STORRS, Connecticut — During a successful weekend for UConn basketball, the university and the athletic program paid an overdue tribute to a forgotten trailblazer.
In 1932, Harrison Fitch became the first Black student-athlete to attend the University of Connecticut. To put it in perspective, this was 15 years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball.
During halftime of the men’s basketball game on Saturday, Fitch was posthumously inducted into the Huskies of Honor.
His son Harrison Brooks Fitch, Jr., who goes by Brooks, accepted the tribute alongside family and friends. Even though his father is no longer alive, Brooks who is a UConn alum, provided a glimpse into the type of man his father was.
“He did not dwell on the negative because he endured, like a lot of our ancestors, a lot of negativity,” Brooks Fitch said at a pregame press conference. “At that time, there was no such thing as microaggressions. It was not micro at all.”
Harrison Fitch grew up in New Haven and played football, basketball, and baseball at Hillhouse High School -- where he was nicknamed 'Honey' for his smooth play in each sport. After graduation, he joined UConn playing on the football and basketball varsity teams. Even as the only Black student on campus, Fitch was loved and respected by his peers. His son says he never forgot that.
“[My father] had received a totally different acceptance than other African Americans at other institutions,” Brooks Fitch said. “The fact that the student body stood up for him and stood by him for so long.”
The present-day Huskies knew of the occasion, and after the game, guards R.J. Cole and Tyrese Martin received special praise.
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“They wanted us to go in there knowing that if his father was alive that we would be his favorite players,” Martin said after UConn’s 72-61 win. “It honestly meant a lot knowing that we're the favorite players of his son also.”
But for an honor that was long overdue, why is Harrison Fitch being honored now?
“This being exactly 90 years from the time when he entered the university of Connecticut is very, very significant,” Brooks Fitch said.
“So yes, it has been a long time, but the reality is that this is the right time.”
Nkwa Asonye is a sports reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at nasonye@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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