Read more about the article September 12, 1970: STANFORD vs. ARKANSAS at LITTLE ROCK

September 12, 1970: STANFORD vs. ARKANSAS at LITTLE ROCK

Cover photo (L-R): Stanford's all-minority backfield in 1970: Jackie Brown, Hillary Shockley and Jim Plunkett. Visit my home page, TomShanahanReport *** “History writes people out of the story. It's our job to write them back in.” --- David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer. BY TOM SHANAHAN We’ve been misled by myths surrounding the 1970 USC-Alabama game’s racial impact. The revisionist history has cost the true 1960s pioneers of college football integration their due. They’ve been forgotten. They are hidden…

Continue ReadingSeptember 12, 1970: STANFORD vs. ARKANSAS at LITTLE ROCK
Read more about the article Jerry LeVias saw nooses on his path to desegregating Southwest Conference

Jerry LeVias saw nooses on his path to desegregating Southwest Conference

By TOM SHANAHAN Jerry LeVias knows how it feels to see nooses directed at him. The College Football Hall of Famer and six-year NFL veteran spoke from experience on Bubba Wallace’s NASCAR crew finding a noose at his Talladega Speedway garage In 1966, a cluster of Texas football fans held nooses aloft to greet LeVias as the Southern Methodist receiver/return man took the field for a game Oct. 29 at Memorial Stadium on the state’s flagship campus. Many…

Continue ReadingJerry LeVias saw nooses on his path to desegregating Southwest Conference

LeVias and McClain integrated SEC end zones, Hackett on the Underground Railroad

PHOTO: Tennessee's Lester McClain. By TOM SHANAHAN Jerry LeVias played his signature role as the Southwest Conference’s first Black scholarship football player throughout the 1966 season, but two years later he performed with equal valor on a stage in the belly of the beast. The Deep South. The Southeastern Conference. A failure of college football sports media to tell the story of college football integration -- then and now -- has been overlooking the true pioneers of the…

Continue ReadingLeVias and McClain integrated SEC end zones, Hackett on the Underground Railroad
Newer Posts
Older Posts