This “Game of the Decade” would prove to be a major milestone in American race relations. Whether they knew it or not, the teams were playing for more than just a National Championship. MSU’s team, with 20 Black players and 11 Black starters, had been called the “Grambling of the North.” The racists poked fun at how Black Daugherty’s team was, at the same time that Black fans and Pacific Islanders across the country applauded. Symbolically, this epic match between Notre Dame, with only one Black player, Alan Page, and the Spartans, whose starting lineup was Blacker than any seen at a
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