Sam Cunningham Relives 1970 USC-Alabama Game
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- čas přidán 1. 09. 2016
- As No. 20 USC prepares to play No. 1 Alabama to kick off the 2016 football season, former Trojan All-American fullback Sam Cunningham (1970-‘72) spoke with Annenberg Media Sports’ Connor McGlynn about his experience playing the Crimson Tide in one of the most historic college football games ever.
On Sept. 12, 1970, USC traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to take on the Crimson Tide in a game that transcended the gridiron. That matchup marked the first time a fully-integrated football team, USC, entered the south to take on Alabama, an all-white program.
As a sophomore under the tutelage of head coach John McKay, Cunningham became a star-tallying 135 yards and two touchdowns on just 12 carries in his first collegiate game. USC defeated Alabama 42-21, but the tally on the scoreboard wasn’t the real win; after seeing the abilities of Cunningham and his teammates, Alabama fans began to understand that a racial barrier did not belong. The following year John Mitchell became the first African-American to play a game at Alabama.
Cunningham spoke with McGlynn about the divided receptions the Trojans had from the white and black crowds in Alabama and the lasting impact that the 1970 game has had on sports. Cunningham will represent USC as an honorary team captain Saturday, 46 years after, as one former Crimson Tide coach said, “doing more to integrate the south in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King did in 20 years.”
USC and Alabama will kick off at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
(Originally published on uscannenbergmedia.com)
Sam is respected today by many Alabama fans.
Sam, I'm a Bama fan to the bone.
But, I love you.
I think you were a great player and a better person.
God bless Sam bam Cunningham.
Thank You Sam. I am a 43 year old loyal African American Bama fan. WE THANK YOU MAN. GOD BLESS YOU AND YOURS!
I was at the game selling coke cola
Sam was and still is a true gentle giant and man of great ethics and class!
My family are very close friends with the Cunninghams. I knew Sam better than most. Sam was a humble man. He NEVER wanted the spotlight. He was very good to me and my family. A real stand up guy. I wish all in sports were like him. We miss you Sam!!! Thank you for being such a good example to me.
Class Act - then and now. FIGHT ON!
I remember this Game like yesterday! This was a Historic College Football Game that changed the Racial outlook on the Segregated South ! Coach Bryant and John McKay were great friends ! They got together to promote this game but only Coach Bryant and John new how this game would Change College Football HISTORY! Coach Bryant new his Team couldn’t Beat USC because they had superior Black Players ! Coach McKay and Coach Bryant put their Thumb prints on Segregating the Whole South showing Racism wasn’t going to be excepted Ever AGAIN! Thank you to both Coaches and all Players who played a hugh roll in changing the History of all🏈 🏀⚾️🎾🏉⚽️🏐 College Sports ! 🙏
Didn;t Alabama beat USC in the colesium the next year? But Alabama had one Black player that year.
@@nedstewart1 John Mitchell 97 DE, fairly sure.
@@jonhenson5450 Yes, Mitchel played defense. It's in the youtube movie. Great player. youtube:1971 #16 Alabama at #5 USC (Bama's Greatest Games)
@@nedstewart1 thanks.
Real.
American.
Hero!
Rest in peace sir! 🙏
Rest In Peace Sam Cunningham rest easy sir. Mr Cunningham softened hard hearts he actually made a difference on this planet. It shouldn’t have taken kicking Alabama’s ass on a football field to soften those hard hearts but regardless he did it. My condolences to the Cunningham family.
I did not know he had died. I'm so sorry. He was a fine person and a great athlete.
@@moester75 Sports can have a positive reach far into society when it is used for racial justice, like of course the Jackie Robinson signing by the Brooklyn Dodgers. Mississippi State's basketball team in 1963 defied the segregationist governor who tried to forbid them from playing integrated teams in the post season. They boarded a plane anyway to face eventually NCAA champion Loyola of Chicago.
And Sam and the Trojans in Birmingham in 1970. They got through to white southerners and inspired blacks there.
Sam BAM Cunningham
As a Domer I have always supported the Trojans against any other opponent. Cunningham always seemed like a class act. This confirms it.
Bama went out to California a year later and beat Sam and the Trojans 17 to 10. So much for history!
Coach Bryant had been working for a long time to integrate Alabams football program. Bear got together with his friend AT USC , JOHN MACK KAY, . BEAR INVTED MACKAY TO SCHEDULE THE GAME IN BIRMINGHAM BIRMINGHAM. Mac kay KAY AGREED USC WON BIG, BOTH COACHES WERE HAPPY AND THE REST WAS HISTORY!
Scored 4 tds in 73 Rosebowl and is older brother of former Eagles qb Randall Cunningham
That’s what a football player looks like
Love Sam!!!Roll tide !!!!
so many people are were oblivious to racism from those days. I grew up like that ....we were all poor and struggling...the fact that USC came into town and had black athletes perform at the same or better level was historic and opened a lot of doors.
I respect Sam a lot but he didn't say much about the 1971 game
17-10 Alabama victory.
I am an Alabama fan who was practically oblivious of the racism that existed in football when I began listening to games on the radio. I remember my dad cutting out a newspaper article about Johnny Musso and Alabama winning the game the following year in the LA Coliseum the next year. I remember watching Sam Bam go over the top on many goal line plays for USC! I remember Wilbur Jackson running wild for Alabama when he began his career. I didn’t know that he was the 1st black player to start a game on offense at Alabama, nor that John Mitchell at DE, was our 1st black player to ever start a game at Alabama. I only knew that they were great players who played for my favorite team, and that they happened to be black. I was a typically naive 9 year- old. I think that they were very special people now that I know more.
Tha Great leGion field, thanks Mr Sam rested up
As a longtime Bama fan this story has been way overblown. Bryant had already started recruiting black players with John Mitchell and Wilbur Jackson on the team and Bryant was pushing hard for Conredge Holloway from Huntsville and Calvin Culliver from Montgomery. Bama was integrating whether this game was played or not. yes, USC came in with a fully integrated team and Beat Bama but Bama went to LA the next season with only one black player on the roster and beat a fully integrated USC team. In 1970 USC won with better players regardless of race. In 1971 Bama won with better players regardless of race. Sam was a beast no matter who USC was playing. This wasn't the only great game he had but to say THIS game started Bama's integration is not true.
No team is ever undefeatable
First time I've seen this.
Make no mistake, Coach Paul Bryant set the State of Alabama up with this game. He knew exactly what the result would be and used that to get black players in school. I’m not saying he did it for a social reason but, he knew if the University didn’t integrate, his football team would become irrelevant quickly. He did it for one reason and one reason only, to win. That is how all social change should be implemented, not forced. I believe if they had used athletics alone to push integration, you would have never seen the resistance and the violence that occurred. People will generally overlook it when you are being an ass for being an ass’s sake but, when your being an ass affect peoples beloved anything(football teams in this case), they will force you to stop being an ass, which is exactly what happened to Democrat politicians in Alabama. They didn’t dare oppose the Crimson Tide’s legion of fans. The fans wanted the team, and the university integrated, so they stopped opposing it. Was it for honorable reasons? No, but it worked just the same!
SC went to Bama and beat a tough team on a HOT NIGHT with a wild crowd. No politics
Alabama beat USC the next year in the colesium.
@@nedstewart1 yes sir, they unveiled the wishbone that night. Bryant had holed up with D.Royal and Emory Bellard that summer , learned it, and made the decision.
"Why can't we get a Sam Cunningham"
i live behind legion field ..i spit on legion field from my front porch
Jason King why
Lol
@@ryanstanfield2062 lol
domi bryant lmao
Sam saved the UAT football program and Bear Bryant's legacy.
Duke Moose we already had intergrated player
Bryant had already won 3 NCs at that point and won 3 more after that. And owned the api college the entire time.
Bama had already signed an African American but he was a freshman and back then freshman couldn't play. So the wheels were already turning but Sam helped! Also, Bear Bryant tried to recruit black athletes as early as when he was at Kentucky but was shot down. He used to go watch all back high schools play football games.
You SIR. Have your facts in order. Thanks
Just like in life, it’s not always the first. Sometimes it’s the most significant with the best recognized. Jackie Robinson was not the best black BB player that came from the Negro leagues, but he was the best for the times of that day. Sam’s national televised game display showed how silly it was of our nation attitudes we’re back then. After that game the whole south took a look at themselves and did a 180 on all southern universities. Now college sports were forever changed for the better with full integration.
@@KDG111 I was referring to chronology, not significance
I wonder if he did that outta the kindness of his heart,& his sense of moral obligation or the fact he knew black players were more athletic & better athletes and he was simply just trying to save his job🤷🏾♂️ How embarrassing would it have been if Alabama St could've been allowed to go to legion field & beat the brakes off Alabama?
@@Ace_Capone28 Great point!
Two black players. ON ALABAMA SCHOLARSHIP that night. Awaiting eligibility. No freshmen played prior to 1972. Bryant 1st black player QUIT. Bryant tried to integrate UK sports in 1953. You're another race hustler
Chatanooga beat alabama one year too in bears prime
No they didn't
@@TheJpep2424 your right it was a 1 and 10 georgia tech team
Just think one day they will be saying the same thing about a white guy in the NBA!
Yeah right! As if there isn’t any white players now in the NBA. STHU
@@KDG111 watch your mouth