Sixty-one years ago, Maceo Brodnax was anxious as he prepared for a change in his life that would become an adventure and a test of the times.
Brodnax, 79, was a well-known athlete in northeast Denver, having played football, basketball and baseball at Manual High School. The Thunderbolts won the state basketball championship in 1948 with coach Roy Byers and Ray Romer, Gill Gallegos, Ken Milberger, Lonnie Courture and Brodnax the kingpins of the team.
The Denver high school districts were clearly defined in those days, and Brodnax was comfortable and right at home in Manual’s.
But he was leaving the Manual area to attend college. The trip wasn’t far in distance — just a few miles south from his home to the University of Denver — but a long way in culture and status.
“I was going from a poor target area school to an elite university,” Brodnax said. “To be perfectly frank, I was a little concerned about fitting in. I was worried about making it academically, a lot of different things.”
He didn’t know it at the time, but found out after enrolling he would be the first black player to wear a DU basketball uniform.
His worries about fitting in were unfounded. But his eyes were opened to the signs of the times. His comfortable lifestyle at home wasn’t necessarily the universal case. He had taken a lot of things for granted.
“I bonded right away with the players on the basketball team,” Brodnax said. “We played a freshman schedule in those days because freshmen weren’t eligible to play on the varsity.”
He had learned to circulate freely in sports. His father, Maceo Brodnax Sr., brought sports and particularly basketball into the home from the boardroom of the old National AAU Basketball Tournament that was an annual fixture on the Denver sports scene.
As a sophomore, Brodnax claimed a spot on DU’s traveling squad. The events of some road trips opened his eyes.
“We played a game in Louisville, Ky., and I couldn’t stay in the team hotel,” Brodnax said. “I was put up in the home of a black businessman. It turned out to be a positive experience. He took me to some schools, and I was able to speak to the students.”
On a trip to Salt Lake City, coach Hoyt Brawner changed hotels when his original booking wouldn’t include Brodnax. On another occasion, Brawner took his team to a movie theater but was told Brodnax couldn’t sit on the main floor, but had to go to the balcony. Brawner and the whole team went to the balcony.
After college, Brodnax was an assistant coach in football and a head coach in baseball for a short time at Manual. Not seeing a bright future in coaching, Brodnax turned to officiating. He followed the advice of Joe Strain, a member of the Manual coaching staff, and passed the examination to become an official.
“At first, I thought officiating would keep me close to the game of basketball until I could get into coaching,” Brodnax said. “I wanted to coach basketball, but pretty soon I found that I could make more money officiating.”
He continued to be a pioneer. He was the first black official in Colorado to work at the high school level and the first to work the state high school state tournament. After former Colorado basketball coach Sox Walseth gave him a chance to work freshman games in the Big Eight Conference, he became the first black official to work a Big Eight Conference game, the first to call a game in the Western Athletic Conference and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference as well.
“I remember working a game at BYU when there were 18,000 folks in the arena and I was the only black person in the building,” Brodnax said. “I always was glad to get back home. There were times when I was called everything but a son of God.”
Brodnax became an administrator in the Denver Public School system as he retired as an official. He covets two awards he was given. One was induction into the Colorado High School Activities Association Hall of Fame and the other an Unsung Hero Award from former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb.
“I got the Unsung Hero Award for the contribution I had made for the black folks in northeast Denver,” Brodnax said. “I always felt like I could do anything as well as anyone else.”
Brodnax paved the way for Donnie Wilson, Ivan Tate, Stan Reynolds and others to become basketball officials from the black community.
“I sit down sometimes with the old-timers and we think about all the things that have transpired,” Brodnax said.
Brodnax bio
Born: June 22, 1930, in Kansas City, Mo.
High school: Manual
College: University of Denver
Family: Wife Donna, daughter Mitzi, sons Marc and Chris
Hobby: Reading
Outlook: Wouldn’t change a thing.
