Catcher, "Chief," coach: Garland Nevitt makes history at CMU
Garland “Chief” Nevitt was one of Central Michigan University’s first racially diverse employees as someone of Native American and African American ancestry. Because of this, his career at CMU and outside the university were complicated.
Veronica Gregory is a master's candidate for history at CMU. She gave a presentation on the life and career of Nevitt on Feb. 7, and it all started with her curiosity about a name in an old yearbook.
“The question of who ‘Chief’ is or who this person is called ‘Chief,’ led me down a path to exploring Garland and his connection to CMU, Mount Pleasant, and Michigan history in general,” Gregory said.
The presentation was also in partnership with the Isabella County Historical Society (ICHS), and the members of this society were about half of the audience.
The President of ICHS Ruth Barrett was also there for the presentation.
“He seems so sad to me,” Barrett said. “It’s sad that he didn’t get the recognition that I think he deserved.”
Nevitt, 1887-1970, was a professional baseball player in the minor leagues for a short time before moving on to coaching and directing athletics at colleges and high schools, according to Gregory’s research.
Timeline:
- 1887: Born in Kansas
- Early Schooling: Attended Haskell Indian Industrial Training School
- 1910-1914, 1915: Played for Battle Creek Crickets Baseball team
- 1914-1915: Played for St. Thomas Saints
- Spring 1913: Played for St. Louis Cardinals
- 1918-1920: Nevitt worked for what was then known as “Central Michigan Normal College”
- 1918: Was the Baseball Coach for CMNC
- 1919: Was the Athletic Director
- 1920: Was the Baseball and track and field coach
- 1921-1935: Nevitt coached sports at several Bay City area high schools.
- Eastern High School baseball coach
- Bay City Central High School coach and athletic director; this was Nevitt’s first physical altercation, which may have been charged by racist comments by another staff member at the high school, according to Gregory.
- 1935-1957- Nevitt worked as a security guard and line worker at Ford Motor Company, where he reconnected with coworker, major league baseball player and school mate, Jim Thorpe.
- 1970: Death in Michigan
According to Gregory’s research, Nevitt coached several students in high school and college who went on to play professionally in multiple sports.
One of these was Russel LeCronier who was the first professional player to come out of CMU, who played baseball, football and basketball on campus.
Gregory also said that her research showed Nevitt working with Bill Hewitt, a player who went on to work with the Chicago Bears and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Despite all of his successes, Gregory said Nevitt probably would have been more successful, had he not lived in the social and political climate that he did.
“Garland lived in a world where people could very well have made racist comments,” Gregory said. “And he also came from a different tradition in sports.”
Gregory said that these racist comments occasionally provoked Nevitt to the point of physical violence. The first incident was while Nevitt coached at Bay City Central High School.
Here, Gregory said the primary conflict surrounded a student on Nevitt’s team having to miss training for a field trip, but there were underlying racial tensions between Nevitt and the teacher trying to run the field trip.
The next incident was with an umpire who made a call that Nevitt disagreed with. According to Gregory’s research, it’s possible that racially charged language escalated this situation too.
While Nevitt worked at CMU, the university was known as Central Michigan Normal College at the time. Gregory said Nevitt was held in high esteem by the students he coached, the faculty he worked with and the reports regarding the impressive winning records of his teams.
“It’s very, very well known in the tradition of Central Michigan University for producing very good teachers who care about their students, and Garland is an example of that,” Gregory said.
