More thoughts on Tommy Love’s milestone lost in Bear Bryant mythology
PHOTO: Alabama fans raised a banner that cried reverse racism. They’re bigoted attitude was encouraged by Alabama coach Bear Bryant, who claimed his team should be ranked No. 1.
More: Tommy Love was a game-changer on college football integration, in 1967
By TOM SHANAHAN
Read the following to understand a telling juxtaposition of stories, headlines and photos on the sports page of a North Carolina newspaper, the Asheville Citizen-Times on Sunday, December 4. The son wasn’t a monolith against desegregation.
The top story with a headline highlighted racial progress represented by African American Tommy Love as the MVP of the desegregated North Carolina-South Carolina Shrine All-Star Game. Beneath the headline was a photo of Jim Crow Alabama fans crying reverse racism.
The headline: Tommy Love scores twice in the Shrine Bowl Win.
Love, a Parade High School All-American, was the one of the first two Black players invited to participate Shrine Game, which was in its 30th year.
The photo: A banner raised by Alabama fans reads:
BAMA PLAYS FOOTBALL
N. DAME PLAYS POLITICS
The banner referenced Alabama remaining No. 3 behind No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Michigan State as Alabama defeated Auburn to improve to 10-0. The latter two finished their seasons with 9-0-1 records after playing to a 10-10 tie in the 19666 Game of the Century. Bryant encouraged the protests from fans, although Alabama played a weaker schedule without leaving the South.
The Charlotte sports page coverage of the day’s events encapsulates that many people in the South were accepting progress, while Bryant and Alabama bigots were clinging to the past.
Parallels can be drawn to the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections. Two steps forward, one back — all in the same country in cycles.
Yet national figures shrug their shoulders, clinging to the Bear Bryant myth that he launched integration with the 1970 USC-Alabama game at Legion Field. The fell for the myth crafted by USC backers that Bryant invited USC as a game to lose to permit Bryant to recruit Black players. The fairytale covers Bryant’s tracks as a segregationist from 1945 to 1970 as well as USC’s poor record on race until the late 1960s. The Trojans followed an unwritten quota limiting Black players to a half-dozen. USC numbered only five Black players on its 1962 national title team and only seven on its 1967 national championship team.
Bryant’s apologists claim Alabama’s racist governor, George Wallace, prevented him from desegregation prior to signing Wilbur Jackson in Alabama’s 1970 class. But Wallace was out of office from 1967 to 1971, and Auburn signed James Owens as its first Black player, in 1969. No one fired Auburn coach Shug Jordan.
Who am I talking about in the media? Go on down the list – ESPN, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times/The Athletic, Forbes, CBS, NBC, ABC, HBO, Showtime … et al.
There are some more figures I could mention, but they’ll remain nameless for now.
Tommy Love represents one of the true stories of college football integration that demonstrated the nation can live up to the U.S. Constitution. Unjustly, his name has been erased by revisionist history.
There’s enough material on Love for a book, but no publisher would accept it. Not unless Bear Bryant was credited with opening doors for him. Then it would sell and make the national media. It doesn’t have to be a true story. The Bryant myths about the 1970 USC-Alabama game aren’t true.
I’ll debate anybody, anytime, anywhere on these points.
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I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055
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.”
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
