For Black History Month: Fascinating Story of How Some Lawmakers Tried to Cancel the 1957 Michigan-Georgia Game
February 7th, 2019 at 12:09 PM ^
Thank you for this. Sad but fascinating.
February 7th, 2019 at 12:10 PM ^
Incredible that this incident took place in 1957! Georgia had no black football players until 1971. May the South NOT rise again.
February 7th, 2019 at 12:11 PM ^
Wow... that might be worse than Ole Miss
February 7th, 2019 at 12:16 PM ^
It started to change after Bear Bryant's all-white Bama teams got whupped by John McKay's integrated Southern Cal teams a couple of times.
Bryant knew what he was doing. He knew he needed black players to stay successful and he basically used those losses to make a point to the Alabama admins and the state of Alabama.
February 7th, 2019 at 12:58 PM ^
In an LA Times article from 2016 I just read that Alabama had lost to an integrated Tennessee team in the prior year.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:04 PM ^
I've commonly heard this; the effect seems unquestionably true. It's amazing how people can change their standards when sports are involved (looking at you, Liberty University).
Is there real evidence that Bear had this in mind, though? That is, did he really see that change was needed and deliberately expose his team to potential defeat to gain the political capital to integrate his team? Or did he, seeing the losses to integrated teams, change along with general public opinion?
I'm not discounting the idea that he might have done this on purpose, but the convenience of the story sounds similar to the type of story one would develop in an effort to burnish a hagiographic legacy for someone that was well-liked. Since everyone now knows that segregation was a wicked and idiotic concept, why not bump our favorite football coach up a few points by suggesting that he knew before everyone else did?
Just a theory. I'd love some documentation.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:37 PM ^
A good story, told pretty well--and with some of the missing nuances--here:
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/the-integration-of-college-football-didnt-happen-in-one-game/281557/
February 7th, 2019 at 2:52 PM ^
Not sure how urban legend this is (and I don't have the references from where I heard it), but the story goes that Bear Bryant flew out to LA to talk to his friend John McKay. They sit down at the airport bar, McKay says, 'so what did you want to talk about?' Bear says, 'let's have a drink.' They drink, shoot the breeze, McKay says, 'so what did you want to talk about?' Bear says, 'let's have another drink.' They have another round, shoot the breeze. Finally Bear says he wants USC to come play at Bama.
Bear knew that he needed the best players, regardless of race, and knew that he needed to lose at home because of USC's elite (African American) players so that the shot-callers would realize they needed to integrate in order to remain competitive.
February 7th, 2019 at 3:31 PM ^
The old South is rearing its ugly head down here in Virginia.
February 7th, 2019 at 12:24 PM ^
That is very interesting. I had not heard that story.
Not to thread jack, but I am most familiar with something my college alma-mater did in 1955 / 1956: Hillsdale went undefeated in 1955 and was invited to the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando (it is the Citrus Bowl now and 'small' colleges obviously don't play in it anymore). Hillsdale was scheduled to play Missouri Valley in what would've most likely been a 'National Championship' game.
However, Orlando / Bowl officials told Hillsdale they were not welcome to play unless they left their 4 African-American players at home.
The players, coaches and school administrators quickly decided to tell the Bowl to pound sand and the Tangerine Bowl pulled their invitation.
Hillsdale responded by putting the entire team in their athletic hall of fame.
https://www.hillsdalechargers.com/athletics/HOF/1955fballteam
https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/midaily/mdp.39015071756394/446
February 7th, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^
Legit, non-sarcastic, cool story bro. I'd never heard about this before.
February 7th, 2019 at 12:30 PM ^
Thanks! Obviously since Hillsdale is tiny that story isn’t all that well known.
February 7th, 2019 at 12:44 PM ^
Might be another reason besides its size that this is not well-known, too.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:22 PM ^
Such as?
February 7th, 2019 at 1:12 PM ^
go chargers!
February 7th, 2019 at 2:57 PM ^
I love the Hillsdale story. I read it whenever posted or referenced.
February 7th, 2019 at 12:42 PM ^
Interesting read. It never ceases to amaze me how we as a species we are capable of so much brilliance and so much malevolence in parallel.
February 7th, 2019 at 12:45 PM ^
So this is why Justin Fields left Georgia. The "Butts Bill" argument was an excellent ploy to get immediate eligibility.
February 7th, 2019 at 12:48 PM ^
It always amazes me that the same species that went from horse and buggy to stealth bomber in less than a century, and put a man on the moon, also thought they would get cooties by sharing a water fountain with someone who had a different skin color.
People are weird.
February 7th, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
Well, duh. That's because "man" didn't build the stealth bomber, nor did "humanity" put a man on the moon. A tiny group of extremely intelligent, dedicated, and highly educated scientists did those things. These people tend, on average, to be far less idiotic and racist.
FYI, it's a very similar group of scientists that are currently lying to us about global warming in order to destroy American capitalism (or something)...
February 7th, 2019 at 12:57 PM ^
FYI, it's a very similar group of scientists that are currently lying to us about global warming in order to destroy American capitalism (or something)...
It's funny how any divergence from the narrow bounds of acceptable opinion gets falsely labeled and exaggerated.
These people tend, on average, to be far less idiotic and racist.
Too bad there weren't any left over to get elected to statewide offices in Virginia.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
1. This is about science and scientific consensus, not popular opinion. We aren't debating best flavors of ice cream. One of the greatest failures of the Enlightenment was that everyone confused the right to have an opinion with the equal validity of those opinions.
2. Um, good one re Virginia? Are you assuming I am a rabid Democrat defending the Democrats in Virginia or something, or saying only one political party has racists in it? Broom their asses to the curb. Those are your assumptions. Take them elsewhere, because they don't work here.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
1. You made what appears to be a reference to the snow day thread, a thread in which zero people made (or hinted at, or held) the opinion that you are mocking. It is intellectually convenient for you to believe that anything less than 100% agreement is the same as holding what you view to be knuckle-dragging conspiratorial views, but wishing does not make it so. Your assumptions about those you disagree with don't work here.
2. I am assuming nothing of the kind. You made a comment that well-educated scientists tend to be less racist, and I commented with a joke that invokes current events that I can only assume most decent people of all political affiliations can find outrageous to the point of humorous absurdity. My assumption was that despite disagreement, you could enjoy some humor that invokes absurd current events. My assumption appears to be wrong.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:33 PM ^
1. I didn't see the snow day thread. I know most people who disagree with global warming aren't climate scientists. Nor am I. Those who disagree with the climate scientists but aren't climate scientists - nor scientists of any kind, nor statisticians, nor educated, etc. - have between little and no credibility in this matter. FYI, one of the "knuckle-dragging conspiracists," as you called them, is the president of the U.S. He called global warming a "Chinese hoax," IIRC.
2. I misinterpreted. You seemed to me to be making a "gotcha" jab at Democrats assuming I would be aghast or shocked or defensive that some are racists or sex criminals. I'm not. I really didn't intend my comment to be overtly political, more "scientists" vs. "everyone else".
February 7th, 2019 at 1:40 PM ^
Fair enough.
1. I made a bad assumption, that's on me.
2. I can understand not following the quick switch in tone. I'm mostly in it for the absurd humor here.
We disagree on some stuff. I'm fine here.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:46 PM ^
We probably agree on almost everything. But that 1% of shit we disagree on....oh boy, watch out... :-)
February 7th, 2019 at 1:08 PM ^
Hey, it's still Virginia. You try to find 3 white guys over 40 that haven't worn blackface at least once. They're getting better, but Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy.
I'll wait.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:11 PM ^
I am truly shocked how many of these guys still thought it was OK to wear blackface in the 80s. I am about 10 years younger than this generational cohort and it never once occurred to me that this would be acceptable. It is geographic too, I assume, as I am a Michigander...
February 7th, 2019 at 1:23 PM ^
I am both surprised and a Michigander. And it's not like Michigan has a sparkling civil rights history, either. Granted, I didn't know what blackface was until I was in high school (and in Ann Arbor, things were rather civilized in that respect), but I can't imagine a context in which those types of pictures would be considered funny. We're talking about lynching jokes. It's not a gray area.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
I grew up in an affluent Detroit suburb. I recall my mother buying one of those stone statue lawn jockeys at a yard sale, and then promptly painting the face white, so as not to even give the hint of appearance of racism.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:46 PM ^
I knew a white guy who said he wore a Joe Dumars jersey and blackface for Halloween. It couldn't have been that long ago.
February 7th, 2019 at 3:30 PM ^
I'm 57, live in Virginia and never wore blackface. That said, I'm a carpetbagger from Pittsburgh via Ann Arbor.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:43 PM ^
They would get cooties from drinking from the same water fountain but they could have black people clean their houses, make their beds, wash and prepare their food. Common sense ain't common.
When I worked for JC Penny, there was a lady who refused to let anyone other than white associates ring her transaction. I heard the stories but they didn't tell me until she was gone that this was the same lady. If I had known, I would have informed that dipshit that all of those clothes were made in Viet Nam. She literally may have been the third race to touch that shirt when you consider the stock person was Chaldean.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:02 PM ^
Sickening
February 7th, 2019 at 1:12 PM ^
Thanks a bunch for sharing this. A sad read but one we need to be reminded of. 1957 is so recent, and there's no way we can pretend that legacy doesn't live with us today.
It's also worth remembering when Michigan's Wolverines had some success in Georgia in the 1864 campaign, led by the legendary William Sherman.
February 7th, 2019 at 1:44 PM ^
Leon Butts Jr. was a real ass
February 7th, 2019 at 3:17 PM ^
i'm currently reading Friday Night Lights for the first time and it is eye-opening even for this jaded soul in terms of race relations in texas 88.
February 8th, 2019 at 8:35 AM ^
How noble of our legislators to take a stand against sickening racists from the south, while simultaneously looking the other way on redlining, police brutality, and incidents such as the Algiers hotel in our state's biggest city, contributing greatly to its demise. 6 in one hand...