NEW HAVEN, Conn. –Yale University Athletics celebrates Black History month in February and will feature some of pioneers, both past and present, that have helped shaped the Bulldog experience. Next is up, is Jay Swift, class of 1947.
 
While Levi Jackson '50 was Yale's first black captain, it was Swift who paved the way as he was the first African-American to compete for Yale when he enrolled in 1944. He was only one of six African-American students at Yale at the time, and was the only one not under the Navy's V12-program.
 
The New York, N.Y., native came to Yale from Townsend Harris High School. He was an English major in Timothy Dwight College.
 
At the start of the 1944 season, Swift paved the way for so many more and was part of Yale's 79-41 victory over UConn which set a then-scoring record at Payne Whitney Gymnasium. Swift scored the final six points for the Bulldogs that night as the team tied the previous program high of 73. It was Swift's scoring that broke the record and extended it to the new mark.
 
Additionally, Swift played on several intramural teams and was a  member of the football team in 1945 and  the crew team in 1946.
 
After obtaining his Yale degree, he went back to New York City where he worked in several city positions under Mayors John V. Lindsay, Abraham D. Beame and Edward I. Koch.
 
Swift served as commissioner of the Addiction Services Agency in Manhattan and went on to become the executive director of the Environmental Control Board. He held that position to 1983 after which he became a special consultant to the Queens District Attorney and to the Ad Hoc Review Committee of the National Institute of Mental Health.