John Henry
James Cash and his wife Clemmie unveil the statue in front of Schollmaier Arena.
When James Cash was trying to decide where to make history as a high school senior at I.M. Terrell in 1966, he was said to be weighing a choice between TCU, Texas, and Texas Tech.
Wherever he wound up would be groundbreaking, the first Black basketball player in the Southwest Conference.
In the days leading up to his announcement, Texas said it had pulled its offer from the table. In truth, Cash had privately told them that he had made up his mind. He was going to TCU, and Texas didn't want it to appear that it has lost out on a prized recruit.
The decision wasn’t as difficult as everybody thought.
In those days of Jim Crow segregation, when Black students weren’t even allowed on campus, TCU faculty went to Black elementary schools to offer master’s level instruction to teachers in the Fort Worth school district’s Black schools.
Juanita Cash, James Cash’s mother, was one of those students. When TCU integrated in 1962, Juanita earned her master's degree on campus.
“This institution represented for me, starting at that point, a place that really set the standard for not accepting mediocre commitment and social constraints, but, in fact, providing opportunity for, in many cases, the least among the folks they served.
“I can’t tell you how often after that point I’ve taken inspiration of what I saw and witnessed up close with my mother and these other folks who were given that opportunity.”
James Cash went on to a groundbreaking career at TCU. He was an All-Southwest Conference performer on the Horned Frogs’ 1968 conference championship team, as well as an all-conference academic performer. He went on to an esteemed career in academia and business. After earning a degree at TCU in mathematics as a part of the Class of 1969, Cash went to Purdue, where he earned master’s and doctorate degrees. In 1985, he became the first tenured Black professor at Harvard. He has served on the board of a number of companies, including Walmart and Microsoft.
TCU later retired his No. 54.
Cash is, it can be written without any reservation whatsoever, one of Fort Worth’s greatest sons, and to mark his achievements as a business, academic, and thought leader over the course of more than 50 years, TCU unveiled a statue of him, sculpted by artist David Alan Clark, in front of Schollmaier Arena on a chilly November Friday afternoon.
The occasion attracted all of the school’s board of trustees, as well as Mayor Mattie Parker, who presented a proclamation making Nov. 11, 2022, “James Cash Day” in Fort Worth, and Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks were in attendance. TCU’s basketball team was there, of course. Board chair Mark Johnson, Chancellor Victor Boschini, Athletic Director Jeremiah Donati, and basketball coach Jamie Dixon delivered remarks.
As part of the festivities, which took place in the Legends Club of TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium, the university conferred an honorary doctorate on its honored graduate.
Cash’s remarks were moving. He thanked his parents, his sisters, and all who had helped give him the opportunity to succeed. He began by extolling his high school alma mater, I.M. Terrell, and his teachers there. He asked all from Terrell in attendance to stand and be recognized.
“During those times of strictly Jim Crow segregation,” he said “I was blessed with teachers with advanced degrees who required absolute excellence from all of us and a commitment to a shared community, a set of shared values so that we reinforced with each other our expectation of always pursuing quality in a very special way.”
Brooks, who also presented a proclamation from the Tarrant County Commissioners Court — which he didn’t read. If you ‘ve heard one “whereas,” you’ve heard them all, he quipped — is a Terrell graduate, too. He is, he said, the only “Terrellite” currently holding state office in Texas.
“On behalf of the people of Tarrant county, on behalf of those of us who had the good fortune to matriculate through I.M. Terrell High School,” Brooks said, “this day is about legacy. This day is in fact impact. But this day is a celebration for those of us who came up on the segregated side of the mountain. We’re proud of James Ireland “Buddy” Cash. We’re proud of him because he belongs to us. And he is a shining example to a community that needs many more such shining examples. This is special to me.
“We’re proud of you. We honor you, we celebrate you. We lift you up to the entire community to see because you represent possibilities. Possibilities for young people that have in many ways lost sight of what is possible for them.”