Ojai Valley News Blog

Commentary by Bill Buchanan
I thoroughly enjoyed last Friday’s Rotary program, featuring John McKay Jr., son of legendary USC football coach, John McKay. He has a lot of his father’s wit, and I loved the stories he told about playing football for his dad, both in college and in the NFL. I have always been a big football fan, and when I was growing up, USC was one of my favorite teams. I loved watching all the great USC tailbacks play. I was also influenced by the fact that Alabama’s coach, “Bear” Bryant, was good friends with John McKay. McKay is remembered for many things. He was a terrific coach, winning four national championships in college before taking the reins of the hapless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he suffered 26 straight defeats before finally getting a victory. He was also known as a great wit, even in defeat. After one particularly humiliating loss, McKay told his players, “The bus leaves in an hour — anyone who needs a shower, take one.” Another time a reporter asked McKay about his team’s execution. McKay replied, “I’m all in favor of it.” But many may not know the role he played in integration in the South and, in particular, with the Alabama Crimson Tide. Shamefully, the Alabama football team was still not racially integrated as late as 1970, due in large part to four-time Alabama Gov. George Wallace. Wallace was a strong segregationist, and his infamous 1963 “stand in the schoolhouse door,” when he attempted to bar African Americans Vivian Malone and James Hood from registering for classes at the university held Alabama behind, even as other schools were progressing. After tremendous success in the early and mid-1960s, Alabama’s football team was in decline. Bryant wanted to recruit black players, whom he knew he needed, but was hesitant to do so. Wallace was a powerful governor. Bryant did not fear the man himself, but he knew the governor and the state legislature held the purse strings to funding that the university depended upon. So he proceeded cautiously. Bryant had a stroke of genius. He scheduled a game with his old friend, John McKay, and his powerful USC Trojans for the fall of 1970. USC had a number of very talented African American players. Bryant had already recruited one or two black athletes, but none were on the team yet. So, it was an all-white team playing for Alabama when they took the field on that fateful night in Birmingham. One of the top black players for USC was a running back named Sam “The Bam” Cunningham. At 6 feet 3 inches and 225 pounds, he was huge for running backs of that day. Cunningham was known for his punishing running style and majestic goal line touchdown leaps. He was a man against boys on the field that night. Cunningham ran through Alabama like Sherman through Atlanta, dismantling their defense almost single-handedly. That night all six USC touchdowns were scored by African American players. With a final score of USC 42, Alabama 21, the Crimson Tide faithful were shocked and dismayed. Bryant had convincingly demonstrated that if Alabama was to compete in the future, it needed to recruit talented black players. It was hard to argue with 42-21. After that, more and more African American players were recruited at Alabama, as well as at other previously segregated universities, and athletics played an important part in racial integration. After the USC game, Alabama assistant football coach Jerry Claiborne quipped, “Sam Cunningham did more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King did in 20 years.”