| FTBL heads up...HBO has a special coming on....

[TerryP]

...on Alabama football...according to what I'm told it'll be broadcasted in December.

 

[Guest]

link?

 

[planomateo]

http://www.hbo.com/events/breakingthehuddle/

 

[Guest]

http://www.hbo.com/events/breakingthehuddle/

Called Breaking the Huddle and yes some of the documentary will be based on the U OF A!

ROLL TIDE ROLL!

 

[Guest]

Could this be it?

http://www.hbo.com/events/breakingthehuddle/

 

[ExiledTidefan]

I doubt it will be especially flattering to the U of A. However, perhaps a positive spin will be given to the changes that have come in the past several decades.

I expect at least one jab concerning the "non hiring" of Croom, and the subsequent hire by MSU.

 

[cjaytch]

Expect for our entire state to be on the receiving end of a hatchet job with special emphasis on our University.....

I was really SHOCKED there was no 30min special on ESPN before the Bama MSU game on the whole Croom/Shula saga.

 

[Guest]

Expect for our entire state to be on the receiving end of a hatchet job with special emphasis on our University.....

I was really SHOCKED there was no 30min special on ESPN before the Bama MSU game on the whole Croom/Shula saga.

They had better things on their minds! (Tebow,Tebow,Tebow,Tebow)

 

[TWJUA]

I assume HBO will call it both ways, especially if they are coming to campus to talk to people.

I saw this "infomercial" of FOX sports West coast like a year ago and it was these USC people and a player selling the story in a book about how ....get this...."USC broke the color barrier in the South". It was a back handed show about how they came down to Alabama, and how they showed us that the black athlete was to be treated fair, and how THEY broke racism/integration....and on and on. I was like, that aint the whole story your selling there dude! It was ll USC saving black people in the South angle. THey needed to show us becuase....you get the point.

 

[Chuck-E-Cheeze]

I assume HBO will call it both ways, especially if they are coming to campus to talk to people.

I saw this "infomercial" of FOX sports West coast like a year ago and it was these USC people and a player selling the story in a book about how ....get this...."USC broke the color barrier in the South". It was a back handed show about how they came down to Alabama, and how they showed us that the black athlete was to be treated fair, and how THEY broke racism/integration....and on and on. I was like, that aint the whole story your selling there dude! It was ll USC saving black people in the South angle. THey needed to show us becuase....you get the point.

Isn't that kinda' true, though? They spanked us w/ black dudes when we were all white. Thus a new era began @ BAMA with the Bear bringing in Black guys. At least that is how I thought it happened. If true, USC can take some credit.

 

[cjaytch]

Isn't that kinda' true, though? They spanked us w/ black dudes when we were all white. Thus a new era began @ BAMA with the Bear bringing in Black guys. At least that is how I thought it happened. If true, USC can take some credit.

From the way I understand it, Bryant wanted to integrate the team and was already planning on finding a way to do it (which I have heard hinted the reason he scheduled the game). Cunningham running all over them in their season opener gave him all the ammo he needed to get the public at large to see the light.

So the way I see it, USC gets credit for going along with Bryant's schemes. Bryant signed his first black player the very next spring (im sure he had no plans in the works to do that). Put in the wishbone in the fall and went on to DOMINATE the 1970's.

 

[Crimsonblood82]

I doubt it will be especially flattering to the U of A. However, perhaps a positive spin will be given to the changes that have come in the past several decades.

I expect at least one jab concerning the "non hiring" of Croom, and the subsequent hire by MSU.

i don't think anyone should be jabbing about the non-hiring of Croom. I mean, yeah, if we wanted to go 3-9, then we could have hired him.....i think his record at MSU speaks for itself.

 

[TWJUA]

From what I have read, it was Bear's way of showing that they needed to do that. He flew out to LA to meet with McKay, who agreed, and paid him (USC) nicely. But what this commercial was slanting, it was like all their idea, becuase they needed to do it for football, and they were victorious on both fronts. Arrogant. They didn't realize they were a tool to get a point across. Could have been UCLA or Washington or any other team. Didn't matter. Bryant did it becuse of USC's lineup and he was frineds with McKay.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Thats all. I just took it the wrong way maybe.

 

[Guest]

From what I have read, it was Bear's way of showing that they needed to do that. He flew out to LA to meet with McKay, who agreed, and paid him (USC) nicely. But what this commercial was slanting, it was like all their idea, becuase they needed to do it for football, and they were victorious on both fronts. Arrogant. They didn't realize they were a tool to get a point across. Could have been UCLA or Washington or any other team. Didn't matter. Bryant did it becuse of USC's lineup and he was frineds with McKay.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Thats all. I just took it the wrong way maybe.

You are exactly right, TWJUA. Anyone that wrote a book about it and does not mention what you have just stated is being dishonest.

Coach Bryant was the catalyst behind integrating Alabama football. He had wanted to do it for years, but didn't feel he really had the power to usurp George Wallace and the power brokers who ran Alabama football and many of the fans, etc...

California was just as backwards and ignorant as any other part of the nation at the time. They were in the midst of the Watts Riots during the time period we are discussing and had just gotten over the Zoot Suit Riots.

The Zoot Suit Riots being when the U.S. Military, based in L.A., with the express consent of local law enforcement, sent goon squads of sailors and marines out into the streets and into homes and businesses to kill, maim, rape, and harm innocent civilians who happened to be Mexican-American, black, or Filipino.

The Watts Riots erupting due to the inhuman and third world like conditions that black people were forced to live in due to the bigotry of California residents. Couple cardboard box living conditions with police violence and murders at any time and any place simply because of the color of your skin and you have riots.

So, they were certainly no bastion of progressiveness, not by a long shot. Californians were just as ignorant, if not more so, as all Americans at the time.

There is also a rumor that some enjoy propagating that says that Cunningham was paraded in front of 'Bama players after the game and told that he was what a real football player looked like.

This is just more fantasy type propaganda invented for weak minds to gobble up.

Coach Bryant never humiliated his players and shamed them by telling them they were not real players and Cunningham was.

Cunningham even denies this in his own biography, but still, the fantasy will not die. He says nothing like that ever happened, period.

 

[Guest]

http://www.libarts.uco.edu/history/faculty/roberson/course/1493/readings/BEAR BRYANT.htm

The legend persists that Bryant went into Southern Cat's locker room, shook hands with Sam Cunningham, and proceeded to take him into the Alabama locker room, where he announced, "Gentlemen, this is what a football player looks like." Bryant did go to the USC locker room to congratulate Cunningham, but the rest is fiction: The Alabama players didn't need to be told that the Tide had to integrate. It was the die-hards in the university administration who needed the message, and Southern Cal had delivered it dearly and forcibly.

 

[Guest]

http://www.libarts.uco.edu/history/faculty/roberson/course/1493/readings/BEAR%20BRYANT.htm

The legend persists that Bryant went into Southern Cat's locker room, shook hands with Sam Cunningham, and proceeded to take him into the Alabama locker room, where he announced, "Gentlemen, this is what a football player looks like." Bryant did go to the USC locker room to congratulate Cunningham, but the rest is fiction: The Alabama players didn't need to be told that the Tide had to integrate. It was the die-hards in the university administration who needed the message, and Southern Cal had delivered it dearly and forcibly.

Cool beans. Thanks for clearing that up Altie and Joe.

 

[cjaytch]

You are exactly right, TWJUA. Anyone that wrote a book about it and does not mention what you have just stated is being dishonest.

Coach Bryant was the catalyst behind integrating Alabama football. He had wanted to do it for years, but didn't feel he really had the power to usurp George Wallace and the power brokers who ran Alabama football and many of the fans, etc...

California was just as backwards and ignorant as any other part of the nation at the time. They were in the midst of the Watts Riots during the time period we are discussing and had just gotten over the Zoot Suit Riots.

The Zoot Suit Riots being when the U.S. Military, based in L.A., with the express consent of local law enforcement, sent goon squads of sailors and marines out into the streets and into homes and businesses to kill, maim, rape, and harm innocent civilians who happened to be Mexican-American, black, or Filipino.

The Watts Riots erupting due to the inhuman and third world like conditions that black people were forced to live in due to the bigotry of California residents. Couple cardboard box living conditions with police violence and murders at any time and any place simply because of the color of your skin and you have riots.

So, they were certainly no bastion of progressiveness, not by a long shot. Californians were just as ignorant, if not more so, than all Americans at the time.

There is also a rumor that some enjoy propagating that says that Cunningham was paraded in front of 'Bama players after the game and told that he was what a real football player looked like.

This is just more fantasy type propaganda invented for weak minds to gobble up.

Coach Bryant never humiliated his players and shamed them by telling them they were not real players and Cunningham was.

Cunningham even denies this in his own biography, but still, the fantasy will not die. He says nothing like that ever happened, period.

You are spot on. Bryant was THE driving force behind the integration of the UA football team, not McKay, not Cunningham, not high minded Northerners or West Coasties. Bryant, the backwoods Arkansas native, orchestrated the whole thing. It just irks me how the media gives Cunningham all the credit when all he did was line up and run the ball like he was supposed to. They act like he made it all happen. Bryant deserves ALL the credit for making it happen.

They also always leave out the part where Bama went out to SoCal and shut down Cunningham the very next year with mostly the same team. Kinda makes you wonder just how prepared Bear had his boys for that '72 game if he was really trying to make a point...

 

[Guest]

You are exactly right, TWJUA. Anyone that wrote a book about it and does not mention what you have just stated is being dishonest.

Coach Bryant was the catalyst behind integrating Alabama football. He had wanted to do it for years, but didn't feel he really had the power to usurp George Wallace and the power brokers who ran Alabama football and many of the fans, etc...

California was just as backwards and ignorant as any other part of the nation at the time. They were in the midst of the Watts Riots during the time period we are discussing and had just gotten over the Zoot Suit Riots.

The Zoot Suit Riots being when the U.S. Military, based in L.A., with the express consent of local law enforcement, sent goon squads of sailors and marines out into the streets and into homes and businesses to kill, maim, rape, and harm innocent civilians who happened to be Mexican-American, black, or Filipino.

The Watts Riots erupting due to the inhuman and third world like conditions that black people were forced to live in due to the bigotry of California residents. Couple cardboard box living conditions with police violence and murders at any time and any place simply because of the color of your skin and you have riots.

So, they were certainly no bastion of progressiveness, not by a long shot. Californians were just as ignorant, if not more so, than all Americans at the time.

There is also a rumor that some enjoy propagating that says that Cunningham was paraded in front of 'Bama players after the game and told that he was what a real football player looked like.

This is just more fantasy type propaganda invented for weak minds to gobble up.

Coach Bryant never humiliated his players and shamed them by telling them they were not real players and Cunningham was.

Cunningham even denies this in his own biography, but still, the fantasy will not die. He says nothing like that ever happened, period.

You are spot on. Bryant was THE driving force behind the integration of the UA football team, not McKay, not Cunningham, not high minded Northerners or West Coasties. Bryant, the backwoods Arkansas native, orchestrated the whole thing. It just irks me how the media gives Cunningham all the credit when all he did was line up and run the ball like he was supposed to. They act like he made it all happen. Bryant deserves ALL the credit for making it happen.

They also always leave out the part where Bama went out to SoCal and shut down Cunningham the very next year with mostly the same team. Kinda makes you wonder just how prepared Bear had his boys for that '72 game if he was really trying to make a point...

That game the next year was the surprise inauguaral appearance of the wishbone at Bama. This was a ball hogging attack that kept Cunningham and his friends on the sidelines. It was also the first time an African American player took the field for Alabama, defensive end John Mitchell. Wilbur Jackson was also on that team as Johnny Musso's back up.

 

[Guest]

I assume HBO will call it both ways, especially if they are coming to campus to talk to people.

I saw this "infomercial" of FOX sports West coast like a year ago and it was these USC people and a player selling the story in a book about how ....get this...."USC broke the color barrier in the South". It was a back handed show about how they came down to Alabama, and how they showed us that the black athlete was to be treated fair, and how THEY broke racism/integration....and on and on. I was like, that aint the whole story your selling there dude! It was ll USC saving black people in the South angle. THey needed to show us becuase....you get the point.

Isn't that kinda' true, though? They spanked us w/ black dudes when we were all white. Thus a new era began @ BAMA with the Bear bringing in Black guys. At least that is how I thought it happened. If true, USC can take some credit.

Chuck E. Many times it is about the players and the coaches and the gameplan, not the color of the skin.

What many people do not realize is that Alabama was well on it's way to being integrated before Alabama ever played So. Cal on that day in September.

Little did many know, but at the time of this game, Alabama was already integrated, to an extent. Wilbur Jackson was in the stands of Legion Field during that first Alabama/Southern Cal. game.

Was he there as a fan? No. He was there as a freshman. Freshmen couldn't play their first year back then.

So, when you get right down to it, Coach Bryant had already got the ball rolling, he just needed a little help to make it gather some steam.

A thrashing at what was their second home was the steam he needed to do what he really wanted to do, and that is bring in many black players.

As far as the color of skin of a human being affecting how they play football, I am not so sure about that.

Just take for example this very real fact:

In 1971, the year after the initial match up between the two teams, Alabama went out to sunny L.A. and beat Southern California.

The reason I mention that is because during that second game, only one black player for Alabama ever set foot on the field.

So, the belief that the inherent superiority of black athletes allowed Southern Cal. to beat Alabama in 1970 is disproved in 1971 when the same two teams played a second time with basically the exact same players and Alabama prevailed.

The difference in '71 was that Bryant unveiled the Wishbone and had his team full of white players ran it to perfection. Say hello to Johnny Musso.

Coaching and preparation won the second game, just as coaching and preparation won the first game. Not the color of skin of the players.

On a side note, many still believe to this day that Coach Bryant fluffed that first game on purpose in order to achieve his goals.

I don't believe this though.

 

[Guest]

On a side note, many still believe to this day that Coach Bryant fluffed that first game on purpose in order to achieve his goals.

You do well to not believe that, Altie. That 1970 defense was terrible even by non Alabama standards. Auburn scored 49 on us that year. Our successes in that 6-5-1 season came when we outscored folks. There was another big surprise in 1971. Besides the wishbone, a defense that had been kicked around in 69 and 70 started playing like an Alabama defense. The combination gave us a totally unlikely chance to win an NC which didn't come to pass because that Nebraska team was much better physically.