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Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 4-2006 Black Power in Green and White: Integration and Black Protest in Michigan State University Football, 1947-1972 John Matthew Smith Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Sports Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Smith, John Matthew, "Black Power in Green and White: Integration and Black Protest in Michigan State University Football, 1947-1972" (2006). Master's Theses. 3357. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/3357 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BLACK POWER IN GREEN AND WHITE: INTEGRATION AND BLACK PROTEST IN MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL, 1947-1972 by John Matthew Smith A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of History WesternMichigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan April2006 BLACK POWER IN GREEN AND WHITE: INTEGRATION AND BLACK PROTEST IN MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL, 1947-1972 John Matthew Smith, M.A.. WesternMichigan University, 2006 While southerncollege footballteams remained all white until the late 1960s and early 1970s, Michigan State University head football coachDuffy Daugherty formed championship teams in 1965 and 1966 by recruiting the best southernblack players. While coaches in the North recruited black athletes and played them regularly by the mid-1950s, no other coach took the risks Daugherty did to integrate his teams. Duffy Daugherty's path-breaking teams broke all the rules of integrated competition and forced southern schools to reconsider their stance on segregated college football. The ground breaking integration of black athletes in the mid-1950s and 1960s under DuffyDaugherty set the stage forthe black athletes' civil rights activism in the Black Power era. At the height of the Black Power Movement, black athletes at MSU became outspoken civil rights activists, demanding more than just an opportunity to play football. Over a period of 25 years Michigan State advanced the status of African Americansin college footballwhereby State's black athletes transformed their newfoundposition of privilege into a position of power. Copyright by JohnMatthew Smith 2006 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the support of scholars, colleagues, and family. I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to my supervising professor, Mitch Kachun, whose constant encouragement and direction helped me reach all of my academic goals at WMU. I would also like to thank my committee members Lewis Carlson and Ronald Kramer for their valuable insights and contributions. In addition, WMU facultymembers Nora Faires, Judith Stone, and Marion Gray were some of my strongest supporters. Discussions with Keith Widder on Michigan State's history helped me uncover sources and ideas I would never have found on my own. Special thanks to Paulette Martis of the MSU Sports Information Office, who took the time to pull every file I requested and answer every question I had. Many of the sources used in this study were obtained with the assistance of the WMU Interloan Library staffand the MSU Archives and Historical Collections staff. Finally, I would like to thank my family, especially my parents, Jay Smith and Kim St. Onge, for their unwavering support. I dedicate this work in the memory of Ricky Byrdsong. I would not be the person I am today without his example. John Matthew Smith 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................... 11 LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ lV CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION...... ........................................................................ 1 II. BREAKING THE PLANE: 'SEGREGATED INTEGRATION' AND THE RISE OF BIG-TIME FOOTBALL, 1913-1953 ................. 15 III. 'THE BLACK MICHIGAN STATE TEAM': DUFFY DAUGHERTY AND THE INTEGRATION OF MICHIGAN STATE FOOTBALL, 1954-1967......................................................... 59 IV. 'THE REVOLT OF THE BLACK ATHLETE,' 1968.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. .. .. ............ 98 V. STILL SEGREGATED? ROBERT L. GREEN, THE COALITION OF BLACK ATHLETES, AND THE INTEGRATION OF THE BIG TEN, 1969-1972........ .. ... .......... 128 VI. CONCLUSION.................................................................................. 155 APPENDIX: BLACK FOOTBALL PLAYERS AT MSU, 1913-1972....... ..... 159 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................... 163 lll LIST OF FIGURES 1. 1934 Team photo with black players............................................................. 33 2. 1934 Team photo excluding black players. ........... '........................................ 33 3. Photograph of Horace Smith sitting on the bench in 1946.. .. .. .. .. .. ....... 46 4. DuffyDaugherty on the cover of Time, October 8, 1956....... .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. ... ................................. 85 5. MSU's 1965 defense...................................................................................... 86 6. "In every Negro there is a potential BLACK MAN," illustration in The Grapevine Journal, February 15, 1972.............. .. .. .. ............................... 127 IV CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Looking back on his career as Michigan State's firstblack starting quarterback on one of the Spartans' greatest teams in 1966, Jimmy Raye made it clear that the footballprogram owed much of its success to black athletes. "Let's face it," Raye claimed, "MSU couldn't put a team on the fieldand win without any black guys on it. No college in the country could. You got to have the good black athletes to win."1 No other coach in the country understood this better than MSU head coach Duffy Daugherty (1954-1972), who canvassed the entire country to bring talented black players to East Lansing. While the footballteams of southernschools remained all white until the late 1960s and early 1970s, Daugherty formedchampionship teams in 1965 and 1966 by recruiting the best black players the South had to offer. In fact, by the mid-1960s Duffy Daugherty had "built a reputation as the master recruiter and 'handler' of Negroes, where big-time footballand Negroes" became "almost synonymous. "2 Daugherty's most successfulteams during these years relied on so many black players that the team was oftencompared to the squads of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) like Grambling and Florida A & M. In the context of such comparisons, Daugherty's teams were unlike any others in the history of college football. Daugherty's 1965 and 1966 teams defiedracial myths of the era that claimed teams could not win by playing more blacks than whites, and that black players did not have the intelligence to handle leadership positions. In 1966, 1 Dave Hanson, "Raye's Doing OK," (Lansing) State Journal, May 28, 1969. 2 Emphasis mine, see Pete Axthelm, "The Angry Black Athlete," Newsweek, July 15, 1968, 58. 1 Michigan State's defensestarted eight black players and three whites; the offensive backfield started two black halfbacks and a black quarterback, and the team was captained by two AfricanAmericans. Daugherty's "experiment" worked. By recruiting black athletes at a higher rate than any other coach in the country, Daugherty's 1965 and 1966 teams finished a combined 19-1-1, including a share of the 1965 National Championship. Four of his African American playerswere drafted in the firsteight selections of the 1967 NFL Draft. Duffy Daugherty's teams benefited fromsouthern segregation. While coaches in the North recruited black athletes and played them regularly by the mid­ l 950s, no other coach took the risks Daugherty did to integrate his teams. Michigan State's fully integrated teams of the 1960s paralleled the growth of television, where young AfricanAmerican athletes and high school coaches could see blacks and whites running onto the footballfield together. Throughout the country, and especially in the South, African Americansidentified with Daugherty's teams; as a result black high school coaches and parents entrusted Daugherty with the future of their players and sons by sending them to East Lansing. Duffy Daugherty's path­ breaking teams broke all the rules of integrated competition and forced southern schools to reconsider their stance on segregated college football. In order fullyto comprehend the process by which Michigan State became a leader in integrated college athletics and to understand the consequences of Daugherty's successfulrecruiting of African American athletes,I researched the history of Michigan State footballfrom the time its firstblack player suited up in 1913 through the end of Daugherty's career in 1972. The thesis is organized into four 2 chapters to reflect the major changes in the experiences of African American athletes at Michigan State. Chapter one introduces the early years of integration from 1913 to 1953. Throughout most of this period the pace of integration and the treatment of MSU's black athletes mirrored other large predominantly white northern schools.

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