Hall of Honor
The late “Sammy” Ransom once said of his college experience, “I may have been a greater athlete had I gone to Chicago, but by going to Beloit I am a better man.” An athletic prep star in Chicago, where he was a teammate of Walter Eckersall, he was termed “as good an athlete as Beloit has ever had” by the 1909 yearbook for his two years as an outstanding football back, basketball guard, baseball infielder-outfielder and track broad jumper-weight man. He played professional football with the St. Paul Colored Gophers before coaching at two Tennessee colleges – first at Meharry, where his teams won two Southern football championships and shared a third, and then at Lane. As an Army officer who received a Purple Heart for heroism during World War I, Ransom also trained men in athletics and was with the 33rd Division’s baseball and track champions. Intensely proud of his country and his Black heritage, he was an early civil rights worker in Minnesota, helped establish its first Governor’s Interracial Commission and received a citation in 1969 for distinguished service to the state. A retired postal employee and National Guard major, he died at age 87 in 1970.
