Levi Jackson a football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 standout at Hillhouse High School

Hillhouse High School

James Hillhouse Comprehensive High School is the oldest public high school in New Haven, Connecticut. It is a part of New Haven Public Schools.- History :Established in 1859 as New Haven High School,...

 (New Haven, CT), was the first African-American

Black

Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...

 football captain

Captain (sports)

In team sports, a captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field...

 at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, and the first African-American executive at Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

. He was a member of the Yale Class of 1950, and captained the 1949 football team, the election taken soon after the 1948 season. Like Albie Booth

Albie Booth

Albie Booth was an American football player. He was a star at Yale University from 1929 to 1931, and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1966....

 before him, Jackson was a football standout at Hillhouse High School and Yale. Jackson was born in Branford, CT. Jackson's father was a master steward and chef at Yale's Pierson College

Pierson College

Pierson College is a residential college founded in 1933 at Yale University. The College takes its name from Abraham Pierson , one of the founders of the Collegiate School, which later became Yale University. A statue of Abraham Pierson stands on Yale's Old Campus...

. Jackson attended Yale on the G.I. Bill. He attained the rank of sergeant

Sergeant

Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....

 in the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps.

He turned down an offer to play for the New York Giants

New York Giants

The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...

, which would had made him the first African-American to play in the modern National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

, after playing football on the Camp Lee team in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 for the U.S. Army. Yale coach Howie Odell

Howard Odell

-External links:* *...

 welcomed Jackson, the team achieving a 7-1-1 record, an Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 poll finish at 12, and a victory over Harvard. Jackson's squads were 3 - 1 versus Harvard.

Jackson's election to the captaincy was unprecedented, given he was the first African-American to play football for Yale, but almost unremarkable in the Yale community. "The voting took only ten minutes. There was no one else. It had to be Levi," a Yale player recounted. Jackson had lettered also for the varsity. basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 team Jackson is understood to be the first African-American tapped for a Yale secret

Secret society

A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...

 or senior society. He turned down Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....

 society for Berzelius Society.