I don't typically spend a lot of time talking about serious issues but today is one.Most of you know I grew up in the South. I went to high school and college in Georgia. I married a girl from Mississippi and the vast majority of my immediate family is from the South. As such I have seen my share of race issues at times through my life. Surprising considering I was born after the civil rights era of MLK and Malcolm X, but true all the same.
I have heard my grandfather tell me and my cousin that he didn't want us to repeat the mistakes or have the same feelings he had. He grew up in Alabama and went to college in Birmingham in the 40s.
I have heard people say it was nice to not see black people. I have seen racism in EVERY state I lived in, yes, Indiana included.
I have had friends here questioned or looked at funny despite acting and wearing the same type clothing as everyone else. I have had friends not allowed into clubs for no reason.
However as a kid, I pretty much learned the right way to treat people. Actually I never thought anything about the fact that many of my best friends, especially in middle school and high school were African American or Hispanic. I just treated them just like any of my other friends.
So today was a nice day for me for lots of reasons.
My wife Jennifer is a lifelong Mississippi State fan and her older brother went to school there. A such I have adopted the Maroon Bulldogs as my second favorite SEC team. Mississippi State was a pretty decent team in the 1990s on the strength of some cheating by Jackie Sherrill, but in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Sherrill got in trouble with the NCAA and his recruiting left something to be desired. So when Sherrill won 5 games and only 1 in the SEC in 2002 and 2003 it was time for him to leave.
The coach selected to replace Sherrill was the lily "white" Sylvester Croom. Croom was lily white in reputation, but he is African American. He was one of the first African American's to play for Bear Bryant at Alabama. He then played 1 year in the NFL before coaching as an assistant at Alabama and in the NFL for about 30 years. Finally he took over as the head coach of one of the two major state universities in one of the nation's most historically racially heated states AND also the first African American Head Coach in Football in the Southeastern Conference.
I loved the choice from the beginning not just for the race relations aspect, but for the fact that I felt he was one of the best coaches in the country that never got a head job when people like Norv Turner in the NFL and Bob Toledo or Butch Davis in college keep getting jobs.
For his first three years it was a massive struggle for Croom. He took over a team that was attempting to compete in the toughest football conference in the country with a team that lacked talent and was on probation with the NCAA. For three years he finished with 3 wins per year but improvement was there. They beat Florida to get Ron Zook fired. They beat Croom's alma mater Alabama last year to get Mike Shula (the man who got the Alabama job when Croom wasn't hired) fired.
Finally this year, the Bulldogs had broken through. They got blown out to start the season versus LSU, but plugged away through the season with wins over ranked Alabama and Kentucky. The five losses this season were against teams that had combined records of 44-19 including 19-3 by LSU and West Virginia.
So when the Egg Bowl was played today Mississippi State was in line to finish the regular season 7-5, go to a bowl game with their best record since 2000 when they also went to their last bowl game. It was also Croom's chance to put the exclamation point on the comeback for the Bulldogs and finally get people to believe the t-shirts that were sold early in Croom's career with Maroon is all that matters.The Bulldogs made a huge comeback to overcome a 14-0 deficit for a 17-14 and Croom was speechless with emotion at the end of the game. This is one of my favorite sports moments of all time. Sly Croom, the first African American Head Coach in the SEC, beats one of the most historically racist schools in history to finish 7-5 and get to a bowl game doing it with integrity the whole way.
I loved it. Some of you know (well and all of you do now) that Jenn and I are expecting. I hope that our child will not have to witness the racism that has been in this country. I'm not naive enough to believe that it will never be there, but in baby steps walls are being broken down every day.
Cheers Sylvester...here's hoping you had the best Thanksgiving ever. I sure enjoyed it. I'm cheering you any week you don't play Georgia. 8-)
