Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit

March 28 play reading to honor legacy of SU great Wilmeth Sidat-Singh ’39

Friday, March 17, 2006, By News Staff
Share

March 28 play reading to honor legacy of SU great Wilmeth Sidat-Singh ’39March 17, 2006Sara Millersemortim@syr.edu

Wilmeth Sidat-Singh ’39 was a great athlete and an individual of extraordinary courage. On Tuesday, March 28, Sidat-Singh’s legacy will be honored at a special evening event in which Syracuse University graduate and playwright Ralph Ellis ’54 will offer a reading of his play, “Singh Singh Singh,” a fictionalized drama based on Sidat-Singh’s life as an African American football player at SU in the 1930s.

The play reading will take place at 7 p.m. at the Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company (805 E. Genesee St.). The event is free and open to the public, but attendees are asked to R.S.V.P. to SU’s Office of Program Development at 443-2399 orpdevelop@syr.edu because seating is limited.

Sidat-Singh was both a gridiron and basketball star throughout his athletic career at SU. As halfback for the football team, he became known as the “Slinging Hindu” for his brilliant passing ability. Sidat-Singh was not a Hindu, however, and on the eve of the Syracuse vs. Maryland game in 1937, he was exposed as a Negro and branded an impostor. Maryland refused to play against a Negro and SU — threatened with breach of contract and financial loss as well as warnings of possible fan violence if Sidat-Singh played — was finally coerced into keeping him out of the game.

Ellis’ play “Singh Singh Singh” deals with the events leading up to the Maryland disclosure and its aftermath, and culminates with Sidat-Singh’s recognition of who he was and his tragic and untimely death as a Tuskegee airman.

Sidat-Singh was also a basketball star at SU, leading the Orange to three straight winning seasons, including a 14-0 record in 1938-39, which earned the team anunofficial national title. On scholarship for his basketball ability, it was only after an assistant football coach spotted Sidat-Singh throwing a 55-yard pass in an intramural game that he joined the football team as a sophomore.

Following college, Sidat-Singh passed the entrance exam for the U.S. Army Air Corps and was assigned to the segregated armed forces’ only pilot training program for African Americans, the Tuskegee Airmen. Just days after earning his pilot’s wings in 1943, the engine of Sidat-Singh’s P-40 failed while on a training mission, forcing him to parachute into Lake Huron. His body was found a week later; 1st Lt. Sidat-Singh is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Today, his memory serves as a compelling reminder of African American athletes’ — and SU’s — parts in the struggle against racism.

In February 2005, SU retired Sidat-Singh’s #19 basketball jersey at halftime of the men’s basketball game against Providence College.

Writer and playwright Ellis is a graduate of SU’s School of Speech and Dramatic Arts, now known as the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA). In addition to the plays he has written, he also has been a head writer of daytime television for three major networks. His credits include daytime dramas such as “Search for Tomorrow,” “The Doctors,” “Loving” and “As the World Turns.”

Ellis is the recipient of an Emmy and three Writers Guild of America awards and has taught and directed at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He has also been a visiting professor at SU’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

This event is co-sponsored by SU’s Office of the Chancellor, the Division of Institutional Advancement, the Office of Program Development, the Office of Alumni Relations and VPA.

For more information on the reading, contact SU’s Office of Program Development at 443-2399.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • From Academic Advising to Multicultural Affairs: Practicums Help School of Education Students Explore Higher Education Careers
    Tuesday, June 6, 2023, By Martin Walls
  • Ana Caliz Casanova Joins Libraries  as Monograph Cataloging Librarian
    Tuesday, June 6, 2023, By Cristina Hatem
  • Yvonne E. Hyland Joins Libraries Advisory Board
    Tuesday, June 6, 2023, By Cristina Hatem
  • Free Trolley From Campus to Downtown Farmers Market Will Begin June 13
    Tuesday, June 6, 2023, By Jennifer DeMarchi
  • Mechanical Engineering Student Ruohan Xu Receives Norma Slepecky Undergraduate Research Prize
    Friday, June 2, 2023, By News Staff

More In Uncategorized

Syracuse Views Spring 2023

We want to know how you experience Syracuse University. Take a photo and share it with us. We select photos from a variety of sources. Submit photos of your University experience using #SyracuseU on social media, fill out a submission…

Awards of Excellence Honoree: Maxwell has Been ‘a Guiding Hand’ in Public Service Career

Standing before an audience of fellow Maxwell School alumni gathered in Washington, D.C., for the second annual Maxwell Awards of Excellence, CNN anchor Boris Sanchez ’09 shared the motivation behind his work as a journalist. Sanchez emigrated from Cuba as…

NASA Honoring Those Who Were Aboard Space Shuttle Columbia And Other Late Astronauts

Sean O’Keefe, University Professor in the Maxwell School, was interviewed for the USA Today article “Twenty years later, loss of space shuttle Columbia still teaches us lessons.” The article emphasizes how NASA’s Memorial Grove is used to honor late astronauts,…

NFL, Eagles and Chiefs All Set To Win The Economics Game In Super Bowl LVII

Rodney Paul, director and professor of sport analytics in the Falk School, was quoted in the Washington Examiner story “The economics of the Super Bowl: Hosting, gambling, ads, and more.” The article talks in-depth about all of the economics that…

CEOs Requiring In Person Work Is Hurting Diversity

Arlene Kanter, director of the Disability and Policy Program and professor in the College of Law, was interviewed for the Business Insider article “Some CEOs are pushing workers to return to the office, but it could come with a cost:…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.