PHOTO: J Batt arrives at Michigan State with a successful fundraising background at Georgia Tech and other career stops.

— Visit my homepage: TomShanahan.Report

— Click here for review and purchase link: THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s and here for a purchase link to RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans.

— Learn about our documentary at the fundraising stage, GAME CHANGERS OF THE CENTURY, and the Investment Deck.

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By TOM SHANAHAN

Dear Mr. J Batt:

Welcome to Michigan State.

Your resume in this new age of college sports professionalized by NIL and the transfer portal sounds promising. You’ll hear plenty of fundraising ideas from boosters, but my letter is different (you certainly don’t need fundraising advice from me, even though we’re both journalism graduates).

I’m a Michigan State alum writing with background on the Spartans’ largely untold history under College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty. His 1960s teams led college football integration. No one did more to change the face of the game than Daugherty. Michigan State is a SINGULAR story.

However, since you probably were indoctrinated in your time at Alabama with the claim Bear Bryant led integration through the 1970 USC-Alabama game, understand it’s a fairytale. I include this only because Duffy’s story is unjustly lost wide Bryant shadows stretching from the horizons of dawn on the East Coast to sunset on the West Coast.

You may even hear people in Michigan State’s athletic office try to tell you Bryant sent Duffy his players from the South. It NEVER happened. Any Michigan State person repeating the myth fails to understand it falsely credits Bryant and reduces Duffy to a passive bystander. It’s the other way around. I always say I will debate anybody, anytime, anyplace on this.

I detail our unappreciated history with unique research in two books, “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Spartans” and “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” I’m hoping to complete a deal with a publisher to have Lia Kamana, another Michigan State graduate and a Duffy Hawaiian Pipeline legacy, record audio versions of the books.

I also include ongoing research on my website, TomShanahan.Report, and my podcast, “THE END GAME.” I’m excited to partner on a documentary in development, GAME CHANGERS OF THE CENTURY, with an award-winning team that includes two other MSU graduates, Dr. Phil Hart and Tanya Hart, an award-winning MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences graduate. In addition, there a script being shopped in Hollywood based on RAYE OF LIGHT.

But despite our school’s proud history, for a half-century we’ve been cycling through campus students and athletes who leave with little to no knowledge of Duffy’s impact. Let me put that thought to you in terms you can relate to as a former North Carolina soccer player:

Imagine having graduated from Chapel Hill without understanding basketball coach Dean Smith’s impact on the Jim Crow South. Or about Charlie Scott, North Carolina’s ground-breaking African American player.

Here are three anecdotes that, sadly, summarize our campus nescience:

— Tony Banks, a 10-year NFL veteran who was the Spartans’ starting quarterback in the 1994 and 1995 seasons, didn’t know Jimmy Raye’s history as the South’s first Black quarterback to win a national title on the Spartans’ 1965 and 1966 teams when he wore the green and white. It wasn’t until Banks was with the Washington Redskins in 2001 and Raye was his offensive coordinator. Raye had boarded Duffy’s famed Underground Railroad out of segregated Fayetteville, N.C., in 1964.

— Paul Davis, an NBA veteran who led the Spartans in their 2005 Final Four season, was a guest host a few years ago with “The Drive with Jack” on a day host Jack Ebling invited me as a guest. As I discussed RAYE OF LIGHT, Davis interjected, “I’m a Michigan State athlete, and I didn’t know any of this.”

— Michigan State All-American women golfers Katie Lu and Brooke Biermann told me at the end of their freshman year they were unaware of Duffy’s history until I educated them. Katie said, “I go into the Duffy building every day, and I didn’t know any of this.” Katie and Brooke have recorded three NIL videos for me promoting my books and are listed on my website as Duffy History Champions. You can ask them yourself with a phone call congratulating them as newly graduated alums.

And here’s a bonus by way of Jack Ebling that may be the most embarrassing example of all.

On a game day, Ebling walked behind a few MSU students on the way to Spartan Stadium. He heard one student ask, “Who’s Duffy Daugherty?” Another replied, “Some guy who donated a lot of money.”

Of course, not all MSU students care about our football history, but these students were on their way to a game!

Here, in a nutshell, are crucial transformative moments you need to know:

— Daugherty assembled college football’s first fully integrated rosters in the 1960s. His numbers were in the 20s, while the remainder of college football above the Mason Dixon Line followed an unwritten quota limiting Black players to a half-dozen or so. The South, of course, was segregated until the late 1960s.

— In 1964, Michigan State was the first fully integrated team to play in the South. The Spartans traveled to play North Carolina at Kenan Stadium in segregated Chapel Hill. College Football Hall of Famer Clinton Jones was the first Black player to score in Kenan with a 42-yard run in his college debut.

— In the 1966 Game of the Century matching No. 1 Notre Dame against No. 2 Michigan State at Spartan Stadium, Duffy lined up 20 Black players, 11 Black starters, two Black team captains, College Football Hall of Famers George Webster and Clinton Jones, and one of only two Black starting quarterbacks in major college football, Jimmy Raye. Notre Dame lined up one Black player, Alan Page.

You might be scratching your head wondering how so much proud history could be lost on a campus with the Duffy Daugherty Building dating to the 1980s. Well, in this age of vital fundraising, the title has been squeezed out by two naming rights donations: The Skandaleris Center and Tom Izzo Football Building.

Michigan State lost Duffy’s history the same way Ernest Hemingway wrote in “The Sun Also Rises” about a character going broke: A little at a time and then all at once.

First, after long-time MSU president John Hannah left in 1969, Duffy had a falling out with the new administration over budget cuts. Then we had a succession of presidents, athletic directors and football coaches unfamiliar with Michigan State’s proud past.

Too many of the coaches wanted their own stamp on the program. There wasn’t a Roy Williams who wouldn’t let anyone forget Dean Smith. Or a Tom Izzo who won’t let anyone forget Jud Heathcote.

We now have a president, Kevin Guskiewciz, who has been learning and appreciating Michigan State’s history. I’ve heard second-year football coach Jonathan Smith is learning Duffy’s history, but I don’t know how much he’s passing on to his players. That needs to be part of the equation.

We need all three of you on the same page.

The great Jerry LeVias – a College Football Hall of Famer who broke the Southwest Conference’s color line in 1965 – considered riding Duffy’s Underground Railroad from Beaumont, Texas, until accepting a Southern Methodist scholarship offer. He understands our history more than most Spartans.

This is what LeVias told me in 2020 when we discussed how little is known about Duffy’s national impact:

“Michigan State should be proud of what they did instead of sitting back and waiting around for someone to tell their story. If I was a Michigan State recruiter sitting in the living room with a kid’s family, I would say, ‘Do you know the history of Michigan State?’”

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Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter and frequent contributor to Spartanmag.com in addition to posting on his website. 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