In 1965, Roy Shivers was doing what almost any guy would do at a college campus. He and his buddy, Henry King, would hang around the union building at Utah State.

"We used to watch all of the girls go by," remembers Shivers. 'I'd whisper to Henry, 'Ohhh, that one there. That one there.' Henry and I were really bad at it."

One woman though stood out for Shivers: "I saw her one day and I was smitten."

The woman who caught his eye was Carol Brown, a small-town girl from Roosevelt, Utah. Raised in a Mormon family, Brown was away from home for the first time to attend college.

"I was 18 years old before I ever saw a black person," she says. "[Roy] was a nice dresser. He was a great jock. He was funny."

Shivers was famous on campus. He was a star running back with the Utah State Aggies, and he was one of only a handful of black students.

When it came to dating, discretion was the key.

"We were a minority and it was more or less 'Keep your hands off the Caucasian girls,'" says MacArthur Lane, a teammate of Shivers. "When we first got the scholarship we were told, 'Just don't mess around. Don't get caught.'"

Many people on campus were not amused when they heard about Roy and Carol.

"People were whispering behind my back. 'The girl's dating a nigger,'" she mimics in a hushed tone. "People I'd known for three years were not talking to me anymore."

Carol remembers being kicked out of her sorority, the Little Sisters of Minerva.

"'Oh, Carol is going out with Roy Shivers, that black guy. She can't be in our club anymore.'"

Shivers had run-ins with people, too.

"I had an altercation with one of my black teammates. He told me one day, 'Since you're dating a white girl now, you don't hang out with us anymore.' We got into a big altercation. I whipped his ass really good," says the self-assured Shivers.

"St. Louis was an awful place," says Carol. "I was so ill at ease there. People stared at us. It was against the law to be interracially married in that state and I said, 'You have got to be kidding.'"

"Mr. Bidwell, the owner of the Cardinals, sent someone to Utah to tell Roy not to marry me. They did not want him marrying a white woman."

Facing opposition at school and from both sides of the family, Roy and Carol eloped in Las Vegas. They found a wedding chapel on the 'strip.' Four days later, the new Mrs. Carol Shivers was in Oakland living with her husband's family.

"Roy's family, particularly the father, was not happy about this. He was going to move out of the house because Roy was bringing home a white wife," she recalls.

The situation was as tense in the Brown household back in Roosevelt.

Both families came to not only accept the relationship, but to embrace it. But the couple's challenges did not end there. Carol remembers the threats from black women when she was seen holding her child in public.

"A lot of black girls did not like me when they saw me carrying that baby on the street. They didn't like me being there with a mixed baby."

Roy and Carol have been married 38 years. They keep two homes; one in Regina, where Roy works with the Roughriders, and one in Las Vegas.

The couple has two daughters, Renee and Nicole. Both women are aware of what their parents went through.

"I have to say my mom is a strong woman and she sacrificed a lot for my dad to pursue his dreams," says Renee.

"She's a wonderful lady. She sacrificed herself," adds Nicole.

Carol says she has never regretted her life with Roy.

"He loves people. He's energetic. He laughs. He's a good person to be around," she says. "He's been a great strength for me at times. I would do it all over again."

<< Return to Part I. Breaking Down the Barrier

Roy was "smitten" when he first saw Carol

Carol Shivers, Roy's wife for 38 years