Sam Cunningham

You may know him for being a Pro Bowl running back for the New England Patriots in 1978.

Or you may know him for being the 1973 Rose MVP, winning the USC Trojans the national championship by running for a still-standing record of four touchdowns in that game.

Or perhaps you know him simply as Randall Cunningham’s older brother.

But that’s not how I remember him.

Living in Los Angeles now, I hear him on radio shows and television programs and occasionally in the play-by-play booths of particular games, and all anybody ever wants to talk to him about is the memorable 1970 game in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

On September 12 of that year, his first as a player at USC, he and the Trojans went to take on Bear Bryant’s all-white Alabama Crimson Tide. There were protests in town not wanting USC’s black players to play in the nationally televised game, but it didn’t take.

After it was all said and done, Cunningham touched the ball just 12 times, but accumulated 135 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the 41-21 demolition of the Tide.

Legend has it that coach Bryant went and got Cunningham, brought him into his lockerroom and told his players, “now, THIS is what a football player looks like!”

That one performance is said to have been the very thing that triggered the intigration of football in the South. The very next season, Alabama’s team had its first three black players in school history.

So, here’s to Sam Cunningham for having a Pro Bowl NFL career.

Here’s to Sam Cunningham for having a Hall of Fame college career.

And, especially, here’s to Sam Cunningham for being a trailblazer in the world of college athletics forever. A very special OLD SCHOOL LOVE is sent your way, sir!