing teams — Missouri twice and Washington of St. Louis in 1910 — refused to play against him.The reason? Alexander was black, the second black to play football for Iowa.Because he “opened holes like tunnels through a mountain,” Wynes wrote, Alexander was called “Alexander the Great.” j He grew up in Ottumwa and pes Moines. His father was a janitor and coachman.I When he became the first plack student in the Iowa College of Engineering, the dean ■old him “a Negro could not lope to succeed as an engineer.” I Following his graduation in fc 12, Alexander was rejected by ^ery firm to which he applied, ■e worked as a laborer at 25 Ipnts an hour.I Two years later, when he left B establish his own company, m was a $70-a-week engineer.In 1917, he and George F. Higbee, a white engineer with whom he’d worked, formed a partnership specializing in the construction of bridges, viaducts and sewer systems.Higbee was killed in a construction accident in 1925. Alexander continued the business alone until 1929, when another white engineer, former football teammate Maurice Repass, joined him as a junior partner.In 1949, Ebony magazine described their firm as the nation’s most successful interracial business.According to Wynes,Alexander served as president of the Des Moines chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Inter-racial Commission, and as a trustee of Howard University and Tuskegee Institute.He died of a heart attack at his Des Moines home in January 1958, a few months after completing a year as the Eisenhower-appointed governor of the Virgin Islands — Wynes described it as a “brief and misguided foray” into the political arena.Alexander s home was located on property previously owned by Highland Park College, whose president had told student Alexander in 1905 that he had all the education he needed and should get a job as a janitor.When Alexander’s widow died in 1975, the University of Iowa, Tuskegee Institute and Howard University each received a $105,000 bequest for engineering scholarships.pzorscnvg,Serving E for ovet• Canvas Awn • Retractable • Roll-up PLet our experl manufacture and519 Hwy. 1 West, lo ' toll free 1 ■
Newspaper Details
Cedar Rapids Gazette
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US
Sun, Jun 30, 1996
Page 313
Full Page
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USA 06 May 2025
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