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Raye of Light
When Jimmy Raye enrolled at Michigan State University in 1964, he did more than just enroll in a university hundreds of miles from his native Fayetteville, he was part of a groundbreaking movement that changed college football forever.
His story, as well as his Spartan teammates and coach Duffy Daugherty, is told in Raye of the first book to fully explain Duffy Daugherty’s Underground Railroad and its impact on college football. History has not accorded Daugherty, Raye, and the Spartans proper credit for their roles in the integration of college football. Too many view Daugherty as recruiting a couple of All-American players from the South, winning a bunch of games with his 1965-66 teams and then having it all come to an end.
But that ignores the history made by Raye and the Spartans. In his junior season in 1966, Raye was Michigan State’s first black starting quarterback and the first black quarterback from the South to win a national title. The Michigan State team with a progressive head coach, a pioneer black quarterback, and the first fully integrated roster in college football is the subject of this engrossing new book by award-winning author Tom Shanahan.
In Raye of Light, Shanahan tells the story of how Daugherty integrated his Spartan teams in a time when leading college programs like the University of Alabama were still segregated, when it was unusual to see black athletes at skill positions like quarterback, and when choices for outstanding Southern black athletes were either traditionally black colleges or northern colleges opening their doors to nationwide recruits.
It’s been 50 years since Raye and his teammates made history, and issues of race still reverberate in college and pro football, both on the playing field and on coaching staffs. One need only to reflect on the ugly comments on Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling to realize we are not living in a post-racial society, making the inspiring tale of Raye, Bubba Smith, Duffy Daugherty and the rest of the 1965-1966 Michigan State Spartans even more relevant.
His story, as well as his Spartan teammates and coach Duffy Daugherty, is told in Raye of the first book to fully explain Duffy Daugherty’s Underground Railroad and its impact on college football. History has not accorded Daugherty, Raye, and the Spartans proper credit for their roles in the integration of college football. Too many view Daugherty as recruiting a couple of All-American players from the South, winning a bunch of games with his 1965-66 teams and then having it all come to an end.
But that ignores the history made by Raye and the Spartans. In his junior season in 1966, Raye was Michigan State’s first black starting quarterback and the first black quarterback from the South to win a national title. The Michigan State team with a progressive head coach, a pioneer black quarterback, and the first fully integrated roster in college football is the subject of this engrossing new book by award-winning author Tom Shanahan.
In Raye of Light, Shanahan tells the story of how Daugherty integrated his Spartan teams in a time when leading college programs like the University of Alabama were still segregated, when it was unusual to see black athletes at skill positions like quarterback, and when choices for outstanding Southern black athletes were either traditionally black colleges or northern colleges opening their doors to nationwide recruits.
It’s been 50 years since Raye and his teammates made history, and issues of race still reverberate in college and pro football, both on the playing field and on coaching staffs. One need only to reflect on the ugly comments on Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling to realize we are not living in a post-racial society, making the inspiring tale of Raye, Bubba Smith, Duffy Daugherty and the rest of the 1965-1966 Michigan State Spartans even more relevant.
- GenresFootball
318 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 24, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 10, 2020
A very interesting story about the integration of college football in the 1960's. It brings in the story of one of the great teams of the 60's thay is often forgotten. This story should have been told long ago. I was a student at MSU from 63 to 67 and knew many of the people in the story. Lots of interesting details.
My rating of a 3 is that I feel the book could have been edited much better. Each chapter seems to be written independently and then put together as a book. Many facts and statements are repeated numerous times, people dropped into a chapter that should have been mentioned previously and details put in seemingly out of context to that chapter.
I would give the story a 5 and the presentation a 2.
My rating of a 3 is that I feel the book could have been edited much better. Each chapter seems to be written independently and then put together as a book. Many facts and statements are repeated numerous times, people dropped into a chapter that should have been mentioned previously and details put in seemingly out of context to that chapter.
I would give the story a 5 and the presentation a 2.
March 22, 2020
College football fans everywhere should read this book.
January 7, 2016
Good historical perspective of the times. Make you stop and think about race relations then and now as well as athletics then and now. Definitely makes me want to talk to people I know that were at MSU at that time
May 29, 2015
Great read about the integration of college football and how so coaches chose to embrace it and how some who did nothing received much more credit than they deserved.
July 14, 2016
Great insight into college football in the mid-60's; especially Michigan State football since I grew up in Lansing during that time.
September 13, 2019
Awesome book that highlights an important but long ignored story. Very proud of my alma mater.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews