Visit my homepage: TomShanahan.Report
— Click here for book review and purchase link: THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s and here for a purchase link to RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans.
— Watch a three-minute video to learn about our documentary at the fundraising stage, GAME CHANGERS OF THE CENTURY, and the Investment Deck.
— Documentary synopsis: Duffy documentary snynopsis.pdf – Google Drive
— I will debate anybody, anytime, anywhere Duffy Daugherty led college football integration
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“How can we know who we are and where we are going if we don’t know anything about where we have come from and what we have been through, the courage shown, the costs paid, to be where we are?
— David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize author and historian.
By TOM SHANAHAN
Now that Michigan State football coach Pat Fitzgerald completed his first spring practices – a crucial time to acclimate 60-some newcomers to the green-and-white traditions – I’m offering them Duffy Daugherty history lessons.
I know, the players’ heads were spinning learning a new playbook. And hopefully they’re working toward a degree rather than banking on NIL money. But until fall camp opens, there is time to learn Duffy Daugherty’s college football integration leadership is a singular story no school in the country can match.
For the newer players, they may be confused that our football facility is named for our exalted basketball coach.
Well, the Tom Izzo Football Building is a gift from a deep-pocketed basketball alum, Mat Ishbia, paying tribute to Mr. March’s football persona.
The original stand-alone title was the Duffy Daugherty Building when it opened in the early 1980s. But when upgrades were needed, the Skandarlaris family generously donated money, and the Skandalaris Center title was added to the building.
So, how much did Duffy donate to get his name on the building?
His contribution was something more valuable than money. And I mean beyond the two national titles and his College Football Hall of Fame induction, in 1984.
Daugherty changed the face of the game, although it’s a largely untold or misunderstood story.
If you’re aware of only the superficial story that Duffy was “one of” the coaches leading the way – and this goes for our alums and students, too — blame sports journalism for failing to recognize the milestones Duffy’s Spartans established. In those days, the sports media avoided race, particularly in team sports, for fear of alienating subscribers and advertisers.
If you don’t want to believe me, listen to Oklahoma College Football Hall of Fame coach Barry Switzer. His teams were recognized as a model integration program while winning 1974 and 1975 national titles, and he’s quoted on Page 1 of my book, “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration.”
“Duffy did more for integration than any other coach in college football. He had players from all over the south. There were great Black players in the state of Texas that were passing over Oklahoma to play for Duffy. He had all those players from the Houston area. And Duffy also was the first one to recruit Samoan players.”
Here is a brief summary — the full story requires reading my books — of how Duffy led the way:
— In the 1960s, Daugherty was the first coach to assemble fully integrated rosters with Black players numbering in double figures. He did this by ignoring the unwritten quota limiting Black players to a half-dozen or so. For context, USC’s 1962 national title team numbered only five Black players and its 1967 national championship roster only seven despite a campus located in populous and diverse Los Angeles. And one of those seven in 1967 was O.J. Simpson, a San Francisco City College import.
Prior to the 1962 season, the Associated Press reported Michigan State’s 17 Black athletes were the most in major college football history. But the report failed to note that the Spartans broke their own record each year in the decade.
— In the 1966 Game of the Century, the epic showdown matching No. 1-ranked Notre Dame at No. 2 Michigan State, Duffy lined up 20 Black players, 11 Black starters, two Black team captains voted by a predominantly White roster, College Football Hall of Famers George Webster and Clinton Jones, and the South’s first Black quarterback to win a national title, Jimmy Raye, who was recruited out of segregated Fayetteville, N.C., aboard Duffy’s Underground Railroad.
Notre Dame had one Black player, Alan Page.
USC and Notre Dame were the past. Michigan State was the future. With a record TV audience of 33 million watching the Game of the Century, football programs — coaches and fanbases — began to understand this and abandon the unwritten quota limits.
— We’re not sure what shaped Daugherty’s character as a diversity leader. He wasn’t a self-promotor. But I have a theory. It’s based on his playing career as a Syracuse lineman, 1937-39. He witnessed two teammates benched by heartbreaking discrimination.
In 1937, Syracuse’s Wilmeth Sidat-Singh was a light-skinned Black quarterback passing as a Hindu Indian based on his stepfather’s surname. But before a midseason game at Maryland, Sam Lacy, the legendary writer for the Baltimore African American, exposed Sidat-Singh was Black. Syracuse caved into the Gentleman’s Agreement that required northern teams to bench Black athletes when they played in the South.
Without Sidat-Singh in the game, Syracuse lost, 13-0. A year later with Sidat-Singh facing Maryland at Syracuse, the Orange won, 53-0.
On that same 1937 roster with Daugherty was Marty Glickman, a halfback with world-class sprinter speed. Glickman, who went on to national acclaim as a New York sportscaster, was Jewish. At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, he was scheduled to run a leg on the United States’ 400-meter relay, but he was scratched without explanation.
The reason, though, was obvious. The USA coaches bowed to The Berlin Olympics. Antisemite dictator Adolf Hitler didn’t want a Jewish athlete on the gold medal stand. Jesse Owens reluctantly replaced Glickman, telling the coaches Glickman deserved to run. Owens came to the Berlin intent on winning three gold medals in the 100, 200 and long jump. Otherwise, Owens doesn’t win a historic fourth a gold medal.
— Although the sports media failed to understand Duffy Daugherty’s leadership, older African Americans recognized it. Here’s a quote from former Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith about Duffy prior to the Buckeyes visiting Spartan Stadium on the 2022 season.
“For Duffy, it wasn’t just about winning football games. It was more than that. It was about making sure opportunities were provided. That’s what people need to know about Duffy. I think it’s important Michigan State recognizes him and tells his story that is so important.”
— Here’s a quote from the late Civil Rights icon Jesse Jackson on the pride African Americans felt watching Duffy’s teams knock down stereotypes. The belief in those days was too many Black players would disrupt the locker room and that White players wouldn’t follow the leadership of Black players. Jackson had special appreciation for Raye’s career based on Jackson’s background as a quarterback at North Carolina A&T, an HBCU.
“Jimmy Raye was one of my heroes. We pulled for him. There weren’t many Black quarterbacks in the pipeline then. We knew that people like him had tremendous pressure on them. They had to not just play but perform better than their competitor. We know there would be alumni pressure to play the White quarterback, and Jimmy would have to sit. We knew there were two sets of rules.”
— But understand it’s not the fault of our current athletes and students they don’t know Duffy’s deeper story. Our alumni didn’t learn it during their time on campus.
When I was a guest on “The Drive with Jack” a few years ago discussing my first book, “RAYE OF LIGHT,” Michigan State basketball legend Paul Davis was a guest co-host. He listened and then interjected dumbfounded, “I didn’t know any of this. And I’m a Michigan State athlete.”
Former Michigan State women’s golfer Katie Lu, who recently won the NXXT Women’s Tour Venetian Bay Tournament in South Carolina, told me of her college days, “I go into the Duffy Building every day, and I didn’t know any of this.”
— But as the 2026 season approaches, we’re fortunate Fitzgerald – in addition to the new energy he has brought to East Lansing – is embracing the program’s history. He can serve as a bridge to Duffy that we’ve lacked in the past.
We saw none of that energy or interest in MSU history from former coach Jonathan Smith during the past two years. Does an Alabama coach go there and not care about Bear Bryant? A Notre Dame coach forget about Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy and Ara Parseghian? A Michigan coach disregard Bo Schembechler? An Ohio State coach forget about Woody Hayes?
Oh, it stings to think a segregationist (Bryant) has a statue of him on his campus but not Duffy on the Banks of the Red Cedar. Same with statues of two tyrants (Schembechler and Hayes) at their respective schools. Unfortunately, most of Michigan State’s past coaches since Duffy’s 1954-72 tenure were more interested in establishing their own legacy than respecting Duffy’s career.
That’s not Pat Fitzgerald. He wants to understand Michigan State.
Based on his 17 years coaching at Northwestern, he’s already a College Football Hall of Famer. He doesn’t need another coaching job to join that club. But now that Fitzgerald is back on the sidelines, he’s comfortable connecting Duffy’s name with Michigan State’s history.
For the players, I’m always looking for a new Duffy History Champion.
If we can find investors for our documentary, GAME CHANGERS OF THE CENTURY, Duffy’s deeper felicitous story will finally be the one linked to him.
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— My FWAA first-place story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and segregation
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055
I’ll put my facts on the true pioneers of college football integration versus Bear Bryant fairytales against anybody, anytime, anywhere. Watch here.
Click here for my story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and Segregation and Alabama.
— Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter with two books on college football integration, “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans,” and “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” They are the most accurate accounts of college football integration in the 1950s and 1960s. They also debunk myths about the 1970 USC-Alabama game. The false narrative co-opted the stories of the true pioneers who stood up to Jim Crow and the KKK.
— Two children’s books also explain Michigan State College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty’s impact on integration through the Underground Railroad and the Hawaiian Pipeline: “DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” and “HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP.”
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PURCHASE LINKS, non-fiction books
— RAYE OF LIGHT, August Publications or on Amazon.
— THE RIGHT THING TO DO, August Publications or on Amazon.
PURCHASE LINKS, children’s books
— DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: Order from Barnes and Noble here and Amazon here.
— HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP. Order here:
How Duffy Put Hawaii On America’s Football Map by Tom Shanahan, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®
Amazon.com: How Duffy Put Hawaii On America’s Football Map eBook : Shanahan, Tom: Kindle Store
