Football and women’s golf in North Carolina with Duffy approvingly watching from above
PHOTO: I was honored to pose with Michigan State’s women’s golf team (L-R): Brooke Biermann and Catalina Morney next to me followed by Ana Sofia Murcia, Taylor Kehoe and Katie Lu.
By TOM SHANAHAN
CHAPEL HILL – I made my annual trip to the University of North Carolina’s Findley Golf Club to watch Michigan State’s women’s team play in the Ruth Chris Tournament. I’ve followed them the past three years since Brooke Biermann and Katie Lu joined me as Name, Image and Likness partners.
But this year I realized while following the Spartans that Michigan State College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty was smiling down on Michigan State for a pair of North Carolina sports experiences the last couple of weeks.
Clint Jones and his 1964 touchdown at North Carolina that history ignored – Tom Shanahan Report
On September 26, it was the 60th anniversary of Daugherty taking major college football’s first fully integrated team to play in the South in a game against North Carolina at Kenan Stadium. College Football Hall of Famer Clinton Jones, making his varsity debut, was the first Black player to score a touchdown at Kenan.
The State News posted this article by Jania Clowers, a Rosa Parks Scholar from Detroit’s Renaissance High:
Celebrating 60 years of the 1964 MSU-UNC game that revolutionized college football – The State News
On the Raleigh, N.C., radio station WRAL, Adam Gold hosted Jones and myself on his show:
Tom Shanahan and Clint Jones (youtube.com)
Golf was Daugherty’s second favorite sport, so he no doubt was looking down on the UNC tournament as Michigan State flipflopped first place with Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Tennessee for the lead until the final holes.
The Spartans settled for a tie for second with Wake Forest three shots behind Duke’s winning score. The Spartans were led by two Duffy History Champions – seniors Brooke Bierman and Katie Lu.
Biermann, a 2024 NCAA Regional champion, tied for 11th at a plus-5 (71-74-70) on the 6,081-yard par 70 course. Lu, a third-team All-American, was tied for 15th at plus-6 (73-69-74).
Sophomore Taylor Kehoe and freshman Catalina Monroy were plus-7 for a T19. Ana Sofia Muricia finished T37.
The Spartans posted the most balanced scoring throughout the three days, but Duke’s Andie Smith was the difference with a medalist score of 7-under par. She was one of only two players under par on the course with tough greens, and her five-shot victory provided a team-scoring difference, too.
Biermann and Lu are Duffy History Champions for the NIL videos they recorded for me promoting my books: “RAYE OF LIGHT, 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.”
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Both books tell the story of Daugherty and Michigan State leading college football integration, and we have a documentary in development.
Here’s the NIL link:
TomShanahan.Report and NIL partners – Tom Shanahan Report
They’ve learned Michigan State is a singular story. While other schools followed an unwritten quota limiting Black athletes to a half-dozen or so over racists attitudes, Daugherty ignored the quota limitations.
In 1962, the Associated Press reported Michigan State’s 17 Black athletes was the most in major college football history. That same season USC won the nation title with only five Black players despite the school’s campus in populated and diverse Los Angeles.
In 1966, Michigan State played Notre Dame in the Game of the Century. Daugherty 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 had one Black player, Alan Page.
I learned from Brooke and Katie that they committed to Michigan State for the facilities and coaching under veteran Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll. They viewed Michigan State as a brand name in women’s golf.
Brooke, who is from Wildwood, Missouri, and Katie, Plainfield, N.J., have been best friends and roommates since they arrived as freshman in East Lansing.
Slobodnik-Stoll has taken the Spartans to 24 NCAA tournament in 27 seasons and won eight Big Ten tournaments. Michigan State won the 2023 NCAA Palm Beach Regional when Biermann and Lu were sophomores.
Forest Akers is one of the nation’s top college courses, and Katie told me MSU’s indoor facilities are state-of-the-art. The players can work on any part of their game year-round.
As an old alum, I always knew Forest Akers’ reputation and played the course many times with friends in my college days and after graduation. But I wasn’t ware of the indoor facilities helping the Spartans level the playing field with warm-weather programs.
PHOTO: Michigan State athletes will be hard-pressed to top Brooke Biermann (L) and Katie Lu (R) as my Duffy History Champions. Attention Lansing-area elementary schools and libraries: For the 2024 NIL video, Katie plays the piano while Brooke reads from my children’s book, BUBBA’S DAD, DUFFY AND COLLEGE FOOTBALL’S UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
As for playing Forest Akers, I told Katie and Brooke the urban legend from my college days that Forest Akers was the only Big Ten course that Jack Nicklaus, an Ohio State alumnus, never broke par. Whenever any one of us recorded a birdie, we’d say, “The only Big Ten course Jack Nicklaus never broke par.”
A few years ago, while covering PGA tournaments, I had brief moment with Nickalus when I asked him about the urban legend. He thought for a second and then recited his under-par round from one of the years Ohio State played at Forest Akers.
Duffy would have loved that story and made some kind of joke out of it.
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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
