CHAPTER 7: REVISIONIST HISTORY FROM GEN. LEE to COACH BRYANT
USC’s 1970 team started only five Black players: Cunningham, Jones, tailback Clarence Davis, linebacker Charlie Weaver and defensive end Tody Smith.
The Trojans didn’t resemble Grambling, the Historically Black College and University football powerhouse, another element the myth purports. USC’s five Black starters were only three more than Tennessee at Alabama in 1969 — or 17 fewer than Grambling. Smith was a transfer from Michigan State, so it could have been four Black starters.
Davis is portrayed as an example of Bryant recognizing the need to keep Alabama kids at home. However, while Davis was born in Birmingham, he moved away at age 11. He graduated from Washington High in Los Angeles. He played at East L.A. Junior College before transferring to USC.
Throughout the Showtime film, Alabama coaches and fans comment on how Alabama’s all-white team was overmatched against USC’s bigger and faster Black athletes. Left unsaid was same would have been true in 1966 if Alabama’s 11-0 all-white No. 3-ranked team had faced No. 2 Michigan State, with 20 Black players and 11 Black starters.
Michigan State’s 1965 and 1965 teams featured two college football’s greatest defenses, led both years by defensive end Bubba Smith and rover George Webster. They were College Football Hall of Famers and the first and fifth picks of the 1967 NFL draft. Smith was a 6-foot-8, 285-pounder and Webster 6-5, 230; both players were ahead of their time with the size and speed for their positions.
Alabama’s 1966 All-American offensive lineman was Cecil Dowdy (6-1, 202), a ninth-round draft pick. Who was going to block Smith or Webster? Notre Dame had only one Black player, College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Alan Page (6-4, 245). Who was going to block Page?
Alabama fans have complained the 1966 Crimson Tide (11-0) was a victim of reverse racism for finishing behind No. 1 Notre Dame (9-0-1) and Michigan State (9-0-1). The Irish and Spartans played to a 10-10 tie in the Nov. 19, 1966 Game of the Century. Left unsaid by Alabama players, assistant coaches and fans was by 1970 they accepted their players were smaller and slower.
Bryant’s apologists were quick to embrace the myth no matter its L.A. origins or how many holes have been punched in it. Folklore overlooking Bryant’s silence during the Civil Rights movement relates to another case of southern-based historians deceptively capturing a narrative.
In the History Channel’s 2020 mini-series, “Grant,” the writers use appearances from today’s prominent historians to explain influential southern historians from the early 1900s southern historians captured the narrative, shifting it the South fighting to preserve slavery to a battle for states right. They labeled it “The Lost Cause” facing northern aggression. They cast the South’s Robert E. Lee the noble general, the North’s Ulysses S. Grant as a butcher.
However, military historians that have studied the final battle conclude Grant outmaneuvered Lee, trapping his Lee’s depleted troops from reaching a train depot for supplies. Lee had no choice but to surrender at Appomattox.
The Civil War, of course, is an apocalyptic battle. The 1970 USC-Alabama game was just a football game. But both examples try to obfuscate the fact the South’s leaders were on the wrong side of history in the 1860s and the 1960s.
USC’s 1970 team started only five Black players: Cunningham, Jones, tailback Clarence Davis, linebacker Charlie Weaver and defensive end Tody Smith.
The Trojans didn’t resemble Grambling, the Historically Black College and University football powerhouse, another element the myth purports. USC’s five Black starters were only three more than Tennessee at Alabama in 1969 — or 17 fewer than Grambling. Smith was a transfer from Michigan State, so it could have been four Black starters.
Davis is portrayed as an example of Bryant recognizing the need to keep Alabama kids at home. However, while Davis was born in Birmingham, he moved away at age 11. He graduated from Washington High in Los Angeles. He played at East L.A. Junior College before transferring to USC.
Throughout the Showtime film, Alabama coaches and fans comment on how Alabama’s all-white team was overmatched against USC’s bigger and faster Black athletes. Left unsaid was same would have been true in 1966 if Alabama’s 11-0 all-white No. 3-ranked team had faced No. 2 Michigan State, with 20 Black players and 11 Black starters.
Michigan State’s 1965 and 1965 teams featured two college football’s greatest defenses, led both years by defensive end Bubba Smith and rover George Webster. They were College Football Hall of Famers and the first and fifth picks of the 1967 NFL draft. Smith was a 6-foot-8, 285-pounder and Webster 6-5, 230; both players were ahead of their time with the size and speed for their positions.
Alabama’s 1966 All-American offensive lineman was Cecil Dowdy (6-1, 202), a ninth-round draft pick. Who was going to block Smith or Webster? Notre Dame had only one Black player, College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Alan Page (6-4, 245). Who was going to block Page?
Alabama fans have complained the 1966 Crimson Tide (11-0) was a victim of reverse racism for finishing behind No. 1 Notre Dame (9-0-1) and Michigan State (9-0-1). The Irish and Spartans played to a 10-10 tie in the Nov. 19, 1966 Game of the Century. Left unsaid by Alabama players, assistant coaches and fans was by 1970 they accepted their players were smaller and slower.
Bryant’s apologists were quick to embrace the myth no matter its L.A. origins or how many holes have been punched in it. Folklore overlooking Bryant’s silence during the Civil Rights movement relates to another case of southern-based historians deceptively capturing a narrative.
In the History Channel’s 2020 mini-series, “Grant,” the writers use appearances from today’s prominent historians to explain influential southern historians from the early 1900s southern historians captured the narrative, shifting it the South fighting to preserve slavery to a battle for states right. They labeled it “The Lost Cause” facing northern aggression. They cast the South’s Robert E. Lee the noble general, the North’s Ulysses S. Grant as a butcher.
However, military historians that have studied the final battle conclude Grant outmaneuvered Lee, trapping his Lee’s depleted troops from reaching a train depot for supplies. Lee had no choice but to surrender at Appomattox.
The Civil War, of course, is an apocalyptic battle. The 1970 USC-Alabama game was just a football game. But both examples try to obfuscate the fact the South’s leaders were on the wrong side of history in the 1860s and the 1960s.
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