This statue of the first four African-American players to play football at Kentucky was unveiled in 1966, 50 years after UK football helped integrate the SEC. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Writer Tom Shanahan believes Michigan State could use Kentucky as an example of how to recognize its football history. Shanahan wrote that former Michigan State football coach Duffy Daugherty not only won a national championship but did it with an integrated roster. In 1962, the Associated Press reported Michigan State’s 17 black athletes were the most in major college football history.
Michigan State won national championships in 1965 and 1966. Apparently, Michigan State has considered erecting a statue of Daugherty but school administrators never did.
Shanahan says a statue of just the coach would not be enough. Instead, any statue should also “recognize the 1960s teams and the southern black high school coaches that steered talent to East Lansing and should highlight the 1965 and 1966 national championship teams as a tipping point.”
Shanahan provided a list of college football programs that have honored “their true 1960’s pioneers” including Iowa in 2021, Texas in 2020, and UK in 2016. Houston, UCLA, Auburn, Syracuse, SMU, Drake, Wyoming, Missouri, and Iowa State did it before UK.
Paul Karem was a teammate of UK”s Nate Northington and Greg Page, the first two African-American players in the SEC in 1966. Wilbur Hackett and Houston Hogg both joined the Cats a year later.
Karem spent years trying to get UK athletics to recognize his four former teammates before it was finally done and now what Kentucky finally did is being used as an example of what Michigan State should do.
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You can see Shanahan’s full report here:
https://tomshanahan.report/2021/10/kentucky-provides-michigan-state-with-example-to-follow/
