The first time I met Michigan State trailblazer Sherman Lewis and what I learned with time
PHOTO: A young Sherman Lewis joined Duffy Daugherty’s coaching staff in 1969 as one of college football’s early Black assistants.
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— Click here for book 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
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By TOM SHANAHAN
I first met Sherman Lewis during spring football, 1976. I was new to the State News – Michigan State’s student paper — and assigned a story on Lewis rebuilding a secondary thinned by injuries and an NCAA suspension.
Most of me was an excited kid, thrilled to meet the Michigan State legend. He was a 1963 All-American halfback who was one of college football’s early Black assistant coaches upon Duffy Daugherty hiring him, in 1969. The other part of me tried to act like I was veteran writer.
Sherm made the interview easy for a nervous rookie. And I soon learned from my State News days Lewis and Michigan State basketball coach Jud Heathcote were teachers as well as coaches.
Yes, you were a college kid learning the ropes, but Lewis and Heathcote treated you with the same respect as ink-stained veterans from the big-city papers. And if you asked a dumb question, Lewis and Heathcote provided an answer that helped you with your story at the same time it allowed you to recognize it was a dumb question. It was a valuable learning experience.
By contrast, head coach Darryl Rogers would reply with a snarky comment.
At the time, I was learning about Sherm Lewis, Michigan State’s seventh-year assistant coach previously retained from Duffy’s staff to Denny Stolz’s tenure and from Stolz’s time to Rogers.
With time, I learned Lewis, who was recruited aboard Daugherty’s Underground Railroad out of segregated Louisville, Kentucky, represented a far deeper story than identified in the media both then and, sadly, now in obituaries.
The National Football Foundation, though, recognized Lewis’ place in history in a Monday statement from NFF President and CEO Steve Hatchell.
“Sherman Lewis embodied the excellence and trailblazing spirit that defined Michigan State football under College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty,” said Hatchell. “As an All-American Spartan and later one of the game’s most respected coaches, Sherman left an indelible mark on college football and inspired generations through his leadership, character and success. Our thoughts are with his family and the entire Michigan State community.”
If Lewis’ deeper identity comes as a surprise to you, you’re not alone. Blame the 1960s sports media that avoided race in team sports. Writers and broadcasters of games failed to recognize Daugherty changed the face of the game with college football’s first fully integrated rosters. Duffy went beyond the unwritten quota limitations of a half-dozen Black athletes other schools followed (including USC, for those who believe the 1970 USC-Alabama Bear Bryant/Sam Cunningham fairytale).
One reason the dramatic changes took hold at Michigan State in the turbulent 1960s was Daugherty’s leadership. Another was Lewis set the standard for future Black players, particularly those escaping segregation aboard Daugherty’s Underground Railroad.
— Sherman Lewis, a Michigan State trailblazing athlete and coach, dies at 83 – Tom Shanahan Report
— Here’s how Sam Cunningham greeted Sherman Lewis at the Pearly Gates Gridiron – Tom Shanahan Report
— The Drive with Jack’s tribute to Sherman Lewis – Tom Shanahan Report
As an All-American senior in 1963, Lewis influenced the 1965 and 1966 national championship players who were freshmen in 1963. When I researched “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans,” Michigan State Hall of Famer Jimmy Raye, College Football Hall of Famer Clinton Jones and other players told me, “Sherm always said …” or “Let me ask Sherm what he remembers.”
After Lewis passed away on May 15 at age 83, the Detroit Free Press story used quotes from Raye and Jones explaining Lewis’ influence. The rest of the media, though, limited its stories to noting his 1963 All-American season and winning four Super Bowl rings as an NFL assistant.
That’s like saying FDR was elected president four times.
But before I explain more about modern sports journalism’s failures, allow me to go back to my 1976 interview with Lewis.
In those days, the Duffy Daugherty Building wasn’t yet in the planning stages, although college football’s facilities arm’s race was on its way. The players practiced on the current field outside the Duffy Building and then walked back to Spartan Stadium’s locker room. The coaches’ offices were in Jenison Fieldhouse.
Also, in those days, you could attend practice and interview any coach or player you sought out. Just walk up to them. These days, of course, practice is closed and interviews are staged. Access to players or coaches depended upon who the program made available for a group setting with all the reporters.
As practice concluded, I followed the flock for comments from Rogers. Then I pivoted to catch up with Lewis walking outside of Spartan Stadium. I can still see him wearing his white hat with a green S and turning around with a welcoming smile.
Entering the 1976 season, the Spartans were not only devastated by a harsh NCAA three-year probation successfully pushed behind the scenes by Michigan coach Bo Schemebechler, the secondary needed rebuilt.
The most critical loss was a devastating knee injury suffered by safety Tom Graves, a 6-foot-3, 211-pounder in the mold of Michigan State College Football Hall of Famer Brad Van Pelt. When Raye, who joined Duffy’s staff in 1972, recruited Graves in 1974 out of Norfolk, Virginia, he learned Van Pelt was Graves’ idol. Raye arranged for Graves to meet Van Pelt. Graves proudly wore No. 10, Van Pelt’s number, with the Spartans.
Graves earned second-team All-Big Ten as a true freshman. Raye believes Graves was on a College Football Hall of Fame path if he remained healthy. But he was injured early in the 1975 season when sports medicine was primitive. I can still picture Graves missing the 1976 season with a thick plaster cast holding his leg bent at the knee to an L shape. You grimaced just looking at him.
Graves recovered to play in 1977 and earn first-team All-Big Ten on the 1978 Big Ten title team. He also was a rookie with 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers that won Super Bowl XIV. However, at the end of his first NFL season, he retired. Doctors had advised him he risked amputation with another knee injury.
Another hole to fill was cornerback Joe Hunt, although his suspension absence was arguably addition by subtraction. He was at the heart of the NCAA violations investigation. He also talked a bigger game than he played.
Michigan State’s anchor to the secondary was safety Tom Hannon, a 1974 starter and All-Big Ten pick in 1975 and 1976. He went on to play eight years in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings.
Lewis brought along cornerback Jerome Stanton from second team on the preseason depth chart to a starter. Cornerback Mike Imhoff was second on the preseason depth chart from a 1975 injury, but he reclaimed his starting role in 1976.
In that interview, Lewis discussed converting former quarterbacks to the defensive backfield. He explained the learning curve edge they had as QBs reading defenses.
One was Kenneth Robinson, a sophomore from Ypsilanti. Another was incoming freshmen Mark Anderson of Akron, Ohio. Anderson’s impact included second-team All-Big Ten honors in 1977 and 1978.
I closed my notebook enlightened. I walked back to the State News in the Student Services Building to write my story (on a manual typewriter). But I had so much more to learn about the Sherman Lewis Story.
Here’s context on Lewis’ influence upon Michigan State blending its fully integrated roster in the 1966 Game of the Century. The Spartans faced Notre Dame on November 19 at Spartan Stadium before an overflow crowd of 80,011 and record TV audience of 33 million.
Michigan State numbered 20 Black players, 11 Black starters, two Black team captains, College Football Hall of Famers George Webster and Clinton Jones, and Jimmy Raye of Fayetteville, N.C., as the South’s first Black quarterback to win a national title.
Notre Dame lined up one Black player, Alan Page. Michigan State was the future. Duffy Daugherty was driving his train down a parallel track Dr. Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights movement.
But who was reporting it that way?
On the TV broadcast, announcer Chris Schenkel said Michigan State Hall of Famer Bubba Smith was from Beaumont, Texas, without noting he escaped segregation and was among the Spartans’ Black players proving themselves beyond stereotypes. In those days, coaches feared too many Black players would lead to fights in the locker room. And they didn’t believe the White players would follow the leadership of Black players as captains, linebackers or quarterback. Michigan State’s roster defied all of that.
Sports Illustrated writer Dan Jenkins, the Godfather of sportswriters, identified Raye simply as having a thin mustache. He failed to recognize Raye was one of only two Black quarterbacks in the nation at a major school. It wasn’t until I researched “RAYE OF LIGHT,” college football, with verification from the National Football Foundation, recognized Raye as the South’s first Black quarterback to win a national title.
President Harry Truman said, “The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.”
I’d say 60-plus years later Sherman Lewis’ deeper story remains unknown to 99 percent of the media. Here’s an example of what I mean: ESPN and Sports Illustrated have yet to post a story. The Athletic merely regurgitated a non-byline story noting his 1963 All-American season and Super Bowls.
Also consider this disturbing media anecdote: When RAYE OF LIGHT was published in 2014, I pitched HBO’s Bryant Gumble with a story focused on Jimmy Raye and Duffy Daugherty. Even though Gumble knew Jimmy and had played golf with him, his email response to me was his younger audience wouldn’t understand the story.
That “younger audience” is 12 years older and still in the dark.
I will debate this with anyone – especially those who believe “Bear Bryant in Wonderland” fairytales – anytime, anywhere.
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You can learn more about Daugherty, Lewis and other true pioneers of college football integration in my books:
Books by Tom Shanahan – Tom Shanahan Report
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— My FWAA first-place story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and segregation
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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. Order here:
How Duffy Put Hawaii On America’s Football Map by Tom Shanahan, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®
Amazon.com: How Duffy Put Hawaii On America’s Football Map eBook : Shanahan, Tom: Kindle Store
