Thanks to The State News for educating students on the history of Duffy Daugherty’s pioneering teams
By TOM SHANAHAN
Thanks to The State News, Michigan State’s student newspaper, educating the campus on Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty’s 1960s teams leading college football history.
On Thursday, Jania Clowers wrote a story in Thursday’s edition about the 60th anniversary of Michigan State as the first fully integrated team to play in the South. The Spartans traveled to segregated North Carolina to face the Tar Heels on September 26, 1964, at Kenan Stadium.
Celebrating 60 years of the 1964 MSU-UNC game that revolutionized college football – The State News
This is one of many pieces of history missing from college football lore. As a result, Michigan State has been cycling through students without understanding their school’s proud history. I often have people who read my website and my books comment, “I didn’t know anything about this. I’m so proud of my university.”
Last week, JP Pfeiffer of The State News wrote a story on the MSU Hall of Fame enshrining Michigan State’s 1965 and 1966 national championship teams. When Michigan State played Notre Dame in the 1966 Game of the Century on November 19, 1966, at Spartan Stadium, it was a tipping point to college football integration.
During a time period when college football followed an unwritten quota limiting Black athletes to a half-dozen or so, 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.
Michigan State was the future. Schools like Notre Dame and USC — the Trojans won the 1962 national title with five Black players and the 1967 national crown with seven — were the past.
Michigan State took an important first step toward recognizing its proud history with the MSU Hall of Fame enshrinement but there is more to explain to the campus, the surrounding communities and college football overall.
For more than a half-century, it has been a sports journalism failure that the 1960s sports media ignored the milestones MIchigan State’s 1960s teams were establishing to help open doors elsewhere.
It remains a sports journalism failure with the modern sports media comfortable regurgitating myths about Alabama coach Bear Bryant and the 1970 USC-Alabama game. The fairytale has co-opted the credit that belongs to the true pioneers of college football integration in the 1960s.
My stories on Bear Bryant myths:
This history about Michigan State and Duffy Daugherty I didn’t understand as an MSU student a sports editor of The State News. It wasn’t until my research the past dozen years for RAYE OF LIGHT and THE RIGHT THING TO DO that I realized Daugherty’s role is misunderstood and unappreciated on campus and throughout college football.
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I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055
Click here for the Kirkus Book Reviews of THE RIGHT THING TO DO
Click here for the Kirkus Book Review of BUBBA’S DAD
The Right Thing To Do was also endorsed by the Vanderbilt Sports and Society Initiative.
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
