Quote:
Originally Posted by bambino
......... He understood where they are coming from. He played for Bama in the 60s. I'm sure he saw some things going on there..I thought he was pretty level headed about it.
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there was an uproar over bear byrant's alabama team playing an integrated penn state team in the 1959 liberty bowl
bryant received a telegram from a citizen's council in alabama saying something like "we oppose alabama playing an integrated team. we hope this has been taken care of for the tide belongs to all of alabama and alabama favors segregation"
he ignored the telegram
joe namath played quarterback at alabama under bryant from1962 to 1964
joe came to alabama from beaver falls, pennsylvania where he had been the only white starter on the high school's basketball team
he came to alabama where there were few blacks in the school (first black to attend the university of alabama was in 1956), not sure what joe thought of that at the time, or even if it was in his mind. as a kid sometimes you just live.
it wasn't until 1967 that a few blacks were walk on's and tried out with the team
although bryant recruited black players prior to this, Wilbur Jackson was the first black player to sign with Alabama in, I think, 1969. wikipedia says he was the first black player offered a scholarship, but I think they have that wrong.
