Leon King in 1956, along with teammate Abner Haynes, became the first Black student-athletes to attend a previously-segregated four-year Texas university when they enrolled at North Texas State College (NTSC) in Denton. King, a talented receiver and punter for Dallas’s Lincoln High School, met teammate Abner Haynes there. As Lincoln High seniors in 1955, King and Haynes played Port Arthur Lincoln for the Prairie View Interscholastic League 3-A state football championship, losing 9-6, before heading to college.
Leon King (University of North Texas Athletics)
Today known as the University of North Texas, North Texas State College was an independent football program when King and Haynes enrolled in 1956 and played on the school’s freshman team, which went undefeated that season. In 1957 North Texas State joined the Missouri Valley Conference.
Once King and Haynes made the varsity team their sophomore year, some southern schools cancelled scheduled games with NTSC. These schools included Mississippi State University, The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and Southern Mississippi State University. After a sophomore year where NTSC had a 5-5 season, King in 1958 helped his squad to a 7-2-1 record and a Missouri Valley Conference championship in his junior year before dropping out of school his senior year due to a knee injury and growing family responsibilities. Having married in the spring of his freshman year, King had two children by his senior year and briefly quit school to support his family and spend more time with his young children.
A Dallas native, King was born November 12, 1938, the middle child of Henry and Jesse Mae King’s five offspring. Both his parents worked to support the family, his father managing two jobs to make ends meet. Because of his father’s heavy work schedule, Leon seldom saw him except on Sundays when the family attended church and had a free afternoon.
Because of his mother’s desire for all of her children to get a college education, King returned to North Texas after a year away and graduated in 1962. After starting to work in public education for the Dallas Independent School District, he earned a master’s degree in 1972 from North Texas and later his doctorate from Nova University.
King spent the bulk of his professional career with the Dallas Independent School District (DISD), teaching, coaching, and finally, moving into educational administration until his retirement in 1999. King, however, continued to work as a substitute teacher in the District after that date and still lives in Dallas.
