BleedGopher
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per the STrib:
More than a half-century later, Harry Davis Jr. remembers that day clearly.
And not just because of the pomp or the circumstance of that big game, the huge crowd, the loud band or the pig trophy, Floyd of Rosedale, waiting on the sideline at old Memorial Stadium.
Fifty-four years ago, Davis, the son of well-known civic leader and civil-rights activist Harry Davis Sr., was a sophomore at old Minneapolis Central High School. On a Saturday early in November 1960, father and son went to Memorial Stadium to watch the game of the season in college football: Minnesota vs. Iowa, both teams undefeated, Iowa ranked No. 1 in the country, the Gophers No. 3. This was a game that ended up deciding the national championship.
But here is what Davis remembers most: Sandy Stephens and Wilburn Hollis.
In the biggest game of the season, on college football’s biggest stage, Davis remembers the joy of seeing two national powers being quarterbacked — being led — by black athletes.
“The nation was watching,” said Davis, now a 68-year-old retired local businessman. “The Big Ten at that time was the conference. It was it. As a young African-American it made me realize, here were teams that would recruit you on your merits. It was overwhelming.”
Saturday, the Gophers and Hawkeyes play at TCF Bank Stadium, the 108th meeting between the teams. None was as big as the one Nov. 5, 1960, both for what was at stake and for the game’s historical importance, even if it would take years to fully appreciate it. This was 1960, a time when rosters of major schools in the south were all white. It wasn’t until 1967 when the first black player appeared in a Southeast Conference game, and not until 1971 that Bear Bryant brought the first black player to Alabama’s sideline.
But on the field that day at Memorial Stadium were Stephens, from Uniontown, Pa., and Hollis, a Mississippi native who came to Iowa by way of Boys Town, a home for at-risk children in Nebraska. And there were more standout black athletes. In the Gophers backfield were Judge Dickson and Bill Munsey. Iowa had running backs Larry Ferguson and Joe Williams. Bobby Bell was a Gophers sophomore lineman from North Carolina who would end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/281875021.html
Go Gophers!!
More than a half-century later, Harry Davis Jr. remembers that day clearly.
And not just because of the pomp or the circumstance of that big game, the huge crowd, the loud band or the pig trophy, Floyd of Rosedale, waiting on the sideline at old Memorial Stadium.
Fifty-four years ago, Davis, the son of well-known civic leader and civil-rights activist Harry Davis Sr., was a sophomore at old Minneapolis Central High School. On a Saturday early in November 1960, father and son went to Memorial Stadium to watch the game of the season in college football: Minnesota vs. Iowa, both teams undefeated, Iowa ranked No. 1 in the country, the Gophers No. 3. This was a game that ended up deciding the national championship.
But here is what Davis remembers most: Sandy Stephens and Wilburn Hollis.
In the biggest game of the season, on college football’s biggest stage, Davis remembers the joy of seeing two national powers being quarterbacked — being led — by black athletes.
“The nation was watching,” said Davis, now a 68-year-old retired local businessman. “The Big Ten at that time was the conference. It was it. As a young African-American it made me realize, here were teams that would recruit you on your merits. It was overwhelming.”
Saturday, the Gophers and Hawkeyes play at TCF Bank Stadium, the 108th meeting between the teams. None was as big as the one Nov. 5, 1960, both for what was at stake and for the game’s historical importance, even if it would take years to fully appreciate it. This was 1960, a time when rosters of major schools in the south were all white. It wasn’t until 1967 when the first black player appeared in a Southeast Conference game, and not until 1971 that Bear Bryant brought the first black player to Alabama’s sideline.
But on the field that day at Memorial Stadium were Stephens, from Uniontown, Pa., and Hollis, a Mississippi native who came to Iowa by way of Boys Town, a home for at-risk children in Nebraska. And there were more standout black athletes. In the Gophers backfield were Judge Dickson and Bill Munsey. Iowa had running backs Larry Ferguson and Joe Williams. Bobby Bell was a Gophers sophomore lineman from North Carolina who would end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/281875021.html
Go Gophers!!
