The Chicago Defender (National Edition), Oct 30, 1937.

Sidat-Singh Proves to be Mister Webb:

White Press Takes Glory From Race
  by Styling Gridiron Hero ‘Hindu’.

It's funny what a name will do sometimes.

Often, it jerks you right out of one race, and puts you in the good graces of another.

That's what has happened to Wilmeth Sidat-Singh, dark-skinned ball carrier in the backfield of Syracuse university football team.

Sidat-Singh, exploited by white newspapers as a Hindu, has been getting his portion of applause from the bleachers for his athletic prowess on the gridiron, and all the more because of his purported Oriental ancestry.

Harry Cross, writing of him in the New York Herald-Tribune says of him:

“Although his ancestry is steeped in the stories of romance of the Orient, the athletic interest of Wilmeth Sidat-Singh, of Syracuse, centers in the forward pass adn the end sweep. This 18-year-old youth of Hindu parentage is one of the best throwing backs of the Orange team and his skill at handling the ball was developed while he played basketball at DeWitt Clinton high school here.

“Sidat-Singh is the only player of Hindu ancestry in the game and his father Dr. S. A. Sidat-Singh, of this city, was born in India. His son was born in this country. Judging from his fine performance for the Orange against Cornell last week, Sidat-Singh's name will be well known in Syracuse football before his college career ends and he follows in the footsteps of his father and became a physician.”

But the facts are these:

Sidat-Singh is the son of the late Elias Webb of Washington, D.C. His mother remarried and is now Mrs. Pauline Sidat-Singh, wife of Dr. Sidat-Singh, who is practicing medicine in New York. Dr. Singh is a graduate of Howard university school of medicine, and adoped the boy and gave him his name.

Syracuse's gridiron hero's christened name is Wilmeth Webb. His gradmother, Mrs. Elias Webb, lives now at 79 R. street, northwest, Washington, and his nephew Waldo Webb, is a teacher in Shaw junior high school. This ancestry places Sidat-Singh directly in the brackets of our race. So you can't say there's nothing in a name.

Sidat-Singh Proves to be Mister Webb: White Press Takes Glory From Race by Styling Gridiron Hero ‘Hindu’., The Chicago Defender, Natinal Edition, Oct. 30 1937, Page 2. (PDF)