Marking Duffy’s 70th and 60th Michigan State milestones changing face of college football
PHOTO: Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty and Clinton Jones celebrate during the 1966 season. Jones, a College Football Hall of Famer, was the first Black player to score at North Carolina’s Kenan Stadium, in 1964.
By TOM SHANAHAN
The 2024 season marks the 70th anniversary of Michigan State coach Duffy’s Daugherty’s first staff changing the face of college football. Daugherty’s assistants, upon becoming head coaches, followed his blueprint of ignoring the unwritten quota limiting Black athletes that other schools followed.
Another significant milestone is Thursday’s 60th anniversary of Michigan State as the first fully integrated football team to play in the South. The Spartans played North Carolina on 9-26-64 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill.
College Football Hall of Famer Clinton Jones, in his varsity debut, broke off a 42-yard touchdown run as the first Black player to score at Kenan. Later in the game, won by North Carolina 21-15, College Football Hall of Famer Gene Washington also scored his first career touchdown.
The important milestone at North Carolina isn’t better known because the 1960s sports media largely avoided race until the paradigm shift of the 1968 Olympics and protests. The game was reported simply for the score and as a Big Ten team playing in the South.
Here is video of Jones and I reliving the moment at Kenan Stadium last fall:
Clint Jones and his 1964 touchdown at North Carolina that history ignored – Tom Shanahan Report
I researched these facts several years ago for my new book, THE RIGHT THINGTO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s. Steve Kirschner and the North Carolina communications office helped me with the research.
The game also marked the college debuts of four future College Football Hall of Famer: George Webster, Anderson, S.C., 1986; Bubba Smith, Beaumont, Texas, 1987; Washington, La Porte, Texas, 2012; and Jones, Cleveland, Ohio, 2015.
It’s one of many important milestones that made college football integration a fait accompli by 1970 when Stanford opened with a win at Arkansas and USC won at Alabama.
September 12, 1970: STANFORD vs. ARKANSAS at LITTLE ROCK – Tom Shanahan Report
In addition to segregation in the South, other integrated programs followed an unwritten quota limiting Black athletes to a half-dozen or so.
In 1962, the Associated Press reported Michigan State’s 17 Black athletes was the most in major college football history. What the report didn’t state was MSU broke its own record of 15 in 1961.
By comparison, Minnesota won the 1960 national title with only five Black players, USC won the 1962 national title with only five Black players and USC won its 1967 national crown with only seven Black players.
In the 1966 Game of the Century matching Michigan State and Notre Dame on November 19, 1966 at Spartan Stadium before a record TV audience of 33 million, Michigan State lined up 20 Black players, 11 Black starters, two Black team captains, College Football Hall of Famers George Webster and Clinton Jones, and the South’s first Black quarterback to win a national title, Jimmy Raye of segregated Fayetteville, N.C. Notre Dame lined up one Black player, Alan Page.
Raye’s place in history also was overlooked in real time. I checked my research with the National Football Foundation, which verified the fact and included it in a newsletter.
In the Sports Illustrated Game of the Century story written by Dan Jenkins, his only mention of race was Jimmy Raye had a “thin mustache.” However, that was a reflection of the times – the sports media avoiding race – rather than negligence on the part of the Hall-of-Fame writer an inspiration for generations of sportswriters.
Another reason such milestones have remained lost to history was myths about the 1970 USC-Alabama game and Bear Bryant hagiography have filled the vacuum. The myths weren’t spread until two decades after the game.
In reality, college football integration was a long process – like all aspects of racial progress in American — of many milestones throughout the 1960s. College football integration was fait accompli by the time the 1970 season opened with two Pac-8 teams playing in the South: Stanford beat Arkansas at War Memorial Stadium in Fayetteville in a nationally televised game covered by Sports Illustrated and Dan Jenkins on the same day USC played Alabama at Legion Field in Birmingham. The USC-Alabama game was limited to radio.
These points are hard to get across to a modern sports media comfortable with entrenched Bear Bryant myths. It’s sports journalism failure in the 1960s and remains one with media regurgitating sloppily reported sports writing.
Pay particular attention to Parts II and VI:
Another important milestone that same day, September 12, 1970, was Georgia Tech quarterback Eddie McAshan taking the field marked another sign of progress. He was the second starting Black quarterback the South after Wake Forest’s Freddie Summers broke ground in 1967. Integrated Georgia Tech beat integrated South Carolina.
I will debate these facts with anybody, anytime, anywhere.
On Saturday, I was at Notre Dame signing copies of THE RIGHT THING TO DO with Notre Dame All-American Vagas Ferguson. We discussed the important role of Dan Devine on college football integration as a head coach at Arizona State, Missouri and Notre Dame.
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Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter and frequent contributor to Spartanamag.com. His new book on Michigan State leading college football integration is, “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” His first book was “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans.”
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055
Below are links to click on to purchase my books focused.
My books tell the true story of college football integration in the 1960s and address the myths and fiction that allowed a false narrative surrounding the 1970 USC-Alabama game to usurp the credit from the true pioneers. As I said when I spoke at the National Sports Media Association book festival, no two books provide an accurate portrayal more than RAYE OF LIGHT and THE RIGHT THING TO DO.
I’ll put my facts up against anybody, anytime, anywhere. Watch here.
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 the summary as a first-place story.
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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
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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
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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.
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My next children’s book coming soon: How Duffy Put Hawaii on the Football Map
