re: Was Bear Bryant a racist?

quote:

---

Search about the 1970 game between Bama and USC. Bryant invited USC, an integrated team, to play in birmingham knowing that it would help push along his effort to get the Alabama administration to let him integrate the team.

---

Folks appear to have breezed by this response. It's worth reading again.

Bryant had already recruited Wilber Jackson (his first AA player) and was catching hell for it. When he made that decision, he had a talk with John MacKay and they set up a home and home. USC had long ago integrated (?1920's). SC came to B'ham and Sam Cunningham (Randall's older brother) ran all over the Tide in front of a packed house. In essence Bryant presented a still racist state with the proposition "integrate or lose". Alabama may not have gotten the Selma marches, but they got Bryant's message loud and clear. Alabama's classes from that point forward were recruited based on talent, not color.

As an aside, in one of the most effective coaching moments of his career, Bryant took his Bama team into LosAngeles for the next year's opener and stunned heavily favored USC with a wishbone attack he'd put in place in 2 weeks prior to the game.