Morton was making history, shattering the color barrier in recording for the first time, More than a decade before Benny Goodman received credit for doing so with Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson. Still, the idea of white musicians collaborating with a black man —even one as light-skinned as the Creole Morton—posed problems for all involved, particularly when it came to hotel accommodations in provincial Richmond. So Morton was asked to pass, the boys in the band saying he was Cuban.
At Arizona State I encountered another form of prejudice. My football coach there, Frank Kush, told me that the Sun Angels boosters were upset because I was dating a Mexican girl, and that I should be careful...
In 1966 I was on the Arizona State baseball team when Bobby Winkles called me in and said, "I want to tell you that you're probably not going to be the number one draft choice in the country, even though you're head and shoulders ahead of everyone in ability." I asked him why, because it was a prestige thing to me. "Because you're dating a white girl," Winkles told me. I asked him how he knew. He said he'd heard it from the Mets. "They think it might cause some problems in the minors," Winkles said.
