Elyria High School football coach Devlin Culliver’s tale encapsulates Black American

Devlin Culliver’s backstory is one of perseverance, significant personal loss, suffering and also winning.

Culliver, 54, is the first Black football coach in Elyria High School’s history.

The Elyria Black Legacy Project, which tells the story of local Blacks and shares them in hopes of teaching the complicated history of race in this country to area youngsters, is featuring Culliver’s story on its Facebook page.

At East Cleveland Shaw, Culliver became the first Black coach to win a league title in the Lake Erie League.

At Maple Heights, his teams went 32-39 in his four seasons and with a stop at Painesville Harvey, too.

Elyria High was 0-10 the season before Culliver was hired.

Three seasons later, the Pioneers went 6-5 and made the state playoffs

Culliver is a descendant of Georgia slaves, and he said a family member was killed by the KKK.

And while the public is learning of Culliver’s family story, he said at one time, it wasn’t freely shared within his own family.

When asked about the KKK murder of his and how his family dealt with it, Culliver responded, “they never talked about it.”

“I didn’t know a lot of civil rights history, or slavery history,” Culliver said. “It seemed kind of unbelievable to me at the time.”

Ethan West, who helps run the Elyria Black Legacy Project, which is highlighting accomplishments of African Americans in Elyria, said Culliver’s story, linked so directly with the stain of racism, can be one that inspires others.

“His family still found a way to be successful,” West said. “He’s a prime example of you put in work, and actually care about something, you can become anything.

“You can be very impactful.”

Culliver’s journey

Culliver said he draws on his high school experience when coaching today.

He was the Youngstown high school Player of the Year his senior season in 1985 at Cardinal Mooney High School.

His childhood friends went to South High School, which was right down the street from his house.

Growing up, Culliver starred in youth football leagues, and in junior high, he played quarterback.

Before the final game of his freshman season, he told the football coach he would not play his sophomore year.

The coach told him to reconsider because he was a good football player.

Culliver said the coach told him to give himself a chance.

He moved up to junior varsity, and eventually, the varsity team.

Culliver’s senior year, he was the Youngstown Player of the Year and he ended up earning a four-year football scholarship to Ohio University, where he lettered all four years and was good enough to earn a tryout with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

He also earned an art degree.

Powerful story

West said it would have been natural and understandable for Culliver to have become bitter and resentful toward white people.

But the fact that he did not, makes the story all the more powerful, West said.

“As a human, you are allowed to have these national reactions,” he said. “But we have to be solution-based.

“So being resentful, is that going to be productive? Is your resentment going to translate into productivity? We can sit and be mad all day.”

That’s why the Elyria Legacy Project is important and stories like Culliver’s need to be told, West said.

“If you don’t know, you don’t know,” he said. “And if you don’t know, you can be caught in a cycle where you just repeat everything.

“If you identify (a problem), it’s easier to find a solution.”