PHOTO: I visited with Dan Devine’s statue outside the Dan Devine Gate at Notre Dame Stadium. Vagas Ferguson and I earlier signed books at the Hammes Notre Dame Book Store on campus.

Review and purchase link for THE RIGHT THING TO DO: From Kirkus, The Right Thing To Do: “Fascinating read” … “unexpected subplots” … “A work of sports history that fill gaps” … “prose is breezy” – Tom Shanahan Report

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By TOM SHANAHAN

SOUTH BEND, Indiana. – I spoke with Dan Devine Saturday outside Notre Dame Stadium. Well, I talked. He listened while atop his statue pedestal.

I stopped by prior to the Irish defeating Miami of Ohio. Vagas Ferguson, an All-American running back who was a sophomore on Devine’s 1977 national championship team, and I signed books prior to kickoff at the Hammes Book Store on campus.

My new book, “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s,” includes three chapters on Devine’s significant role pushing college football integration in the 1950s and 1960s. I reminded Devine this is the 70^th anniversary of Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty’s first staff in 1954 that changed the face of college football.

Upon becoming head coaches, Devine (Arizona State, Missouri, Notre Dame), Bob Devaney (Wyoming, Nebraska), Bill Yeoman (Houston) and Sonny Grandelius (Colorado) followed Daugherty’s blueprint. They ignored the unwritten quota limiting Black athletes to a half-dozen or so that was in place in major college football in those days. They assembled fully integrated rosters while schools such as USC – which won its 1962 national title with only five Black players and its 1967 national crown with only seven – stuck to the quota limitations.

Three other Duffy Disciples from that era extending Daugherty’s fingerprints coast to coast were Frank Kush (Arizona State), Chuck Fairbanks (Oklahoma) and Earle Edwards (NC State).

I explained to Devine he’d be proud Ferguson was instrumental to researching and telling the Devine/Notre Dame chapter. Vagas drew the bookstore crowd – to paraphrase from the Notre Dame fight song lyrics, “Shake Down the Thunder, he “shook down the sales” – to hear our message. We wanted to set the record straight on Devine’s place in both Notre Dame lore and college football integration history.

PHOTO: Pat Kelly stopped by the Hammes Notre Dame Book Store book signing with Vagas Ferguson joining me. Kelly’s father, George Kelly, was a linebackers coach at Notre Dame under Devine.

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These are three chapters on Devine’s college football integration influence.

— Chapter 4: Arizona State’s Dan Devine and Frank Kush. In 1956, Devine defied Jim Crow in segregated Abeline, Texas, for a road game at Hardin-Simmons. In the past, schools with Black players weren’t permitted to stay in the team hotel or restaurants in Abeline. Devine let it be known his team was staying and eating together or he’d put his team back on the bus and return home. Jim Crow backed down. Among Arizona State’s 1956 players was the Sun Devils’ first Black star, Leon Burton. He led the nation in rushing and scoring in 1957. Devine recruited Burton out of Flint, Michigan.

— Chapter 5: Dan Devine and Missouri’s Desegregation. Under Devine in 1958, Missouri was the southernmost segregated state with Black athletes when Norris Stevenson and Mel West played for the Tigers. By 1960, Stevenson and West were seniors in position to become the first Black players to win a national football title at a southern school. The Tigers climbed to No. 1 until losing to Kansas in a late-season upset.

— Chapter 12: Dan Devine at Notre Dame: Image is Everything. Devine, despite winning a national title and posting a 53-16-1 record in six seasons, was never fully appreciated at Notre Dame. His image suffered. His crime? He wasn’t as popular or personable as his predecessor, Ara Parseghian. But Devine left a mark on Notre Dame on and off the field. Devine’s 1976 recruiting class included Ferguson among 10 Black players – at that time the most in the program’s history. Ferugson was always intrigued by this transition and was helpful when I researched the Notre Dame chapter on Devine.

My book includes a NEXT GENERATION section on what a scholarship opportunity meant to change a family trajectory. Ferguson’s essay is on Page 348. After his playing days, he returned to his hometown, Richmond, Indiana, and worked education in the Richmond Community Schools. In fact, the Miami-Notre Dame game matched his two alma maters — a Bachelor’s degree at Notre Dame and a Masters at Miami.

As for my talk with Devine, the last time I spoke to him was the 1977 season. I was the sports editor of The State News, Michigan State’s student paper, when the Spartans lost at Notre Dame, 16-6. That was the game Joe Montana came off the bench to rally the Irish and to never relinquish the job.

After the game, my plan was to ask Devine about the state of the Michigan State-Notre Dame rivalry that was annually played before conference realignment ripped apart tradition. Devine took the question in another direction — launching into a tirade that the university and Duffy Daugherty’s successors had failed to respect his legacy.

You can read about our one-sided conversation on Page 165. It was a learning experience for a young writer.

Something else few college football fans understand about Devine was he posted a 3-0 record against Alabama’s Bear Bryant. Devine’s team was the underdog each time.

Missouri’s No. 16-ranked team defeated No. 12 Alabama in the 1968 Gator Bowl, 35-10. In two regular season games, the No. 18 Irish beat No. 10 Alabama 23-14 in a 1976 game at South Bend and his No. 6 Irish defeated No. 5 Alabama 7-0 in 1979 at Legion Field in Birmingham.

Devine’s dominance of Bryant underscores the cruel irony college football lore mistakenly credits Bryant as a college football integration leader and overlooks Devine. The facts say it isn’t so. Bryant dragged his feet until recruiting his first Black player in 1970, making Alabama the seventh of 10 Southeastern Conference programs to join the 20th century.

Unfortunately, nationally respected writers and editors remain comfortable with regurgitating 1970 USC-Alabama myths portrayed as a tipping point through sloppy sports writing. The myths obfuscating Bryant’s poor record on integration weren’t crafted and spread until 20 years after the game.

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As I spoke to Dan’s statue, I told him the Notre Dame fans at the book signing were receptive to my message. They wanted to learn more about both his Notre Dame legacy and college football integration leadership. It helped that Ferguson told them I was right.

In fact, by the end of the session, the bookstore managers asked Ferguson and me to sign some additional copies to have on supply. They suggested adding something about “the real Dan Devine” in the chapter. They liked that I added:

“Learn about the real Dan Devine – Page 154.”

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I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055

I’ll put my facts on the true pioneers of college football integration versus Bear Bryant fairytales against anybody, anytime, anywhere. Watch here.

Click here for my story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and Segregation and Alabama.

— Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter with two books on college football integration, “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans,” and “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” They are the most accurate accounts of college football integration in the 1950s and 1960s. They also debunk myths about the 1970 USC-Alabama game. The false narrative co-opted the stories of the true pioneers who stood up to Jim Crow and the KKK.

— Two children’s books also explain Michigan State College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty’s impact on integration through the Underground Railroad and the Hawaiian Pipeline: “DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” and “HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP.”

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PURCHASE LINKS, non-fiction books

— RAYE OF LIGHT, August Publications or on Amazon.

— THE RIGHT THING TO DO, August Publications or on Amazon.

PURCHASE LINKS, children’s books

— DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Order from Barnes and Noble here and Amazon here. 

— HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP, coming soon on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.