Don Graves broke color barrier as Iowa's first Black high school coach
Don Graves' quaint northside home feels more like a museum. The longtime cross country and track coach earned countless accolades and awards during his impressive 41 years at Des Moines Schools. Many of those memories and plaques hang on the walls of his basement, in the home he and his wife have shared for the last five decades.
Graves, 89, coached the majority of his career at East High School. He has nearly every picture and newspaper clipping from that time to prove it. They are snapshots of history.
"I never thought about it much. I was just looking for a job," said Graves. "I look back and there's a lot of people of color now that have followed me, and I say, 'Wow, look at what I started,' and I hope it doesn't end."
In the 1960s, Graves was hired as the first Black coach in Des Moines Schools. Before that, in 1958, six years before the Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination, he was hired as the first African American to coach a sport in the state, making $4,000 a year. Graves coached basketball at Randall, which is now part of the South Hamilton School District. He remembers applying for the job over the phone and alerting the hiring manager he was a Negro. Graves says his young family was met with open arms in the all-white community.
"No flags burning in the yard, no crosses," explained Graves. "Never had any derogatory remarks. Nothing that like. They accepted me."
Graves never set out to make history, and he didn't talk about it much either. He cared about building up his athletes.
"He used to run with us during practice. That's the kind of coach he was; he was hands-on, present and guiding," said David Maxwell, one of Graves' former athletes. Maxwell said he learned of his coaches' historic accomplishments at the time of this story. "He's not one to extoll himself or his accomplishments. He's just a very humble, selfless person who puts everything into his athletes," he said.
The longtime coach says he proud of paving the way for other coaches in Iowa to find success. "If I can do it to help other people, I think that's something that needs to be continued on."
Graves turns 90 in March. He still describes his love for track and field "his soul." He was inducted in the Iowa Association of Track Coaches Hall of Fame in 2022.
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