PHOTO: Don Coryell, a College Football Hall of Famer and Pro Football Hall of Famer, is the only coach to win 100 games at the college and the NFL levels.

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.

— Watch a three-minute video to learn about our documentary at the fundraising stage, GAME CHANGERS OF THE CENTURY, and the Investment Deck.

— Documentary synopsis: Duffy documentary snynopsis.pdf – Google Drive

— I will debate anybody, anytime, anywhere Duffy Daugherty led college football integration

— My FWAA first-place story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and segregation

— My chance to tell the true stories of college football integration on The Spiro Avenue Show – Tom Shanahan Report

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BY TOM SHANAHAN

The NCAA transfer portal opens Friday.

The programs at the top of college football’s food chain are dipping into their vaults, while everyone is bracing to lose the talent they found and developed.

Many schools spent the past hiring cycle searching for the next Curt Cignetti, who turned Indiana into an overnight national power with key transfers. But the transfer portal OG — original genius — was San Diego State’s Don Coryell. The coach turned the Aztecs into a small-college powerhouse  from 1961-72 by using junior college transfers.

Coryell’s “transfer portal” differed, of course.

Click here for the remainder of the San Diego Union-Tribune story: Long before the NCAA transfer portal, SDSU legend found ways to fill roster

Coryell’s cast of college transfers

Coach Don Coryell built many of his San Diego State football teams with junior college transfers and bounce-back players. Here’s a look at some of the best:

Name (years at SDSU), previous school(s), in the pros

Henry Allison (1969-70), College of the Sequoias, 7 NFL seasons

Willie Buchanon (1970-71), MiraCosta College, 11 NFL seasons

Kern Carson (1961-63), San Diego City College, 1 AFL season

Isaac Curtis (1971), No JC, but played at Cal, 12 NFL seasons

Tim Delaney (1969-70), Mt. San Antonio College, two World Football League seasons

Rod Dowhower (1963-65), San Barbara City College, college and NFL head coach

Fred Dryer (1967-68), El Camino College, 13 NFL seasons

Gary Garrison (1964-65), Long Beach City College, 12 NFL seasons

Joe Gibbs (1961-62), Cerritos College, NFL head coach

Don Horn (1965-66), Washington State/Harbor College, 8 NFL seasons

Haven Moses (1966-67), Harbor College, 14 NFL seasons

Neal Petties (1961-63), San Diego City College, 3 NFL seasons

Tom Reynolds (1970-71), El Camino College, 2 NFL seasons

Dennis Shaw (1968-69), USC/Mt. Antonio College, 9 NFL seasons

Nate Wright (1967-68), Monterrey Peninsula College, 12 NFL seasons

PHOTO: The author with a Don Coryell T-shirt the weekend of his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction.

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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.