You can see a trailer for the movie below. Paul International Film Festival, and hopefully will be moving on to some sort of wider release here in the future. The movie was shown at the recent Minneapolis/St. Now, Gene Washington’s daughter Maya has documented her father’s journey from high school to Michigan State and on to the NFL in a documentary entitled Through the Banks of the Red Cedar. In fact, the 1967 NFL Draft featured African-American players from that Michigan State squad as the #1 (Smith), #2 (Jones), #5 (linebacker George Webster), and #8 (Washington) overall selections. That class wound up winning two college football National Championships for the Spartans and produced numerous NFL Draft picks, including Washington, Jones, and Bubba Smith (who went on to star in the Police Academy movies after his career in the NFL). We didn’t talk about that all the time, but we knew we had something to prove, and this is our opportunity.” We bonded at Michigan State because we all had similar stories. “All of the states where we were from, they would not take black athletes. “All the Southern players, we were outcasts from our own states,” said former Michigan State wide receiver Gene Washington, a native of La Porte, Texas. As a part of that Michigan State team, Washington and Jones played a big role into the widespread integration of college football, because many of the colleges in their home states wouldn’t accept African-American athletes in their football programs. Washington was one of the Vikings’ three first round picks in the 1967 NFL Draft (along with his Michigan State teammate, running back Clinton Jones, and a defensive lineman from Notre Dame you may have heard of named Alan Page). Many of our old school fans likely recognize the name of Gene Washington. Thank you to the folks from WCCO for bringing this story to our attention.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |