So who watched the HBO doc on integrating southern college football (BAMA related)

[HSV256]

So who watched the documentary on integrating college football? I found the part about the relationship between Coach Bryant & George Wallace fairly interesting. I always knew that Coach Bryant always wanted more Black players, but I kinda wondered why he didn't use his power to get what he wanted.

I'll say this much...if there was ever a Tide loss that deserved to go in the 'W' column, the 1970 USC game was it.

I thought the documentary was one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. It was very well put together, with interviews from a wide variety of people. I loved the way they incorporated video from this past Bama season.

ROLL TIDE ROLL!

 

[Bama1970]

I watched it. Enjoyed the old Bryant clips.

 

[chuxlee]

It just went to show how smart Coach Bryant truly was.

 

[OK_BamaFan]

I watched and enjoyed it. I was really pleased with the way they highlighted Coach Bryant's desire to integrate the team and his cleverness in scheduling the USC game.

 

[Bama1970]

I watched and enjoyed it. I was really pleased with the way they highlighted Coach Bryant's desire to integrate the team and his cleverness in scheduling the USC game.

That really suprised me. The main reason I watched it was to see just how bad they would try to make Coach Bryant and Alabama look.

 

[LCN]

I watched and enjoyed it . I was pleasantly surprised as to how fairly Coach Bryant and the UofA were portrayed as I was expecting yet another smear job . They even told the truth about 1966 for a change , which was near shocking . Everyone should make it a point to catch it . I'm sure HBO will have it available "on demand" .

 

[Bama1970]

I watched and enjoyed it . I was pleasantly surprised as to how fairly Coach Bryant and the UofA were portrayed as I was expecting yet another smear job . They even told the truth about 1966 for a change , which was near shocking . Everyone should make it a point to catch it . I'm sure HBO will have it available "on demand" .

That was very nice to here. JMO, but to me, they made it sound like Bama was "discriminated" against in '66.

 

[RTR13]

Not seen it yet. Got the DVR set up for the midnight show.

 

[LCN]

That was very nice to here. JMO, but to me, they made it sound like Bama was "discriminated" against in '66.

Yep . We were - as was the entire South . I've always been told that northerners jokingly referred to it as the "Catholics over the Klan" . :mad2:

 

[NYBamaFan]

Thanks for the reviews. I had decided not to watch it (feared another smear job), but I will record it and watch it...

 

[OldNavyTider]

I watched last night as well. No doubt Coach Bryant was a very smart man and I believe his scheduling of the USC game was a scheme to help bring the African American athlete to Alabama.

I remember the 1970 Bama USC game to this day and also Bama going out to LA and whipping Southern Cal in 1971, with John Mitchell starting on defense for Bama.

I go to a few UAB games here and there, at Legion Filed, because my wife works at UAB and for office politic reasons my wife attends a few UAB games. The actual UAB football game just bores me but my mind wonders back to certain Bama football games played there long ago and the 1970 USC game comes to mind. That old stadium is now a fossil and eye sore but the old football memories still linger like the 1973 Tennesse game, the 1978 Nebraska game, and of course the 1985 Iron Bowl

 

[BamaSteve999]

I didn't see the program, but did they ever say that CPB already had Wilbur Jackson on the roster (freshman and I believe ineligible at the time) and that John Mitchell was already coming? It appears to me that, if anything, he scheduled the game to convince folks that he had already done the right thing, not that it was time to do it.

 

[theBIGyowski]

I like how finally someone recognized that Alabama had an African-American player on the team in 1970, but that he was a freshman and was in the stands because freshmen couldn't play varsity ball back then. Most of the time this fact is overlooked and people try to make it look like we integrated because of what USC did to us. I only caught the last 15 minutes of it but will try to see the rest of it soon. I loved how Coach Bryant said he didn't have any black players...and then when asked how many white players he had he said "none" as well...he had "football players" on his team. C-L-A-S-S.

RTR!

 

[CrimsonChuck]

I didn't even realize they were doing this. I'll check it out.

 

[p'colabamaman]

I have always heard that, after that USC game, CPB asked Sam Cunningham to come to the Bama locker room. When he did, CPB presented him before his team and said, "this is what a football player looks like". Don't know if that is true or not. I was hoping there would be something said about that on the show, but there wasn't.

One comment made by CPB was "I won't be the first coach to bring in a black player, but I won't be the third. That is obviously his way of saying he wants black players. And with his influence and popularity, I just wish he could have stepped forward and said that he was going to be the first. I don't mean that as a knock against CPB. I guess it was just politics that he had to go along with. I don't know.

 

[derek4tide]

Great doc. Do yourself a favor and see it.:BigA:

 

[Im_on_dsp]

I have always heard that, after that USC game, CPB asked Sam Cunningham to come to the Bama locker room. When he did, CPB presented him before his team and said, "this is what a football player looks like". Don't know if that is true or not. I was hoping there would be something said about that on the show, but there wasn't.

Not true according to an interview with Sam Cunningham a few years ago. CPB did go to their locker room and ask to speak to the running backs. He congratulated them on their preparation and victory and various stuff but they didn't go back with him to visit the Bama locker room.

Although I was barely a teenager, I remember the big deal everyone made about Alabama's first black athlete - Wendell Hudson, not John Mitchell or Wilbur Jackson. Most of the hullabaloo was gone by the time they signed Wilbur.

 

[TexasTideFan]

I loved how Coach Bryant said he didn't have any black players...and then when asked how many white players he had he said "none" as well...he had "football players" on his team. C-L-A-S-S.

RTR!

That tidbit stuck with me as well. Very Classy, especially given the time at which he said it.

It was a very good presentation of Alabama football then and it even showed some good present day BDS footage.

 

[exiledNms]

did they ever say that CPB already had Wilbur Jackson on the roster (freshman and I believe ineligible at the time) and that John Mitchell was already coming? It appears to me that, if anything, he scheduled the game to convince folks that he had already done the right thing, not that it was time to do it.

Thank you, Steve.

Once again very slowly. Please pay close attention:

Alabama...already...had...Wilbur...Jackson...on...the...roster...at...the...time..of...this...game. John...Mitchell...was...already...coming...at...the...time...of...this...game.

Now, can we stop w/ "Sam Cunningham integrated Bama football" historically-inaccurate nonsense?? ("we" here doesn't mean anyone in this thread; it refers to the media narrative that it took Cunningham's dominating performance to convince Coach Bryant to integrate his team.)

 

[GrandBayTider]

I have always heard that, after that USC game, CPB asked Sam Cunningham to come to the Bama locker room. When he did, CPB presented him before his team and said, "this is what a football player looks like". Don't know if that is true or not. I was hoping there would be something said about that on the show, but there wasn't.

Urban Myth! Do you really think Coach Bryant would insult his players like that? He would have been saying they weren't football players with an act like that. As has been pointed out Alabama already had black football players and wouldn't have gained anything by pulling a stunt like that except helping to divide the team. It is one of those stories that keeps floating around, and in my opinion serves to illustrate how dumb Southerners needed these educated foreigners to come down and show them the errors of thier ways.