Yesterday, I looked at how both the NFL and the upstart AFL dealt with the issue of integration in pro football. The common reframe is that the young, nontraditional AFL was more innovative and enlightened than the NFL, particularly on the issue of black players in pro football and the scouting of talent from small historically black colleges. The numbers don’t bear that out with black players generally, but today I want to focus on the game that is most responsible for creating that narrative: Super Bowl IV. [continue reading…]

There are over 100 academic institutions that are identified by the US Department of Education as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). But when it comes to football, three stand out:

• Grambling State University is located in northern Louisiana in the city of Grambling. Prominent alumni include four Hall of Famers — Willie Davis, Willie Brown, Buck Buchanan, and Charlie Joiner, along with great players like Everson Walls, Albert Lewis, Gary Johnson, Ernie Ladd, Tank Younger, and Doug Williams.  There have been a record 121 Tigers from Grambling State drafted.

• Tennessee State University is located in Nashville, Tennessee. More draft value has been spent on TSU Tigers than on any other HBCU. Prominent alumni include Hall of Famers Richard Dent and Claude Humphrey.  In the pros, these players have not had the success of the Grambling players, but in terms of draft value, they can’t be topped: Too Tall Jones was selected first overall, Humphrey and Waymond Bryant were top-5 picks, and Dan Williams, Vern Holland, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Jim Marsalis, and Eldridge Dickey were all top-25 picks.  A whopping 117 players from TSU were drafted.

• Jackson State is located in Jackson, Mississippi, about halfway in between New Orleans and Memphis. The JSU Tigers have four Hall of Famers in Walter Payton, Jackie Slater, Lem Barney, and Robert Brazile.  Jackson State is also home to two of the best receivers not in the Hall of Fame: Jaguars great Jimmy Smith and Harold Jackson, who comfortably led all players in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns in the 1970s.  Coy Bacon, Wilbert Montgomery, and Leon Gray all went to Jackson State, among other stars, helping the school provide more AV in the pros than any other HBCU. There have been 101 players from JSU drafted by the NFL.

A fourth school, Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, is in its own tier as the 4th most prominent HBCU when it comes to NFL success.  There have been 78 Jaguars drafted and only one — Isiah Robertson — was selected in the first round.  So it hasn’t had quite the success as Grambling, Tennessee State, or Jackson State at putting players into the pros. But the Jaguars sure have been successful once they got there (including Robertson, a fringe HOF candidate). Two Hall of Fame cornerbacks, Mel Blount and Aeneas Williams, were drafted in the third round, while WR Harold Carmichael was a 7th round pick.  And one of the best defensive ends during his prime was Broncos legend Rich “Tomstone” Jackson, was also a Jaguar. [continue reading…]

For purposes of today’s post, I am defining major college football programs in the South and Texas as the schools in three major conferences. These 30 schools represent most of the major college football programs in the South, Southeast, and Texas. However, I am going to exclude the “northern” schools from these conferences, for reasons that will soon become clear.

The three conferences are the SEC, the ACC, and the former Southwestern Conference (the SWC). The 30 schools are:

• 13 of the 14 current SEC schools, excluding Missouri. ^[1]These include all 10 schools in the SEC as of the late 1960s, plus three schools that would otherwise qualify anyway: South Carolina (then in ACC), Texas A&M (then in the SWC), and Arkansas (then … Continue reading

• 11 of the 14 current ACC schools, excluding Syracuse, Boston College, and Pittsburgh. ^[2]These include all 8 ACC schools at the time other than Maryland (now in the Big 10 and a “northern” school) and South Carolina (included in this analysis by virtue of being in the SEC … Continue reading

• The Texas schools that were in the SWC at the time: that includes these 6 schools: ^[3]In addition to Texas A&M and Arkansas, which are of course now in the SEC. Texas, TCU, Texas Tech, Baylor, Rice, and SMU.

So why am I excluding the northern schools? They integrated much earlier than the southern schools. Most of the schools in this group of 30 didn’t really integrate until the very late ’60s or early ’70s. Meanwhile, Jim Brown was playing at Syracuse in 1954 and Bobby Grier was famously playing at Pittsburgh at the same time. I also chose to use the old SWC rather than the current Big 12, because that is more reflective of those times. Schools like Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri were in the old Big 8, but those schools were much better at integration than the old SWC. Also, other schools in Texas, like Houston, were a few years ahead of the Texas schools in the SWC. We will deal with the non-SWC Texas schools at the end.

So now we have our group of 30 schools that were the major college programs in the south or Texas over the last 60 years. And, thanks to yesterday’s work, we have a history of players drafted from HBCUs. So let’s compare: the graph below shows the draft value used on players from these 30 southern schools in red compared to the draft value spent on players from HBCUs in blue. You can see a clear dip in talent in the southern/Texas schools in the late ’60s, and it’s directly related to segregation: [continue reading…]

The first NFL Draft took place in 1936. But for players attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), it wasn’t until 1950 that the draft would hold any significance. Later, for a short window in the late ’60s and early ’70s, players from these tiny HBCUs dominated the draft. And finally, with a few notable exceptions, the prominence of HBCU players in the NFL Draft all but disappeared. Today, a look at NFL draft results and how players from HBCUs were valued in each draft. However, to start the story in the 1950s would be woefully inadequate. [continue reading…]

Drafts in the early 1970s were long by modern standards, with 442 players selected. If the 1971 NFL Draft is remembered for anything, it’s for having three quarterbacks go with the first three picks in the draft: Stanford’s Jim Plunkett, Mississippi’s Archie Manning, and Santa Clara’s Dan Pastorini. But more than any other draft in NFL history, the 1971 NFL Draft represented the changing landscape of college football — and the country.

Fifty years ago, many Division 1 schools still operated independent from any conference affiliation. There were 56 players selected from such schools in the ’71 Draft, including 10 from Houston, 6 from Pittsburgh, 5 from Notre Dame, and 4 each from Penn State, Tulane, and Boston College.

The Big 10 led all conferences with 52 players drafted. That number just to 60 players drafted from schools in the 2020 version of the Big 10, which you reach by including the players drafted from Nebraska and Penn State.

The SEC had 31 players drafted in 1971, and 46 players if you include existing SEC schools not in the conference fifty years ago. ^[1]Those schools: South Carolina, Missouri, Texas A&M, and Arkansas.

The Pac-8 (the predecessor to the current Pac-12) had 29 players drafted, and 44 players chosen from schools now in the Pac-12. ^[2]Adding Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State, and Utah.

The Big 8 conference (the predecessor to the current Big 12) had 34 players drafted; the Southwest Conference (another predecessor to the Big 12) had 23 draftees that year, with players from Texas and Arkansas making up the majority of that group. There were 35 players drafted in 1971 among modern Big 12 schools.

The ACC had only 11 players drafted, although there were 26 players drafted from schools currently in the ACC. [continue reading…]