Willie Ray Smith Sr. Archives - Tom Shanahan Report

Daugherty and Willie Ray Smith Sr. courted Jerry LeVias to board Underground Railroad

Post author:Tom Shanahan
Post published:May 12, 2020
Post category:College Sports Football Uncategorized
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By TOM SHANAHAN Jerry LeVias is on the phone, a stationary moment unlike his 1960s trailblazing college football career. In those days, the Southwest Conference’s first Black scholarship football player left segregated Beaumont, Tex., a refinery town near Houston, for Southern Methodist University in Dallas. It was a time and place resistant to integration that kept him on the move outrunning racism. SMU students ostracized him, fans on the road taunted him with a noose (Texas) and black…

Longhorns royalty turned to an uncommon Texas man

Post author:Tom Shanahan
Post published:March 30, 2020
Post category:College Sports Football Uncategorized
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PHOTO: College Football Hall of Fame coach Darrell Royal turned to Willie Ray Smith Sr. when he realized it was time to integrate his football program. By TOM SHANAHAN Darrell Royal, as his surname suggests, coached Texas football dripping with royalty. The College Football Hall of Famer reigned 20 years, winning unbeaten national championships in 1963 and 1969 and posting six double-digit victory seasons. Willie Ray Smith, an uncommon coach with a common surname, toiled at three underfunded…

Willie Ray Smith Sr. built Texas coaching legacy before sending Bubba to Michigan State

Post author:Tom Shanahan
Post published:March 28, 2020
Post category:College Sports Football Main Read
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PHOTO (L-R): Bubba Smith, Willie Ray Smith Sr., Willie Ray Smith Jr. and Tody Smith, in 1992. Texas royalty relied and uncommon man By TOM SHANAHAN Willie Ray Smith Sr. coached high school football in southeast Texas 33 years, an American history spanning World War II through the Civil Rights movement and the end of segregation. In those troubled times, he was more than a football coach and teacher. Smith’s career with the Beaumont Independent School District, near…