In 1961 I came to Michigan State Universty as a 17-year-old freshman from Mt. Vernon, a bedroom suburb of New York City.
To say that football at this Big 10 college was big would be like saying the ocean is deep.
I lived in a dorm where I knew a few players and recognized all the star players depicted in this video when I saw them hanging out at the student union or walking around campus.
Until I looked at my May alumni email newsletter this morning I never realized that our coach, Duffy Daugherty, was a sports civil rights pioneer.
The racial demographics seen on the field today are due in large part to Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty’s innovative approach to recruiting African American men from the South to MSU in the 1960s, known as the “Underground Railroad” of college football. The success of MSU’s 1965 and 1966 back-to-back Big Ten and National Champion teams forces America to re-think prejudices that previously kept African American players from earning scholarships or starting positions. Civil Rights legislations and the overwhelming success of Duffy’s integrated team force the rest of college football, including programs like Alabama, Texas and Mississippi, to finally recognize and recruit black talent.
The film delves into the triumphs and defeats of Daugherty's integrated team as they finish the season with the historic 1966 "Game of the Century," a 10-10 tie against Notre Dame. Teammates Gene Washington, Bubba Smith , Clinton Jones, and George Webster make history as first round picks in the 1967 draft. Gene Washington and Clinton Jones bring momentum to the Minnesota Vikings, playing in the 1969 Super Bowl alongside legendary teammates Joe Kapp, Alan Page, Carl Eller, Jim Marshall, John Henderson, Oscar Reed, Dave Osborn and Mick Tingelhoff.
LINK
I remember the late Bubba Smith, who was a 6 feet 7 inches 265-pound giant coming into the Union with his 5’ 5” girlfriend who was a friend of a friend. He knew he was special, a star with an assured career in the NFL, yet he was about as down-to-earth as they come.
I doubt he could have predicted he would have ended up as something of a movie and TV star:
The athletically gifted 6' 7" Charles Aaron "Bubba" Smith played defensive end / defensive tackle for the National Football League's Baltimore Colts (1967-1971), Oakland Raiders (1973-1974), and Houston Oilers (1975-1976). After the conclusion of his football career, Smith moved into a TV & film career, with initial guest appearances on prime time TV shows including Wonder Woman (1975), Charlie's Angels (1976) and Eight Is Enough(1977). Smith is best known to international film audiences as the softly spoken police officer "Moses Hightower" from the Police Academy (1984) series of comedies, in which he has appeared in all but one of the numerous sequels. LINK
Bubba died in 2011 of CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a “neurodegenerative illness afflicting unknown numbers of former athletes in contact sports.”
I remember receiver Gene Washington, who appears in this documentary, as a tall slim and handsome kid who always had a smile on his face.
I recall running backs Clint Jones, the speedster Sherm Lewis, and the late George Webster as being friends and always joking around.
Aside from being extraordinary athletes who were also just regular fellow students who anybody could engage with they were also breaking the color barrier in big-time college football.
Michigan State has had some horrible publicity lately because of their reprehensible gymnastics doctor, Larry Nassar. I even wrote a diary about it “Decades later, illogical as it is, I feel Michigan State has tarnished my degrees.”
At the same time as MSU was breaking new ground by integrating college football, and making headlines as they won national football championships, they also made the news when Madame Nhu was featured as a cover story in Ramparts Magazine (right).
MSU’s renown police administration department helped to arm Madame Nhu and train her police force.
It’s gratifying to learn how the university also made civil rights history.
….
For Michigan State football fans. I remember every name in this article and knew Don Japinga as an when he lived on my dorm floor. He was an academic All-American who died in 2010.
….
…
My recent posts on politics:
TRUMP PASSES (FAKE) LIE DETECTOR! Proves no Russian collusion. So says National Enquirer.
Who is Aunt Lydia and why Michelle Wolf comparing Sarah Sanders to her is a razor-sharp barb?
At presser next to Merkel Trump lied about Russian collusion today and she knew it, so did Macron.
Can a malignant narcissist with impaired impulse control Mirandize himself?