An "X-cellent" lesson in Black history -- and human character -- from a Hawkeye
Malcolm X, Hayden Fry, and Ms. Brooke Fulbright shaped Robert Smith's life
“Malcolm was our manhood, our living Black manhood.”— Ossie Davis
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” — Malcolm X
WATERLOO -- Some may think Malcolm X and Hayden Fry have little in common.
They do in the heart of one former Iowa Hawkeye football player and career educator.
In large measure, Malcolm X, the Black Muslim civil rights leader assassinated 60 years ago Feb. 21, and Fry, the legendary coach who returned the Hawkeye program to national prominence in the 1980s both shaped the life and outlook of Robert L. Smith, Jr.
Smith was a pass receiver for Fry in the 1980s and is now director of the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education in Waterloo.
From both men, Smith says he drew a sense of personal responsibility and self reliance.
Smith, who played during the peak of Fry's glory years at Iowa, is director the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education, or UNI-CUE in Waterloo. He said he identified with Malcolm X growing up in a apartment building in a Black neighborhood in Dallas.
"When I was young 10, 11 years old the thing I always admired about Malcolm, what attracted me, was he spoke what he thought was the truth. And it didn't matter who he was challenging," Smith said.
"And I think, in reality, I thought he had more of the answers of self sufficiency. That's what I admired," Smith said. "It was always about self sufficiency. Even when I was young, that stuck with me. That you can't rely on government, or you can't rely on just the goodwill of people. That always stuck with me."
In fact, Smith and his wife Terri named their now-adult son Malcolm Xavier Smith, after Malcolm X. "That's how much of an impact and influence he was. And I admired him,” Smith said.
"Living an apartment -- and I never lived in a house until I got married -- living in an apartment, you see a lot of things. There's a lot of things going on. Those are the most hardest working people I've ever seen. People working two jobs. Sometimes three jobs. But somehow, things just weren't quite getting better.
"That's why I aways admired him, even as a youngster," Smith said of Malcolm X. "He probably had the best solutions for Black people -- to become self sufficient."
Smith is a former Waterloo school board president and a former chairman of the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors. He also unsuccessfully ran for the Iowa Legislature. While he sought county office 20-25 years ago as a Republican, he’s largely eschewed politics since then
"Part of my frustration over the years with politicians is that politicians have framed things. No matter what you say, it's who said it," and their party affiliation. "It doesn't matter if it make sense; it's who said it.”
In contrast, Malcolm X refused to be defined by labels, Smith said. "He was just somebody I looked up to in what his message was for Black people. So much that, when I became an adult and got married, I wanted my son to really study this man. Not his religion, because that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about who he was and what he had to say in terms of self sufficiency."
It's been a guiding principle of Smith's as he has continued to carry a message of financial literacy and self sufficiency and empowerment through his many education endeavors working with young people at UNI-CUE, as an academic advisor to the Big Ten Conference and as a radio host. He also is a member of the president's cabinet at UNI.
Smith also is a high school basketball and Division I FBS football referee, officiating in 12 bowl games and two national championship games, and was a member of the first all-Black officiating team in Big Ten Conference history. He also is a member of the Iowa state high school boys and girls basketball officiating halls of fame and a past National Federation of High School Associations official of the year. He also helped officiate the 2022 Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland between Northwestern University and the University of Nebraska.
Smith said what he learned most from Malcolm X’s example, is “you don't let people define who you are in terms of how you feel and respect yourself," Smith said. "I just don't spend a lot of time with people talking about race or whatever. You have to stay above that and keep moving.
“You only have one life to live, right? You only have one.” Smith said. “And you don't want to spend most of it worrying about what people say and what they think. What you worry about doing is being the best person you can be.
"And that's one other reason why, when I was growing up, I knew I didn't want to go to jail and I didn't want to be poor," Smith said. Malcolm X had been in prison and showed a way out of it or to avoid it altogether.
"Financial literacy has been one way,” Smith said, “In my work, and obviously through education I've been pushing it for 36 years working with families and kids.
"It's about self sufficiency through education and not being broke," Smith said.
"I never cared about trying to be rich, but I wanted to be able to feed my family and have a roof without having to depend on anybody — regardless of who's in the White House. I tell people, participate in the process; vote for who you want to vote for. But regardless of who's in control you can still make a living.
"That's the mentality I picked up early on in life, and it's helped me take advantage of opportunities as I moved on in life. That was hearing the voice of Malcolm X.”
As a youth, “I couldn't see it the way (Rev. Martin Luther) King was talking about it" in his message of interracial harmony. "I wanted it to be that way, but I was living in community where it was all Black.
"Now, as I got older and went to a predominantly white college (Iowa) and I saw there were people in that space who wanted to help me, I could start to see what Dr. King was talking about. Not every white person was my enemy and not every Black person was my friend,” Smith said. “But when I was younger, day to day, I saw it how Malcolm saw it because that was my world. The idea was to stay as far away from white people as you can. Because the only time I saw white people was usually police officers.
"Only when I really got into high school, and you started playing sports, and started having day-to-day interaction, that was when I had my first white friend,” he said.
Smith also had an inspirational white school counselor, Ms. Brooke Fulbright. "She changed my way of looking at the world,” he said.
Before those experiences, it was Malcolm X who had the message which spoke to Smith, he said. "You were hungry for something. When I was 10, 11 years old, I'd seen enough Black men go to prison and get out and were never the same. They were never the same. I just knew, that's just not a place I wanted to end up. That always frightened me. I saw some of the toughest men, street hustlers, they were smart. But I saw then when they came back in three, four, five, six years, I said, 'That's not for me.’
“And Malcolm had been to prison and gotten out of prison," Smith said. And to see how he had transformed himself into who he was, and saying this wasn't the answer...There were some things I didn't understand. But I did understand self sufficiency. Which is what it was.
"That's what always stuck with me. It matters, man," he said. "I'm 60 years old. And it's what I've cared about, it's what I've pushed with all the families I've worked with.
It's what Ms. Brooke Fulbright would say to me: ‘You're not responsible for where you came from but you are responsible for where you end up living.’ That was advice this white lady gave me.
"Then Hayden Fry came into play when it came to my opportunity to go to college," Smith said. Smith passed up the University of Texas to accept a scholarship to play for Iowa because it was Fry who had broken the color line in the Southwest Conference by signing Jerry LeVias to a scholarship when Fry was football coach at Southern Methodist University in 1965. LeVias excelled at SMU, in a pro career with the Houston Oilers and was heavily involved in youth programs. Smith excelled at Iowa and was part of the 1985-86 Rose Bowl team that was ranked No. 1 in the nation.
"Malcolm meant so much," Smith said. And when Fry and the opportunity from Iowa came calling, Smith was ready.
Malcolm X, born in Omaha, Neb. as Malcolm Little and later known el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, was shot and killed Feb. 21 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. He was about to address a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which he had founded a year earlier after separating from the Nation of Islam. He was under FBI surveillance at the time of his death. His family was in the audience. He was 39 years old.
One of the three men originally convicted of the murder in 1966 was paroled in 1985 and the other two were exonerated in 2021. Various theories about who was responsible for the murder continue to be discussed to this day.
Malcolm X passed away, and Fry signed a Black man to a scholarship, both just as Smith was coming into the world 60 years ago. But for him, in his work, those men, their deeds and their messages are not relics of the past but ideas to be carried forward.
Pat Kinney is a freelance writer and former longtime news staffer with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and, prior to that, several years at the Ames Tribune. He is currently an oral historian with the Grout Museum District in Waterloo. His “View from the Cedar Valley” column is part of “Iowa Writers Collaborative,” a collection of news and opinion writers from around the state who previously and currently work with a host of Iowa newspapers, news organizations and other publications. They are listed below. Clink on the links to check them out, subscribe for free - and, if you believe in the value of quality journalism, support this column and/or any of theirs with a paid subscription.
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