FBI tracked desegregation suit against (Bear) Bryant

[Omaha Steve]

Source: ABC

By JAY REEVES

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- Forty years ago, Alabama football fans watched Southern California and a black running back named Sam Cunningham trounce coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's Crimson Tide in a game widely credited with helping start the integration of Southern football.

Fans weren't the only ones watching Alabama football back then. The FBI, apparently with the approval of then-director J. Edgar Hoover, was secretly keeping an eye on a civil rights lawsuit filed by blacks against the legendary coach during the same period.

Documents released to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act show that for almost two years, agents tracked the suit filed by a prominent black lawyer against Bryant, the University of Alabama and others to make Bryant recruit black football players. Building a file, agents followed the court docket and snipped stories from newspapers about the case, sending the findings to the agency's office responsible for investigating civil rights crimes.

The FBI won't explain why it was interested in a civil lawsuit by a black student organization against a prominent white football coach. The agency kept track of possible civil rights violations and often monitored public figures and civil rights leaders under Hoover.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FBC_BEAR_BRYANT_FBI?SITE=ORBEN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

---

Mods this is a US Government civil rights story. Not a sports story.

[mzteris]

1. would that be Sam "BAM" Cunningham?

I LOVED to watch him score TD's....

Bryant may have been a great FB coach, but he was a racist like most every other Southerner at the time. (And unfortunately, a whole damn lot of them now. :( )

[Omaha Steve]

2. Was Turner Gill Denied The Auburn Job Because Of His White Wife? (Good ol' Boys)

I'm met Coach Gill. Class act. Great coach that is a rising star. Coach Gill is better off at his new school Kansas. He was runner up for the NU job 3 years ago.

http://deadspin.com/5110639/was-turner-gill-denied-the-auburn-job-because-of-his-white-wife



Every one is still scratching their heads over Auburn's hiring of Iowa State head coach Gene Chizik, except for those Tiger fans who have already upgraded to clawing their eyes out.

Pretty much everyone agrees that Buffalo coach Turner Gill—who was interviewed for the job—is infinitely more qualified to run a football than "5 and 19 Gene." (And Tommy Tuberville is probably still more qualified than both of them, but that's another story.) Yet, Gill did not get the job and in case you hadn't noticed ... Gill is black.

Now we're not saying that the powers that be at Auburn chose Chizik over Gill simply because Gill is African-American and the school is located in the heart of the Old South. Everyone else will say it for us. In fact, some are even claiming that Gill's biggest strike against him was not his own skin color, but that of his wife, who is white.

ESPN.com football writer Mark Schlabach told "Outside The Lines" today that two other SEC coaches told him, straight up, that Gill would never get the Auburn job, because he's married to a white woman. Charming.

Auburn alum Charles Barkley added his own fuel to fire when he called out his alma mater for their choice of Chizik. He spoke to Gill about the job and claimed that Gill was concerned his marriage would be a factor before he even took the interview.

"We talked about the whole race thing in Alabama," Barkley said. "I told him it's there and it's going to be anywhere you go. I told him you can't not take the job because of racism. He was worried about being nothing more than a token interview. He was concerned about having a white wife. It's just very disappointing to me."

FULL story and video at link.

[mzteris]

3. My kid will never play for a racist school -

I don't care who they are or what they offer.

[Syrinx]

5. do you have a list of "racist schools?"

How do you determine if a school is racist?

[CreekDog]

7. it was in 1970

not a single black football player?

do you agree it WAS?

we can talk about if it IS later.

:)

[Syrinx]

8. the governor at the time pandered to a racist electorate

I don't think even George Wallace was a racist at heart, but the electorate that he pandered to was, in majority, racist. And he pandered to them without shame.

And Wallace was Coach Bryant's boss.

Coach Bryant could have done more to advocate for change. But that he didn't do that is not proof of racism. He wasn't a politician or civil rights leader. He was a football coach. And he did his job well.

Like I alluded to, every black person that was associated with the Alabama football program, during the seventies and early eighties, that I've met (five or six people, I think), has told me nothing but good things about the old coach.

Bear Bryant could have done more for civil rights. It is true.

But he was never anti-civil rights, and to call him a racist is unfair.

I've talked enough with Rev. Croom to know that.

And if UA is still a racist school, I hope Mark Ingram doesn't find out. Or Anthony Grant. Or Harvey Glance.

:hi:

[daleo]

14. It sounds like he went along with racism to get along

Not exactly courageous, at the very least.

[mzteris]

16. Well - let's see . . .

why is it Auburn didn't hire Gene Chizik ?


and I grew up an Auburn fan....

[Syrinx]

17. I thought they did

But I'm not someone that's going to defend Auburn, usually.

[mzteris]

18. i meant didn't hire Turner Gill. n/t

[Mudoria]

12. I'm not sure where they think Gill is "infinitely" more qualified that Chizik

Gill's record at Buffalo isn't anything to write home about and Chizik led Auburn to an 8-5 record and a win in a bowl game.

[Syrinx]

4. why do you think Bryant was a racist?

I've never heard any of his former players, black or white, say a bad word about the man. They all loved him.

And that includes personal conversations I've had with a few of his players. And with Sylvester Croom Sr., the father of the former Mississippi State head football coach, who was team chaplain at Alabama under Coach Bryant. Reverend Croom told me that Paul Bryant was a great person. I had no reason to doubt him. And Croom had no reason to lie.

[CreekDog]

6. He was surrounded by racists, we know that much

the story of the bowl game against Colorado is not hard to look up.

but that doesn't make him racist --but his school, it certainly was.

his school didn't have a black football player unti l971?

:wtf:

if that's not racist, what the hell is?

[Syrinx]

9. please see post 8

[Po_d Mainiac]

11. It would be the same.....n/t

[happi1]

10. Hi first msg smile

Yay! hi!

[wmbrew0206]

13. Bryant knew what he was doing when he scheduled that USC game.

Bryant probably is a bigger part of why 'Bama desegregated than most think. Bear knew where college football was going and it was not to all white teams. Bear wanted to be able to recruit black players but couldn't due to 'Bama being segregated. By scheduling USC in Alabama and knowing that they would crush 'Bama, Bryant gave the 'Bama faithful the biggest reason they needed to desegregate, to win football games.

[MadMaddie]

15. For those naysaysers that continue to claim racism is dead

Here is another prime example of racism at work. It doesn't matter if two people are straight and love each other, because it is an interacial marriage it is still not good enough.

I have no doubt that he wasn't hired because of his marriage.

The more things change the more things stay the same....