The Underground Railroad quote book
ARTWORK: Duffy’s Coaching Legacy tree reflects assistant coaches who changed the face of college football integration. First branch, top to bottom, Sonny Grandelius, Frank Kush, Dan Devine. Second branch, Earle Edwards, Bob Devaney; Third branch, Chuck Fairbanks, Bill Yeoman; Fourth branch, Tyrone Willingham, Jimmy Raye; Sherman Lewis. Other Duffy assistants who became head coaches in college or the NFL were Vince Carillot, Denny Stolz, George Perles, Hank Bullough, Cal Stoll, John McVay, Dave Smith, Wayne Fontes and Woody Widenhofer.
QUOTEBOOK
Michigan State football coach Duffy Daugherty graced the cover October 8, 1956, edition of Time Magazine. The article featured his personality and success on his way the College Football Hall of Fame. Daugherty’s 1965 and 1966 teams transformed college football, including a place in the 1966 Game of the Century against Notre Dame.
From Time Magazine:
“For Daugherty has neither the portentous air nor commanding presence of the typical big-time football coach. He is cheerfully irreverent in a profession of solemn ulcer cases, a merry man with an Irishman’s gregariousness and a leprechaun’s smile.”
***
Here are quotes praising Duffy Daugherty’s leadership. His 1960s teams were the first fully integrated rosters in college football. The quotes are found in “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” The book is available for pre-order.
Whatever you’ve read about the 1970 USC-Alabama game as a tipping point, forget it. And don’t believe fiction Bear Bryant sent Duffy Daugherty players.
***
BARRY SWITZER, College Football Hall of Fame coach:
“Duffy did more for integration than any other coach in college football. He had players from all over the south. There were great Black players in the state of Texas that were passing over Oklahoma to play for Duffy. He had all those players from the Houston area. And Duffy also was the first one to recruit Samoan players.”
***
JERRY LEVIAS, College Football Hall of Famer who ultimately picked SMU over MSU and became the first Black scholarship football player in the Southwest Conference.
“Michigan State should be proud of what they did. Instead of sitting back and waiting for someone to tell their story, if I was a Michigan State recruiter in a living room with a kid’s family, I’d be saying, ‘Do you know the history of Michigan State?’”
***
WILBUR HACKETT, the SEC’s first Black team captain at Kentucky in 1968 had planned to board Duffy Daugherty’s Underground Railroad until Kentucky desegregated, in 1966, and his parents wanted him to stay home.
“I met Duffy and spent some time with him; he was a great man. He made me feel like Michigan State was the right place for me. He was open and genuine. I loved my time there. The people were so nice. Duffy was so genuine about recruiting African American athletes. I spent time with Bubba and Webster and other guys. Bubba was as big as a house.”
***
CHUCK FAIRBANKS Jr., son of former MSU player under Duffy Daugherty and head coach at Oklahoma: “The Michigan State coaches were open and progressive toward advancing African American opportunities. If you look at the number of Black athletes at Michigan State in the 1950s and 1960s, they were pioneers at accepting Black athletes. It was more than were good athletes. They were treated equally on the team.”
***
JIMMY RAYE, the South’s first Black quarterback to win a national title and NFL Awards of Excellence recipient:
“Duffy Daugherty was one of the most courageous persons I’ve had the privilege to be associate with in my athletic career. I can only image the pressure he must have been under and received when he made the decison to make me the starting quarterback the mid-1970s. Most of the things that happened to me in my coaching career — if not all — came as a direct result of the opportunities he gave me. i will be forever grateful for the courage he had and the kind indivudal he was to give me a chance to as young man who was denied a chance in the South to pursue an academic and athletic career.”
STEVE GARVEY, Michigan State Hall of Famer, 10-time Major League Baseball All-Star
“I think Duffy was a Renaissance Man when it came to the integration of college sports. It’s one thing to try to implement something like that it’s another thing to make it happen. It’s one thing to influence your sport, and it’s another to make social change. The ultimate compliment I can give him is he’s a Renassisaance Man for making it happen.”
DENNIS THOMAS, Retired MEAC Commissioner and College Football Hall of Fame player from Alcorn State.
“Obviously, Duffy Daugherty was a very successful coach, but I have more respect for him as a human being. He didn’t see color. He saw performance. He saw character. He was doing it before it was fashionable.
“I want to commend you for chronicling and bringing those stories into the public light. I want to tell you how much respect I have for Duffy Daugherty and for you telling the stories.”
***
GENE SMITH, Ohio State athletic director and former Notre Dame player and assistant coach.
“Duffy is an iconic coach who accomplished so much in his time. He’s deserving of it. He was a leader who embraced diversity and opportunity for people of color.
“For Duffy, it wasn’t just about winning football games. It was more than that. It was about making sure opportunities were provided. That’s what people need to know about Duffy. I think it’s important Michigan State recognizes him and tells his story that is so important.”
***
MORE FROM JERRY LEVIAS, former SMU and NFL player from Beaumont, Texas, on Willie Ray Smith Sr., a legendary high school coach in Beaumont, Texas, during segregation, steering players from the Houston area known as the Golden Triangle to Daugherty’s Underground Railroad.
““Duffy got a lot of f us from Golden Triangle. Everybody knew about Duffy Daugherty and Michigan State. Duffy was at the right time, and he was way ahead of his time.”
***
RUFUS CORMIER, former SMU player from Beaumont, Texas, on his 1966 recruiting trip to Michigan State.
“I was very impressed with Duffy. I talked to Michigan State’s players, and they loved it there. Bubba, of course, had a great experience. I was friends with Tody (Smith). But I didn’t like the cold weather.”
***
GARLAND BOYETTE, former Grambling and NFL player on the unwritten quota that limited Black players toa half-dozen or so. Boyette was the NFL’s first Black middle linebacker with the St. Louis Cardinals, in 1962.
“We knew there were schools in the north that took Black players, but we also knew there were only about six spots for Black players on the team.”
***
LESTER McCLAIN, Tennessee’s first Black player in 1967, who was a senior in 1969 when the Volunteers’ integrated roster routed all-white Alabama 41-14 at Legion Field in Birmingham. This was one year before USC routed Alabama at Legion Field, but myths and fiction crafted about the 1970 USC-Alabama game have overshadowed the true pioneers of college football integration in the 1960s.
“I’ve watched those documentaries and other things on ESPN. Listening to those stories, I’m thinking, ‘I guess we didn’t play in the same conference as Alabama.’ They don’t say anything about our game.”
***
BOB GRANT, one of the first three Black freshmen recruits in the ACC in 1964 and the first Black player from a southern college drafted in by the NFL (1967, second round, Baltimore Colts), recalled a conversation between among three NFL veterans, Grant, Long Beach State’s Reggie Berry and USC’s Sam Cunningham.
Grant recalled, “Reggie told Sam ‘You know, you guys didn’t integrate the South.”
“Yes, yes, we did,” Cunningham replied.
Berry proceeded to tell the story of Grant and other true 1960s pioneers. Cunningham expressed surprise.
“I didn’t know that,” he said.
***
From RAYE of LIGHT, Chapter 11, The Passengers, Page 134:
“In all, 44 Black high school recruits from the South boarded Daugherty’s Underground Railroad from 1959 through his final season in 1972. Thirty of the 44 recruits graduated — 68 percent. That was double the nationwide rate when the NCAA was forced to address the poor graduation record of African American football players in the 1970s and 1980s.”
-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. I tell untold stories on Michigan State’s leading role and the true pioneers of college football integration. Click here to read a summary.
***
Click here to purchase The Right Thing To Do
THE RIGHT THING TO DO
The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s
Foreword by Ruffin McNeill
***
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
***
Click here to purchase my children’s book, Bubba’s Dad, Duffy and College Football’s Underground Railroad
The book for now is only a Kindle version on Amazon. Print and audio platforms available soon.
***
Coming soon for Christmas, my next children’s book: How Duffy Put Hawaii on the Football Map
-30-
