Shaping The Future

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this story, the contest was referred to as the first Ivy League game featuring two starting Black quarterbacks. Following the publication, it was learned that a matchup in 1970 between Harvard’s Rod Foster and Princeton’s Rod Plummer predated the Coleman-Vaughn game.

The list of historic stories and moments of Franklin Field stand as tall as the Philadelphia skyline that overlooks it. 

One of sports greatest landmarks has been home to fabled college and professional football teams, stars and rivalries, a presidential acceptance speech, the famed Penn Relays and, since it opened in 1895, the Penn Quakers football team. 

What occurred at Franklin Field on Saturday, Oct. 6, 1973, is one those important moments in the venue’s history. 

For one of the first times in Ivy League and Division I college football history, there were two starting Black quarterbacks in the same game – Brown’s Dennis Coleman (’75) and Penn’s Martin Vaughn (’75). 

Now, 50 years later, the two will be returning to the same field where they blazed the trail for many to follow their lead. Coleman and Vaughn, friends ever since that Saturday October game in Philadelphia, will be recognized at Friday evening’s Brown-Penn game as honorary captains. The two will be participating in the opening coin toss and a pregame reception will celebrate their accomplishment. The game will be nationally-televised on ESPNU.

The journey to the historic contest started on opposite ends of Pennsylvania. 

Coleman grew up in Darby, Pa., a town just outside of Philadelphia. Still regularly in contact with friends he grew up with, he jokes they struggle to pinpoint when they first met because their grandparents grew up together. 

Growing up in an Army family, Vaughn relocated several times on U.S. soil and abroad, before the family eventually settled in Mckeesport, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh in 1963. 

Both had foundations built on family, community and sports… plenty of sports. Often those areas intertwined. 

Coleman’s mother and father were athletes. One older brother was a high school all-American in basketball and all-state in football before playing collegiate hoops at Villanova. Another brother went on to be a three-star general in the Army. His sisters were all active in sports. His younger brother had a brief stint on the Rice football team before moving closer to home and being a two-sport star at Hofstra. 

Thanks to his parents and siblings, Dennis felt confident that playing collegiate sports was an attainable goal – he just had to choose which sport. A four-sport athlete, Coleman claims he was strongest in baseball, but he shifted his focus to football because that was where he was receiving the most attention. 

He led Delaware County in touchdown passes his senior year, a fact which he quickly unselfishly attributes to having great receivers and a strong offensive line. Among Coleman’s potential suitors was Southern California – his top choice. 

There just two things holding him back from enrolling immediately at USC – his size and his grades. 

“In high school, I weighed 149 pounds soaking wet with rocks in my pockets,” Coleman joked. “While I was president of my class, I didn’t apply myself initially in school like I should have and boy it drove my father nuts.”

With aspirations of eventually transferring to USC, he moved across the country and enrolled at Arizona Western College, a junior college bordering Arizona and California to lift both weights and his grades. 

Like Coleman, Vaughn played numerous sports growing up. 

Although, his experience with youth football was much more rigorous. With the McKeesport Tigers youth football team, he grew accustomed to regular conditioning. When traveling to away games, the team wore blazers. They had three sets of uniforms. Discipline was the name of the game. 

Martin began as a wide receiver before transitioning to quarterback in junior high. With several teammates ahead of him on the depth chart, doubt crept in.

“I was kind of discouraged,” Vaughn recalled. “You could figure, hey, why don’t you do something else, but I wanted to be a quarterback. I could throw the ball very well. That’s what I wanted to do.” 

By his senior year, Martin moved into the starting role. And like Dennis, he too started to attract attention from other big name programs. Vaughn took visits to the likes of Texas and LSU but shifted his focus to the west coast. This was largely due to the fact that several years earlier, while en route to Augusta, Ga., and just hours after his family detoured to attend Martin Luther King’s March on Washington, Vaughn had his first brush with overt racism. He and his brother, children at the time, were turned away from a store — shouted at with the most derogatory of words the cruelty of racism has to its definition.

Coleman and Vaughn’s matchup very well could have occurred in another storied stadium – the LA Coliseum. Vaughn also had aspirations of playing college ball in Los Angeles. A big fan of Lew Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, his dream school was UCLA. 

Though when the Bruins shifted to the wishbone offense, Vaughn dropped UCLA from his list. He wanted to throw the ball. 

Martin’s mother advised him that Penn could be the best option.  

“She said If you’re good enough to play in the pros they’ll find you, but if not these next four years of getting your education will shape the rest of your life,” Vaughn recounted. 

On a recruiting trip, he was astounded at the number of Black students on Penn’s campus. 

On that same visit he was acquainted with another prospective football player who would go on to be one of his closest friends, the late Adolph Bellizeare.

“We talked all night long about what our experience was and the people we were talking to about colleges and playing football. We decided to come to Penn and the rest is history,” Vaughn said. 

Out in Arizona, Dennis received similar advice to that of Martin’s mother from a source with a close-to-home tie to Brown. 

Coleman lost his first game at Arizona Western. That would be the only loss he experienced, as the team went on to win 19 consecutive games, including the 1972 junior college national title. Still being recruited by USC, the list of interested schools grew and included Iowa State, Pittsburgh, New Mexico… and Brown. 

Enter Louis Farber, the dean of high school football in Arizona. Farber also happened to be a Brown athletics hall of famer and was one of the nationally famous Iron Men. 

“One afternoon I was sitting watching TV and this old guy sits next to me and kind of nudges me, and says ‘aren’t you Dennis Coleman?’ And I said ‘yessir’ and he introduced himself.” Coleman said. 

Each week following their introduction, Coleman would receive a hand-written note from Farber with a copy of the article about the game he had just played. Written at the top of each note: 

How is your schoolwork going?

It was going well – really well. Coleman was a Ford Foundation Scholar. 

With that Coleman’s interest in Brown piqued. When he returned home to Darby, his father, who had once been frustrated with his lacking effort in the classroom, offered some parental advice. 

“He said you’ve earned the right to decide wherever you want to go. You know your mother and I don’t have the money to pay for your school, but if it were up to me, I would go to Brown,” Coleman recalled. 

On his visit to Brown, much like Martin, Dennis was pleasantly surprised by the number of Black students on campus. Already knowing that he wanted to get into a good law school, the choice was simple. 

Leading up to the Oct. 6 game, neither Coleman nor Vaughn were overly aware or thinking much of the historical significance of their matchup. 

“I didn’t know that the game was historic. I just knew that Brown had a quarterback and he was Black,” Vaughn said. 

At the time, Vaughn was more focused on winning over the starting role. He had been splitting time at quarterback, and although the game was not his first career start, it was the first time he had been handed the keys for the entire game.

For Coleman, the game represented an opportunity to play in a familiar setting. 

“I was coming home,” he recounted. “I used to sell hot dogs and hot chocolate at Eagles games on Sundays.”

A contingency of around 50 people ranging from family and friends filed into Franklin Field to watch Dennis play. The fact that one person in particular was in attendance is to this day Coleman’s proudest recollection from the game. 

“The thing that was significant to me was that my brother, the general, brought my grandmother to the game. Nana came to the game and that was a big deal. That was the most significant thing about that day.” Coleman, one of over 30 grandkids, exclaimed. “I’m still ticked off we lost the game, but that’s another story.”

Coleman averaged more than 10 rushing yards per attempt, but Vaughn threw for 200 yards as the Quakers overcame a deficit to win 28-20. 

“I remember we were down in that game. I remember I would go in the huddle and everyone would be down and I’d say ‘up’ – you know, look up. And I said look we’ve come too far and have worked too hard. Our defense rallied they caused a turnover and we came back and won the game,” Vaughn said.

Then, marked the start of a now 50-year friendship.

“I was proud of him -- knowing that he was doing what I was doing,” Martin said. “He said to me that he was proud of me. I was pulling for him. The only game I didn’t want him to win was against Penn.” 

The following summer, with Coleman being home in Darby, the two trained together. 

“It was really great to talk to someone who knew exactly what I was going through,” Martin said. 

Dennis and Martin remain in touch. Nearly every February someone reaches out with a request to celebrate their story for Black History Month. 

Both wish they could see each other more frequently, but the special bond they share allows them to always pick up right where they left off. 

“Dennis and I come from different parts of the country, but we have a lot of the same values,” Martin said. “We have God in our lives, we had strong families, strong parents. Not rich parents, but professionals. We had God, we had community, we had family.” 

Last February at the Ivy Football Association Dinner in New York, Dennis and Martin were reunited. 

Brown alum and legendary ESPN broadcaster Chris Berman (’77), one of the event’s emcees, began to discuss the upcoming Super Bowl, which was featuring two Black starting quarterback in Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts for the first time. Berman transitioned to what occurred at Franklin Field on Oct. 6, 1973. 

Applause began from the over 1,100 in attendance.

Prompted by Berman, Dennis and Martin stood for the recognition. The applause became a thunderous roar and the two embraced. Dennis Coleman and Martin Vaughn earned an over two-minute standing ovation.  

“That was one of the most special moments I’ve ever had in my life,” Martin said. “I was happy to be there. I was happy that Dennis was there, and I was happy that we were acknowledged.”

“I will never forget that moment. I generally don’t cotton to accolades. We were raised as kids to be humble,” Coleman said. “I will tell you that moment that Martin and I embraced, I’ll never forget that. That was pure love. While neither of us knew the significance of what we did 50 years ago, we certainly felt it that night.”

In a league built on its storied traditions — closely cataloged across generations —and famed for paving paths for others to walk through years down the road, Dennis Coleman and Martin Vaughn were two of those trailblazers on that day in October of 1973. And this Friday night, 50 years later, it will be a national television audience celebrating their journey and impact.