In this edition of The Journeyman Unfiltered, Marlon Weems sits down with Greg Thomas, the first Black starting quarterback in University of Arkansas history and author of No Doubting Thomas: The Hawg Whisperer and #Making Believers. What begins as a conversation about Razorback football develops into a much broader discussion about race, opportunity, institutional memory, and what it meant to break barriers in Arkansas only a generation ago.
Thomas recounts arriving in Arkansas from San Angelo, Texas, in 1984 without fully understanding the racial significance of the position he was about to occupy. His own father had reservations about him attending Arkansas, fearing that Greg’s unwillingness to back down from racial hostility could put him in danger.
Thomas describes fighting his way up a crowded quarterback depth chart by volunteering for scout-team work and performing well enough against Arkansas’s first-team defense to attract attention. Legendary Texas sportswriter Blackie Sherrod sought him out and, rather than beginning with football, asked the 18-year-old Thomas how people in Arkansas were treating him. Sherrod warned him that becoming Arkansas’s first Black starting quarterback would bring resistance that winning alone wouldn’t necessarily overcome.
Thomas says those warnings proved prescient. He recalls boos, hostile letters and phone calls, and resistance surrounding the prospect of a Black quarterback becoming the face of Razorback football. He also discusses his complicated relationships with head coach Ken Hatfield and legendary athletic director Frank Broyles, including learning through ESPN that he had been benched for a bowl game rather than hearing it directly from his coach.
Thomas’s accomplishments provide one of the interview’s most striking threads. As Arkansas’s starting quarterback from 1985 through 1987, he describes three consecutive 9–2 regular seasons and three consecutive bowl appearances, including the Orange Bowl. He argues that his record as a winner compares favorably with virtually any quarterback in Razorback history.
Yet Thomas says he has never even been placed on the ballot for Arkansas’s Hall of Honor. Rather than simply complaining about the omission, Thomas connects it to a larger question: Who gets recognized when institutions write their own history? He believes speaking candidly about the racial realities surrounding his career may have complicated his relationship with the institution decades later.
The conversation takes an unexpected turn when Thomas describes approaching Little Rock’s Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Arkansas’s museum of African American history, about possibly participating in a book signing or other programming. He says he visited, provided a copy of his book, expressed his interest—and never heard back.
That story prompts Weems to describe an almost eerily similar experience. After discovering that his own role in founding Arkansas’s first Black-owned investment banking and brokerage firm was absent from the state’s historical narrative, Weems contacted Mosaic Templars. Initial conversations were enthusiastic and included talk of programming and a Zoom meeting. Then communication simply stopped.
The parallel leaves both men wondering whether there are parts of Arkansas’s Black history that institutions are more comfortable telling than others.
Thomas also discusses his second book, #Making Believers, written from his perspective as an assistant basketball coach with 25 years of experience. It chronicles a Texas high-school basketball team’s extraordinary 40–0 state championship season and the 14 players and five coaches who transformed the heartbreak of their junior season into an undefeated championship run.
Thomas says the book has already received 15 literary awards and could earn several more. He is also exploring film and screenplay opportunities while carefully protecting his rights and maintaining control over how the story is told.
His first book, No Doubting Thomas, is also serving as the foundation for a documentary examining his experience at Arkansas and the racial history surrounding it. Thomas makes clear that the film will confront subjects he might have been reluctant to discuss when he was younger.
05:45 — Thomas notes that only one Black quarterback preceded him at Arkansas at all, Martin Lamont, and that seven years passed before Thomas arrived.
11:40 — Thomas reveals that his father initially opposed his attending Arkansas because he feared for his son’s safety.
24:40 — Thomas explains how volunteering for scout-team duty helped transform him from an overlooked freshman into a serious quarterback prospect.
29:20 — Blackie Sherrod’s first question to the 18-year-old Thomas isn’t about football: “How are the people treating you?”
31:00 — Thomas begins describing the racial resistance surrounding his emergence as Arkansas’s quarterback.
34:40 — He recounts discovering from his brother—and then watching it himself on ESPN—that he had been benched for the Holiday Bowl.
38:35 — Thomas describes hearing boos and receiving hostile letters and phone calls when he entered games.
43:00 — Thomas lays out his winning record and explains his frustration at never receiving Hall of Honor recognition.
44:40 — The conversation turns to Mosaic Templars, where Thomas and Weems discover the remarkable similarity between their experiences trying to get their respective stories recognized.
50:35 — Thomas discusses #Making Believers, the undefeated 40–0 championship team, its 15 literary awards, and potential film adaptation.
This ultimately isn’t a football interview.
It’s a conversation between two University of Arkansas alumni whose careers took very different paths but who share the experience of breaking barriers in a state that wasn’t always prepared for them. Thomas did it at quarterback. Weems later did it in Arkansas finance. Perhaps the most provocative question emerging from the conversation isn’t about what either man accomplished.
It’s who gets remembered—and who gets to decide.
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