When was football integrated

The game also did not bring about the integration of the Alabama football team; that was inevitable months before when Bryant offered a scholarship to Wilbur Jackson, a running back from Ozark, Alabama, who was in the stands watching the USC game. Nor, in fact, did the players need convincing, as Against the Tide implies. I thought we put ourselves at a disadvantage by not having the best black players on our team.

One fact that is not in dispute, however, is that the game marked a turning point in Alabama football. I swear, Coach Bryant had a smile on his face. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. Paul "Bear" Bryant, featured in Against the Tide , in The Wildcats lost and Northington dislocated his shoulder later that week the team would bury the squads other black player, Greg Page, who died from injuries he received in fall practice.

While the SEC was considered the "final citadel of segregation" in college football, when integration finally arrived, it moved relatively quickly across the conference. A key reason is that toward the end of the 60s the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare began threatening to pull federal funding from schools not in compliance with the Civil Rights Act of I've put together a chart showing the chronolological order each team in the SEC integrated their varsity football squad with the names of their first black players as well as the year of their signing class.

The information here is culled from Charles H. I've also drawn from the records of the conference itself and news clippings available online. Despite that, I could use some help filling in the details. Every "First Game" listed in italics is simply that team's season opener that year. I have not been able to confirm the players listed actually started in those contests or if they did so later in the season.

I would welcome any further information confirming this information or correcting it. I've also had trouble discerning the facts about Vanderbilt's first black player. Taylor Stokes was the first black player offered a scholarship to the school in and he was on the freshman team that year. He was injured the next season and it's not clear if he played or not. Washington, who had undergone numerous knee operations before joining the league, lasted only three years before retiring because of his physical ailments.

But he did finish fourth in rushing yards in , averaging 7. Strode was let go after one season, moving on to a short stint in the Canadian Football League and spending time as a professional wrestler before embarking on a successful acting career. In nine professional seasons, Motley amassed 4, yards on just carries, for a 5. Willis, renowned for his lightning quickness as a defensive middle guard, played through