The Black 14
Mel Hamilton
What the stand cost: Left school for the Army and nearly died in Vietnam — then carried the fight for fifty years.
In 1967, Mel clashed with Coach Eaton after the coach revoked approval for Mel to live with his pregnant girlfriend, Kathy. Faced with that injustice, Mel left school and joined the Army during the Vietnam War, narrowly escaping an assignment that would have killed him. He returned to Wyoming and rejoined the 1969 team.
For decades Mel was among the most prominent voices protesting the LDS Church. Then his own son chose to join that Church — the unlikely spark that began the healing. Today Mel is one of the leaders of the Black 14’s reconciliation and its food program.