Read more about the article My FWAA first-place story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and segregation

My FWAA first-place story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and segregation

Visit my website homepage, TomShanahan.Report David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and biographer: "History writes people out of the story. It's our job to write them back in." *** I’m humbled and honored to share with you I’ve won first place in a national sports writing contest sponsored by the Football Writers Association of America. The FWAA, on its Fifth Down website, announced the 30th annual contest winners. My story won first place for Enterprise. I wrote about the 1962…

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Read more about the article Barry Alvarez: “I thought Mel got the most out of his kids this year.”

Barry Alvarez: “I thought Mel got the most out of his kids this year.”

By TOM SHANAHAN Barry Alvarez likes to keep up on former players and coaches, especially ones that graduate to head coach. Sometimes they come to him. A 2006 game that was scheduled years in advance happened to feature San Diego State and first-year head coach Chuck Long playing at Wisconsin against first-year Badgers coach Bret Bielema. Long was Iowa’s quarterback when Alvarez was a Hawkeyes assistant under Hayden Fry. Alvarez was Wisconsin’s head coach (1995-2005) with Bielema his…

Continue ReadingBarry Alvarez: “I thought Mel got the most out of his kids this year.”
Read more about the article Duffy Daugherty on the Jack Benny Show before the 1956 Rose Bowl

Duffy Daugherty on the Jack Benny Show before the 1956 Rose Bowl

By TOM SHANAHAN The Rose Bowl in the 1950s matching the Big Ten and West Coast schools that formed the forerunner to today's Pac-12 was the penultimate event to the college football season prior to the Bowl Championship Series and College Football Playoff. How big? Big enough that Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty and UCLA coach Red Sanders were guests on the Jack Benny Show on the eve of the Rose Bowl. There appearances starts at the eight-minute…

Continue ReadingDuffy Daugherty on the Jack Benny Show before the 1956 Rose Bowl