OT: New Documentary: Hillsdale College's Own "Black and Blue" Story

Submitted by BursleyHall82 on April 22nd, 2021 at 5:22 PM

Some students at Hillsdale College have done a documentary about a fascinating story that has parallels to Michigan's 1934 Willis Ward-Georgia Tech "Black and Blue" story.

In 1955, Hillsdale College - under young coach Muddy Waters - was invited to play in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando on the condition they leave their four African-American players home. The players voted to not play the game instead.

I remember Muddy Waters as the doddering old man who was way out of his league coaching MSU in the early 1980s. I'm rethinking his legacy after seeing this. He was still a doddering old man at MSU, but he was a beast at Hillsdale.

This is a fascinating story, and it's extremely well done for a student documentary. It's only 35 minutes long. WATCH IT! LINK.

Brian Griese

April 22nd, 2021 at 6:03 PM ^

I’m a Hillsdale grad and can say this is one of the most celebrated things on campus - the entire team was put into the college’s Hall of Fame due to their courage. 

Double-D

April 23rd, 2021 at 1:24 AM ^

Funny Brian Griese Story.

I was at the Super Bowl with my wife in Detroit at a Fox Theater party. Brian Griese walks up to my wife an introduces himself.  He is with a guy from Grand Rapids from the Bachelor show known as Brad the Bachelor...famous at the time.

 My wife says omg I want to talk to Brad but my husband will love talking to you. She totally brushed by Brian to talk to Brad. So I had about a 20 second conversation once with Brian Griese. 

dj123

April 22nd, 2021 at 9:15 PM ^

I spent many, many Saturday afternoons as a ball boy at Muddy Waters Field, cheering on the Chargers (especially from the home side of the field). It was a great job for a kid. We were well paid in donuts. Probably could have had left over coffee too, but not really of interest when you're 11. 

OldSchoolWolverine

April 22nd, 2021 at 6:05 PM ^

Am in admiration of the historical faculty at Hillsdale, who absolutely refused government aid, even when an attempt of force in the 70s.  They are the only school who never took government money. 

G. Gulo of the Dale

April 23rd, 2021 at 9:19 AM ^

And yet, in the week leading up to the 2016 election, Hillsdale's student newspaper polled the student body, and the percentage of students who replied that they'd be voting for Trump was lower than the percentage of the general electorate that actually did vote for Trump.  Weird.

huffeye

April 23rd, 2021 at 1:25 AM ^

There is only one race....It is called the HUMAN race. There are a lot of you people out there who do not know how to read a dictionary. There may be different "ethnicities", but there is only one human race. God knows nothing about your skin color, he knows only your heart. Cheers... 

Double-D

April 23rd, 2021 at 1:37 AM ^

I have many white friends, many black friends, several Latin friends and some Asian friends.  None of them dislike anyone because of their skin color or their culture.

I am friends with Jews, Christians, Muslims, Atheists...it’s kind of what’s great about living in America. 

If we want to highlight asshole behavior as the norm and our leaders are going to profit for it we are all fucked.

We have a gift where we live. 

GoBlueInNYC

April 23rd, 2021 at 11:58 AM ^

I would just say that "race" and "ethnicity" as they are defined by the dictionary are different things. Race is generally understood to refer to clusters of physical traits (e.g., skin color, hair texture) and ethnicity is generally understood to refer to cultural elements of identity. That's why you can have people of different races but the same ethnicity (e.g., there are both black and white Hispanics) or the same race and different ethnicities (e.g., black people of African descent and black people of West Indies descent). They are intertwined and overlapping social constructs, but they aren't necessarily synonymous or interchangeable.