71YellowJacket
Damn Good Rat
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2002
- Messages
- 1,262
LLCJ,
As you can guess, my time at Tech started right after Dodd left coaching but was AD. I do have strong feelings about blacks and college football and yes I'm from the south, Atlanta in fact.
Tech played its first football game against an integrated team in 1955; at Notre Dame. This was considered an outrage at the time. Then to add gasoline to the fire, Tech players voted to play Pittsburg in the 1956 Sugar Bowl. Headlines in the AJC blasted sports integration. The Board of Regents tried to pass a ban on any Georgia school from playing any other integrated school. To their everlasting credit, Coach Dodd and President Van Leer challenged this direction and the Regents backed down.
I went to an all-white public high school in the suburbs; a nice new facility with excellent teachers. Less than five miles away was the black public high school. The building was literally almost falling down and I can only guess what materials the kids had to work with.
This was the south in the mid 1950s; very segregated and very proud of it.
I would like to think that the same spirit that caused President Van Leer and coach Dodd to oppose the Regents took hold in the other public universities in the south and blacks were soon welcomed into the classroom and on to the sports fields. But the skeptic in me says this was not the case. Money talks and began talking loudly. Television brought dramatic revenue increases to both college football and professional football. Suddenly, the best athletes began thinking of more than just trading their talents for a college education and getting a good job, but playing sports professionally.
Chasing this revenue required better and better teams be placed on the field. If you had a average team, no TV coverage and none of the big $$$$. Doors wide open, colleges who once barred blacks from entering recruited the best black athletics.
Tech with its narrow curriculum and higher academic standards, coupled with the miserable education black kids were getting in the south didn’t have a prayer. I’m sure black kids wanted to play for Tech but how many could overcome the educational barriers resulting from segregation? Wasn’t Eddie McShan the first black player to play for Tech, 1968?
So where are we now? Money is still the driving force. Div 1A teams must win to generate revenue, and blacks who can play are welcome with open arms throughout the south. If a player, black or white, can’t cut it academically, the schools will lower the standards, put in basketball courses, anything to keep the best kids playing. They may not get a real college education, but that isn’t what it’s all about is it?
As you can guess, my time at Tech started right after Dodd left coaching but was AD. I do have strong feelings about blacks and college football and yes I'm from the south, Atlanta in fact.
Tech played its first football game against an integrated team in 1955; at Notre Dame. This was considered an outrage at the time. Then to add gasoline to the fire, Tech players voted to play Pittsburg in the 1956 Sugar Bowl. Headlines in the AJC blasted sports integration. The Board of Regents tried to pass a ban on any Georgia school from playing any other integrated school. To their everlasting credit, Coach Dodd and President Van Leer challenged this direction and the Regents backed down.
I went to an all-white public high school in the suburbs; a nice new facility with excellent teachers. Less than five miles away was the black public high school. The building was literally almost falling down and I can only guess what materials the kids had to work with.
This was the south in the mid 1950s; very segregated and very proud of it.
I would like to think that the same spirit that caused President Van Leer and coach Dodd to oppose the Regents took hold in the other public universities in the south and blacks were soon welcomed into the classroom and on to the sports fields. But the skeptic in me says this was not the case. Money talks and began talking loudly. Television brought dramatic revenue increases to both college football and professional football. Suddenly, the best athletes began thinking of more than just trading their talents for a college education and getting a good job, but playing sports professionally.
Chasing this revenue required better and better teams be placed on the field. If you had a average team, no TV coverage and none of the big $$$$. Doors wide open, colleges who once barred blacks from entering recruited the best black athletics.
Tech with its narrow curriculum and higher academic standards, coupled with the miserable education black kids were getting in the south didn’t have a prayer. I’m sure black kids wanted to play for Tech but how many could overcome the educational barriers resulting from segregation? Wasn’t Eddie McShan the first black player to play for Tech, 1968?
So where are we now? Money is still the driving force. Div 1A teams must win to generate revenue, and blacks who can play are welcome with open arms throughout the south. If a player, black or white, can’t cut it academically, the schools will lower the standards, put in basketball courses, anything to keep the best kids playing. They may not get a real college education, but that isn’t what it’s all about is it?
