The ‘Time’ magazine face that launched a thousand Bear Bryant myths

Visit my homepage website, TomShanahan.Report — Part I: Did Bear Bryant protest facing Michigan State’s Horace Smith? — Part II: Bryant’s second deception and something missing from 1980 “Time” story — Part III: Scripted in Hollywood, unaware of South’s timeline — Part IV: Black Historiography --- More on Bear Bryant mythology: One year before USC arrived at Legion Field in 1970, integrated Tennessee, led by All-American linebacker Jackie Walker, embarrassed the all-white Crimson Tide 41-14 at Legion Field. Walker sparked the rout…

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Timing right to reexamine Bryant folklore, 1970 USC-Alabama fiction and dispossessed true 1960s pioneers

Cover photo (L-R): Kentucky's Walter Hackett, Tennessee's Lester McClain, Michigan State's Jimmy Raye, SMU's Jerry LeVias, and Auburn's James Owens. PHOTO GRAPHIC: Ashley S. Creative Visit my home page, TomShanahanReport EIGHTH OF AN EIGHT-PART SERIES. The first seven parts are listed at the end of the story. Although no one in the documentary says it, there seems to be a feeling that Southern Cal’s rout of Alabama was the shock that the University and a majority of the…

Continue ReadingTiming right to reexamine Bryant folklore, 1970 USC-Alabama fiction and dispossessed true 1960s pioneers

Jerry LeVias saw nooses on his path to desegregating Southwest Conference

By TOM SHANAHAN Jerry LeVias knows how it feels to see nooses directed at him. The College Football Hall of Famer and six-year NFL veteran spoke from experience on Bubba Wallace’s NASCAR crew finding a noose at his Talladega Speedway garage In 1966, a cluster of Texas football fans held nooses aloft to greet LeVias as the Southern Methodist receiver/return man took the field for a game Oct. 29 at Memorial Stadium on the state’s flagship campus. Many…

Continue ReadingJerry LeVias saw nooses on his path to desegregating Southwest Conference