Read more about the article The ‘Time’ magazine face that launched a thousand Bear Bryant myths

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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Read more about the article Timing right to reexamine Bryant folklore, 1970 USC-Alabama fiction and dispossessed true 1960s pioneers

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

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…

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