Quote:
Originally Posted by weseeeee
I watched a show about Bama's football program when it was an all white school. They believed that college football in the south was all that and a bag of chips. Then USC came to town and destroyed them during a season opener. The next year things changed at Bama. Watching the show I kind of got the feeling that Coach Bryant had a plan all along to help ease the racial tension in that city. I don't remember the name of the program, but it was well worth watching.
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1970, sam bam cunningham ran all over Alabama. Averaged over 10 yards per carry.
I believe it was all planned out.
Bama was coming off it's worst season in years. USC has only lost a couple games in three seasons.
Bryant wanted to be able to recruit some of them darker-skinned players who could run real fast.
But the more "ole fashioned" alumni weren't too hip to have blacks playing for bama.
So Bryant and McKay worked out a game they both knew Bama would loose, and that would piss off the bama supporters to no end. Losing a game to that hollywood west coast team with black players? Oh the shame.
A game that was designed to embarrass them into allowing Bryant to put black players on the team to stay competitive.
And it worked. The only part that is really unknown is if they actually threw the game and padded the score or not.
I don't think the bear was all that intent on easing race relations or integration, as much as he was into winning national championships.
He wanted access to the top players in the country and didn't care if they were purple, as long as they helped him get more trophies.