Breaking the Huddle

I just finished watching Breaking the Huddle a documentary about integrated football in the southern conferences of college football in the 60's during the civil rights movement. The documentary deals with teams such as Auburn, Alabama, Maryland, Ole Miss, and many other southern schools. Darrell Hill was the first player to play for a southern school in Maryland in 1963 after being recruited to play football for them. There were no black people in the stands which didn't make him too happy and he said that he would do something about it. His first game played was against Clemson a school that was non integrated school. His first game was a game for the record books he caught 10 balls for a ACC single pass catch record. This was amazing for civil rights movement because of his contribution to the Maryland football team. Another player that was great was Jerry LeVias who played for SMU in Dallas, Texas. He was the first black player in the southern western conference on a scholarship. His first practice was not one of his best ones and was spat on and he kicked in the ribs. He dealt with this adversity by starting his junior and catching a 65 yard pass during a game where he was a threatened by a sniper rifle but he didn't quit. That was until one game where he got tackled and the player rolled over him and spat on his face. He got to the sideline and told his coach that he could not take it anymore, and his coach asked him if he was going to let a guy like that beat him. So Levais went back on the field and told his coach before that he was going to run back a punt for a touchdown. He went back on the field and ran a 89 yard punt for a touchdown but he didn't do out of the love of the game but out of anger and hatred for the white man. He said it was the worst touchdown of his college career. There were other players but I thought these two stood out for there courageous efforts for the rights of the African American race.