It was the second college in the nation to go co-ed and second again to admit African-American and Native American students, yet progressive Alfred University in western New York forced out a black star athlete from Chester for dating a white administrator’s daughter.

The 1959 scandal was hushed for decades … until new university president Mark Zupan discovered it. He promptly wrote a letter to Warren Sutton, according to a report in The Buffalo News by Jay Tokasz.

“I realize that this is something that you may not want to relive or remember, but I do feel compelled to convey something, which is that we are committed to an ideal of full racial and gender equality that would make irresponsible the way AU treated you,” Zupan wrote. “So please consider this an apology.”

Sutton also received an honorary degree from Alfred last week.

As a child, Sutton was the first in his family to even graduate from high school in Chester, let alone go to college. And he was a star for the Alfred basketball team. His friends and school faculty didn’t object to other white women he dated in college, but when he started spending time with Dorothy Lebohner, the daughter of university treasurer Edward Lebohner, college officials intervened.

“My father was absolutely against us dating,” she said.

Afraid of being expelled, Sutton voluntarily withdrew from college and left town.

But that didn’t end the couple’s relationship.

“He was fun to be with,” Lebohner said. “I think I liked the fact that he had principles and he was pretty clear and independent. We just kind of clicked.”

She even went missing while her family was on vacation in New York City to meet up with Sutton, a move that made national headlines.

Ultimately, Lebohner ended up in college in California, while Sutton won a Canadian college championship, earned a tournament MVP honor, and was drafted by the NBA’s St. Louis Hawks.

“I never saw myself as a victim,” Sutton said in retrospect. “I made a choice when I left, because I thought, ‘I’m not really doing anything wrong, so why should I stop something I openly believe in?’”

Despite the disgrace he endured, Sutton remained fond of his years at Alfred and the honors he later received: one being induction into Alfred’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986 and another being Zupan’s unexpected apology, which “further enhances my love and appreciation of my experiences at Alfred,” he said.