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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September 12, 1970: STANFORD vs. ARKANSAS at LITTLE ROCK

Cover photo (L-R): Stanford's all-minority backfield in 1970: Jackie Brown, Hillary Shockley and Jim Plunkett. Visit my home page, TomShanahanReport *** “History writes people out of the story. It's our job to write them back in.” --- David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer. BY TOM SHANAHAN We’ve been misled by myths surrounding the 1970 USC-Alabama game’s racial impact, but the deception doesn’t stop there. The revisionist history has cost the true 1960s pioneers of college football integration their due.…

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LeVias and McClain integrated SEC end zones, Hackett on the Underground Railroad

PHOTO: Tennessee's Lester McClain. By TOM SHANAHAN Jerry LeVias played his signature role as the Southwest Conference’s first Black scholarship football player throughout the 1966 season, but two years later he performed with equal valor on a stage in the belly of the beast. The Deep South. The Southeastern Conference. A failure of college football sports media to tell the story of college football integration -- then and now -- has been overlooking the true pioneers of the…

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