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

[RedWave]

Well, I do not get HBO, so I will not be able to watch this, but sure would like to. Just last year, my son had to do a 4th grade Social Studies project and wanted to do something on Alabama football. I would not let him just do a straight football paper, so we ultimately decided to do it on this very subject: The Integration Of Alabama Football. Even though we live in Louisiana with all these LSU fans, his project finished first in his class and second overall in his school. I was really proud of my, ummm, his work on this, and surprised a school in Louisiana's teachers would rate a project about Alabama football as highly as they did.

 

[RedWave]

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.)

Coach Bryant was not the one who needed the convincing. However, a lot of Alabama supporters at the time did.

 

[derek4tide]

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.

You are correct. In the doc, I believe it was Mitchell, who said that CPB was asked the following year by a reporter, "How many black players do you have?" "None", replied Coach Bryant. "How many white players do you have?" "None, we only have players," said Coach Bryant. I think people have merged the truth with fiction to get the supposed quote concerning Cunningham.

 

[GrayTide]

For those of you who did not live through those days it is hard to explain the mood of the country. The South was targeted by the media for all the social ills of the day and Southerners resented that treatment. Coach Bryant knew that the game of football united people and IMO he used that to his advantage to promote the acceptance of the black athlete at the University.

 

[bamaeleven]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but earlier this season one of the honorary captains for the tide was a African American who was on the team in the late sixties who was team captain. Also, in the Missing Ring, I remember reading about black players being on the team prior to 1967?