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re: On this date in 1967, the SEC's first black football player took the field
Posted on 9/24/13 at 8:38 am to AUsteriskPride
Posted on 9/24/13 at 8:38 am to AUsteriskPride
quote:
Not to sound racist, but could you imagine how dominate Manziel would be if the league was still segregated?
"Vern, I've never seen a QB over throw the receiver on a deep route before"
0
Posted on 9/24/13 at 8:40 am to hubertcumberdale
quote:
This is why every claimed NC <1970 is totally irrelevant....cough cough ALABAMA cough
So we still have '73, '78, '79, '92, '09, '11, & '12. What a shame...
The 1970 Alabama vs USC game was a HUGE factor in getting more black players in the conference too.
LINK
Posted on 9/24/13 at 8:47 am to Lordofwrath88
quote:
not really, our forefather's southern generation was always last to the progress party
You might be surprised at how much segregation in one form or another, in many categories of societies other than just race, still occurs today. The South never had, nor has ever had a monopoly.
Posted on 9/24/13 at 9:07 am to I-59 Tiger
quote:
I-59 Tiger
Thanks for the link. I will read Northington's book. I like reading inspiring books having to do with personal life experiences and overcoming adversity.
Posted on 9/24/13 at 9:37 am to BluegrassBelle
Take off the blue hued glasses off. Rupp was a dick and a racist dick as well.
Posted on 9/24/13 at 9:46 am to GIbson05
quote:
The 1970 Alabama vs USC game was a HUGE factor in getting more black players in the conference too.
Sam Cunningham's game vs Alabama is well-chronicled as well as has been embellished somewhat.Certainly, in a game in 1970 in Birmingham vs Alabama it is worthy of attention.
But there was another black running back a few years earlier who really ran all over some SEC teams. Houston's Paul Gipson (46) ran for 229 vs then #5 Georgia in a 15-14 win in 1967, 210 in Jackson vs Ole Miss in a 29-7 win in 1968 (an Ole Miss team that beat Alabama and LSU)and 230 vs Georgia in Athens in a 10-10 tie in '68 when Georgia won the SEC.
Posted on 9/24/13 at 10:02 am to I-59 Tiger
Just look at any HBCU and they look like Jr. High teams...
Posted on 9/24/13 at 10:07 am to I-59 Tiger
quote:
Sam Cunningham's game vs Alabama is well-chronicled as well as has been embellished somewhat.Certainly, in a game in 1970 in Birmingham vs Alabama it is worthy of attention.
This game was way overblown. Alabama's team was already integrated at they played.
Posted on 9/24/13 at 10:13 am to sjmabry
quote:
Just look at any HBCU and they look like Jr. High teams...
Jackson St and a few others have White QBs
2 White kickers, a white safety and a white Guard.
This post was edited on 9/24/13 at 10:16 am
Posted on 9/24/13 at 10:18 am to matthew25
quote:
MooState had Frank Dowsing, DB from Leland.
Frank played at Tupelo High School. He was also Mr MSU in 1973.
Posted on 9/24/13 at 10:25 am to pvilleguru
quote:
This game was way overblown
True.
quote:
Alabama's team was already integrated at they played.
Well,in 1970 there were no blacks on the varsity. Wilbur Jackson was on the freshman team and John Mitchell would come in as a transfer in '71.
Posted on 9/24/13 at 12:00 pm to GIbson05
quote:
The 1970 Alabama vs USC game was a HUGE factor in getting more black players in the conference too.
quote:
Cunningham's impact was a myth, because sitting in the stands that night when USC trounced the Tide 42-21 was Wilbur Jackson, a black freshman running back for Alabama. He was not playing because freshmen were ineligible in those days. Bryant had already integrated his team by recruiting Jackson, who was signed Dec. 13, 1969, by assistant coach Pat Dye, who would later be head coach at Auburn.
Three days at Foster
quote:
Now comes another story that further debunks the myth of Sam the Bam.
Dock Rone, a freshman defensive lineman from Montgomery, Ala., who is black, walked into Bryant's office in Tuscaloosa in February 1967 and asked the legendary coach if he could join the team as a walk-on for spring ball. Bryant told Rone he admired his courage, but he did not immediately say yes.
"I was pretty sturdy, it looked like I had played football," Rone said. "But I imagine he wanted to make some calls and check me out before he said yes."
A few days later, the Alabama athletic trainer, Jim Goostree, called Rone and told him he was picking him for a physical. Bryant was going to let Rone walk on.
The roles of Rone and others in the integration of the Alabama football program are featured in the documentary Three Days at Foster, released Monday. Bryant started a gradual push to integrate the program with Rone in 1967 while fierce segregationist George Wallace ruled Alabama with his wife, Lurleen, the governor. Jackson did not suit up for a regular season game until 1971.
Rone had received a full football scholarship offer to Mississippi Valley State, a historically black school, but he wanted to go to Alabama because he wanted to play in the Southeastern Conference. He also felt Alabama had some better academic credentials for what he wanted to study, architecture or engineering.
"I wasn't trying to make a statement," said Rone, 66, now a plant supervisor at a production facility in Montgomery.
Posted on 9/24/13 at 12:31 pm to Mizz-SEC
quote:Consider this:
Still, it seems almost unfathomable that it took TWENTY YEARS from Jackie Robinson to integrate southern college football. Wow. It's a different world today.
Jim Brown graduated from Syracuse as a first-team All American as an RB (he also kicked PATs), was drafted in the first round by Cleveland where he played nine seasons, finishing as the leading rusher in 8 of them, including setting then all-time rushing records of 1863 yards for a single season and 12,312 career. He is still the only player ever to lead the NFL in all-purpose yards for 5 seasons, and the only RB ever to average >100 yards per game over his career. He hung up his cleats to pursue acting, appearing in the WWII hit The Dirty Dozen.
All the above occurred before the first black player took a single snap at an SEC school.
Posted on 9/24/13 at 12:32 pm to I-59 Tiger
I've always found this story interesting. College football mirrored society. The coaches wanted to win period. THe politics at that time, which still seems unfathomable, were segregation was the way in the south. A coach who bucked the system was pretty much gone. Two things happened. Everybody in the south integrated relatively at the same time and it had become apparent, and THIS is what really lead to football integration, no southern team could compete any more. Sadly, Nobody had a great social agenda but they did want to win championships. When we played nebraska in 1971 and USC in 1970 it was so obvious we didn't have any Sam Cunninghams or Johnny Rodgers. All the SEC coaches wanted to integrate, it was just a battle they couldn't win at the time unfortunately. Bama football took off after integration to the tune of 103 wins in the 1970's with 3 national titles and 8 conference championships. Thanks Sam and Johnny. 
Posted on 9/24/13 at 12:57 pm to Settingthestandard
Now kids like Laquon Treadwell and Clifton Garrett are heading to Ole Miss and LSU. Bizarre.
The past few seasons the number of recruits from Northern states in the SEC has increased. At least it feels that way. I think most everyone in Illinois's top 10 is headed south this year.
Not to mention that the top basketball schools in the South -- UK, Duke, UNC and Louisville -- rely on AA recruits from the Great Lakes, New England and mid-Atlantic regions. Florida's two national championship teams at least had a southern character. But what Calipari has done at Memphis and UK, in terms of stealing Northern recruits, is just ridiculous.
The past few seasons the number of recruits from Northern states in the SEC has increased. At least it feels that way. I think most everyone in Illinois's top 10 is headed south this year.
Not to mention that the top basketball schools in the South -- UK, Duke, UNC and Louisville -- rely on AA recruits from the Great Lakes, New England and mid-Atlantic regions. Florida's two national championship teams at least had a southern character. But what Calipari has done at Memphis and UK, in terms of stealing Northern recruits, is just ridiculous.
Posted on 9/24/13 at 1:18 pm to todospm
I figured either UK or Vandy would have been the first. Who was the last to intergrate?
Posted on 9/24/13 at 1:19 pm to BradPitt
quote:
Chinaman
I think that "Asian-American" is the preferred nomenclature, here in the twenty-first century.
This post was edited on 9/24/13 at 1:21 pm
Posted on 9/24/13 at 2:44 pm to LSUDonMCO
quote:
Who was the last to intergrate?
Not sure how accurate as not many details are given, but per this LINK:
quote:
The dubious honor of being the last SEC schools to integrate goes to LSU and Georgia, which waited until 1972.
However another article I saw on sbnation said Ole Miss
Posted on 9/24/13 at 3:15 pm to LSUMastermind
quote:
Jackson St and a few others have White QBs
2 White kickers, a white safety and a white Guard.
In baseball its even more obvious. Many HBCUs are actually fielding majority white baseball teams.
I can remember about 10 or so years ago, a big deal was made at the Bayou Classic when both Grambling and Southern started white quarterbacks.
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