Interesting look at college football and integration. Especially in my home state of Alabama. NOTE TO SENSITIVE READERS: THIS IS CONSIDERED A RACIST SITE, so.... put on your big boy pants before reading. They dont sugar coat over there. You have been notified.... dont cry to me if you are shocked/offended by what you read... **************** For example: 1971 was also the year of the first integrated Iron Bowl matchup between Auburn University and Alabama—so named because Birmingham was once the ironworks capital of the south. This intra-Alabama rivalry is perhaps the most storied in all of sports. It was the subject of a recent ESPN documentary, Roll Tide/War Eagle. And 1971 was the last time these two schools—both with alumni and student body populations that are overwhelmingly white—would be represented by actual student-athletes who reflected the character of each institution. The players on the field for that historic game between two undefeated teams 40 years ago would have a small chance of being recruited by either Auburn or Alabama today. The past five recruiting classes for both schools have been under five percent white. ************ The last Iron Bowl at Birmingham’s Legion Field was played in 1998. Legion Field is now in the heart of one of the worst ghettos in America—so bad that Birmingham Southern College had to build a fence around its entire campus. The desire to win football games—and the belief that only problematic black players can make this happen—got the Crimson Tide on crippling probation in 1995. ‘Bama went on probation again in the mid-2000s, thanks to payoffs to black Memphis recruit Albert Means to the tune of $100,000. It only fully recovered after hiring coach Nick Saban in 2007—but not before a number of the black players got in serious trouble with the law. Saban finally led Alabama to a BCS Title win in 2009. (note: I was there when player Jimmy John or whatever his name is was arrested for selling cocaine IN THE ATHLETIC BUILDING PARKING LOT... to white students. It was so sensitive that the cops let him do it a few times, on video, just to have enough proof to make the charges stick. That is how much stroke the athletic dept. has in Tuscaloosa....) Like ‘Bama , Auburn was put on probation by the NCAA back in 1992 for a pay-for-play scheme involving Eric Ramsey, a marginally talented black player who accused Auburn head coach Pat Dye of running a racist program (Dye wrote a whole book, In the Arena, defending himself from those charges and stating over and over again that blacks were better athletes). Ramsey secretly taped conversations with coaches that dealt with the pay-for-play scheme and 60 Minutes did a special on his charges. One coach even told Ramsey that if he “wasn’t playing football, he’d be just another nigger to Auburn people.” ************ Auburn University is one of the only SEC schools to start two white running backs in the past 12 years. Tre Smith rushed for more than 120 yards in helping the Tigers beat ‘Bama in 2002. Smith was a star prospect, but only Auburn offered Smith the chance to play running back. Three years prior, Heath Evans had started running back for Auburn. But in Hard Fighting Soldier image by Auburn University team chaplain Chette Williams, we learn the great struggle Evans had in convincing head coach Tommy Tuberville that a white guy could play a position dominated by blacks: “Coach Tuberville installed a one-back offense –tailback, not fullback. At Ole Miss a year earlier, his one back had been Deuce McAllister, the best running back in school history, and Heath, the coaches believed, did not fit that mold. ‘You look at a big, white running back, you’re not going to think tailback,’ Heath told a Birmingham News reporter. So he began to sit through his sophomore season with literally no hope of significant playing time. Ever.” Theres more info on that page, but.... like I said: you better be ready to read some shit that you just dont hear in todays society. Its pretty blunt. I dont watch football. Ever. I never have. But I did work security at various places during and after football games, so maybe I see things a certain way... I dealt with the fights, and the arguments, and the drug deals, and the robberies, and the attacks....
Posted on: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 18:40:26 +0000
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