Penn State football’s Trent Gordon inspired by grandfather in fight for equality
Penn State football safety Trent Gordon didn’t know what he was walking into seven years ago when he went to Oklahoma State’s homecoming. He went with his family, including his grandfather, Lavalius “L.C.” Gordon, who was set to be honored by the Cowboys. The youngest Gordon had no idea what the honor was for, and was floored when he found out.
“I really didn’t find out his backstory when we (went) up to a homecoming game at Oklahoma State University,” Gordon said on a conference call with the media Thursday afternoon. “No one told me anything. They wanted me to find out as a surprise. ... Him being the first Black player to play at Oklahoma State, it was just really surreal to me. ... Everybody kind of knows him. He’s a part of the basketball legacy there.”
L.C. Gordon was honored by the university in 2013 as the homecoming grand marshal for his contributions to the university as its first African-American basketball player, and now his grandson is a third-generation Division I athlete. Trent’s father, Lavalius Gordon Jr., played basketball and football at North Texas.
The youngest Gordon is hoping to keep that long line of athletic prowess going in his time as a Nittany Lion and has his family’s support the entire way.
“My family is very, very proud of me,” Trent Gordon said. “They tell me that every time that I talk to them. They’re so proud of what I’ve accomplished and so proud of what I can do.
Trent Gordon is hopeful he’ll continue his grandfather’s legacy off the field, as well. L.C. saw plenty of discrimination in his time at Oklahoma State.
He told the Tulsa World in 2013 that he had to push through whenever he heard somebody talking down to him because of his skin color.
“There were some times that we played and you get called a name or something happens,” he said. “You have to overlook that. The pride for me, the pride in me being at Oklahoma State, I wasn’t going to let anything stop me.”
While race relations in the country have improved since L.C. Gordon enrolled in college in 1957, there is still work to be done. The killings of Black men and women across the country from George Floyd to Breonna Taylor to Ahmaud Arbery and many others have sparked nationwide outrage and protests.
Trent Gordon said he hopes people understand that the protests — and the Black Lives Matter movement — don’t indicate other lives have less value. Rather, it’s indicative of a yearning for equality after years of oppression.
“I wasn’t liking all of the injustice that was happening, especially toward Black people,” he said. “It’s just something that we’ve dealt with for years and something that we wanted to stop. ... Black Lives Matter is pretty much saying that we want equality for all.”
The redshirt sophomore can now move forward in his own fight for equality thanks — in part — to the monumental steps his grandfather took over 60 years ago.
