PHOTO: NFL 360 title poster.
Visit my website homepage, TomShanahan.Report
By TOM SHANAHAN
The NFL 360 documentary on Jimmy Raye debuts on the NFL Network at 8 pm ET. on Feb. 7.
THE INDELIBLE LEGACY OF JIMMY RAYE
8 p.m. ET, Tuesday, February 7, NFL Network
Click here for a 30-second trailer on the documentary.
NFL figures, including Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy, are featured throughout the film.
“In one word, I’d describe Jimmy Raye as ‘iconic,’ ” Dungy says in the film.
***
Click here for my story on restored trains used as a backdrop to the film.
***
Osahon Tongo, a former Georgia Tech player from Naperville, Illinois, produced and directed the film.
Interviews were conducted on Raye’s career from the campus of E.E. Smith High in Fayetteville, N.C., the Michigan State campus and the Abderdeen Carolina & Western Railway in Candor, N.C. The freight company was used as backdrop for Raye’s journey aboard Michigan State College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty.
Raye, through opportunities Daugherty provided by defying racism, established a pioneering career as a Black quarterback for the Spartans and a Black college and NFL coach.
When Daugherty added Raye to his 1972 staff that already included Sherman White, the Spartans’ first Underground Railroad All-American player as a halfback from Louisville, Kentucky, the Spartans numbered two Black assistants at a time most schools were hiring their first Black coach.
When Raye joined the NFL in 1977 with the San Francisco 49ers, there were only seven other Black assistants in a 28-team league. In 1983, he was the second Black coordinator when Los Angeles Rams coach John Robinson named him the team’s offensive coordinator.
-30-
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055.
Click here for my story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and Segregation awarded first place by the Football Writers Association of America.
Click here for my NIL partners.
Click here to purchase Raye of Light.
RAYE OF LIGHT
Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the 1ntegration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans
Foreword by Tony Dungy
-30-
