How Sam “Bam” Cunningham Changed Football Forever
Sam Cunningham’s life is governed by four general rules. His father had always stressed to him from a young age that “what you start you can’t quit” and “give everything that you have”. His elementary school football coach completed the list, adding, “have fun” and “be a good teammate” during his second and third grade years playing flag football in Santa Barbara.
Believe it or not, these four rules were all Cunningham needed to help him progress from elementary school football to the National Football League, including a spectacular performance in Tuscaloosa that changed the football world forever.
On Sept. 12, 1970 the USC football team made history by becoming the first integrated program to play and defeat the segregated Alabama team on a warm night at Denny Stadium. The Trojans emerged victorious from the two powerhouses in a 43–21 rout in Tuscaloosa, triggering the movement to incorporate African Americans into football programs across the South.
The Crimson Tide, led by head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, were coming off of three national championships in the last nine years. Bryant was known to rule by fear; to him, 1963’s 9–2 season was considered a “losing season” in need of a team rebuild. However, he had earned the respect of the players and fans through many successful seasons and became a statewide celebrity.
On the other side of the country, the University of Southern California was building their team under head coach John McKay. In 1962, the Trojans posted an undefeated record, capping off the season with a national championship victory. McKay was respected greatly for his work at USC as they established a dominant dynasty that would ooze into the 21st century.
So what was so different about these two successful programs under such well-respected coaches?
The answer lies deep in the evolving customs of American history: the University of Alabama, buried in the heart of Birmingham, had yet to accept people of color into their society as equals and still had many segregation laws in place. In the early 60s, Governor George Wallace banned all blacks from attending the university, and the entire team was white, along with the college. At USC, however, admissions had diversified as early as the 20s and the football program had already featured black players for decades.
When the NCAA expanded the regular season rules for the 1970 season, Bryant and McKay jumped at the opportunity to schedule a matchup between two of the strongest teams on the college football stage. Originally, the game marked the first game of the 1970 season, but over time, the September match in Tuscaloosa became known as the game that changed the football world forever.
Cunningham, a sophomore fullback in a crowded backfield, was not starting in the game over senior Charlie Evans. After a couple of plays, however, McKay rolled the dice by putting Cunningham in the game to test his skills against a high-caliber defense. When asked about his first run, Cunningham laughed and stretched his eight-foot wingspan to indicate the size of the holes he had to run through. He finished the game with 135 yards and two touchdowns on only 12 carries, exhausting the Tide’s defense both physically and mentally.
“I knew that if I didn’t perform well, I would get buried in the depth chart and never play again,” Cunningham said. “My motivation was to be the best football player that I could be that night.”
Cunningham said that although he didn’t recognize the significance of the game as it was happening, he realized years later how much of an impact it had on football culture across the country.
“It started out just a football game,” Cunningham said. “Over time, it became way more that. It changed football.”
After the game, the team was escorted back onto the bus where they travelled by the small black households to get to the airport. To their surprise, the majority of the black families cheered at the sight of the bus even though the Trojans had just dethroned their hometown team. The people were showing their true colors, prioritizing racial justice over football in an exclusive, repressive environment.
“Any other week they would have wanted Alabama to win,” Cunningham said. “This week was different because there were people of color who looked like them playing on the other side of the field.”
After the game, Bryant made it clear that he was going to start recruiting African Americans onto his team to improve their record and freshen their reputation. After the fall of 1970, the Crimson Tide began to incorporate more and more black players into their culture, soon becoming the diverse Alabama powerhouse that we see today.
“You had to have been there to understand the enormity of the respect people had for this man,” — Hall of Fame Quarterback Joe Namath in the documentary Against the Tide.
Cunningham went on to play another year at USC and was drafted 11th overall in the 1973 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. The Trojan alum became the team’s all-time leading rusher with over 5,400 yards and finished his career with 43 rushing touchdowns.
To Cunningham, though, the power of sports goes beyond the football field.
“Football brings out your character, good or bad,” Cunningham said. “It takes a lot of different people from a lot of different places and a lot of different ideas and forces you to either get with it or not get with it.”
