College football history

stephenPE

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Fifty Years On, Remembering The Tampa Football Game That Broke Racial Barriers

Fifty years ago, a college football game in Tampa helped change the course of race relations in America. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 29, 1969, a predominantly white school played an all black university in the Deep South for the first time.

The University of Tampa was a mostly white football team on an eight-game winning streak. Florida A&M, in Tallahassee, was also winning a lot, but was unranked, because its players were all African-American and they played only black teams. Maybe 78 has some input on this. Surely, Tom McEwen wrote about it

I remember the Tampa college team well. A few years later they had Freddie Solomon at QB and he was unreal. Always had some great players. The QB in this (for Tampa) game was the backup QB at Miami when they won those Super Bowls. I never heard this story before. Fran Curci went up in my mind from this. We called him Fran Cursed when he pitched that fit over the game Reaves broke the yardage record against scUM.
 

gardnerwebbgator

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My dad always told me stories about the Tampa teams, along with watching NFL exhibition games in a half built Tampa Stadium pre-Bucs.
 

Since65

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Saw plenty of Saturday night games at the old Tampa stadium back in the day. The Spartans had some really good teams.

Leon McQuay was their first black player on scholarship. All The Way McQuay was an outstanding running back, 2 time All American and a couple of excellent seasons in the CFL.

John Matuszack played there and was the #1 pick in the NFL draft. That was a huge accomplishment for a small school like UT.

They were fun to watch during the late 60's/early 70's and drew pretty good crowds for their home games.
 

Frozen Gator

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Fifty Years On, Remembering The Tampa Football Game That Broke Racial Barriers



I remember the Tampa college team well. A few years later they had Freddie Solomon at QB and he was unreal. Always had some great players. The QB in this (for Tampa) game was the backup QB at Miami when they won those Super Bowls. I never heard this story before. Fran Curci went up in my mind from this. We called him Fran Cursed when he pitched that fit over the game Reaves broke the yardage record against scUM.
John Matusak (sp) was also on that Tampa team with Solomon. I watched them beat Vandy there.
 

stephenPE

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Leon McQuay was their first black player on scholarship. All The Way McQuay was an outstanding running back, 2 time All American and a couple of excellent seasons in the CFL.

John Matuszack played there and was the #1 pick in the NFL draft. That was a huge accomplishment for a small school like UT.
Good remembering 65. McQay was a stud and played his whole NFL career in the frozen north I believe. Matuszack eventually killed himself with steroids I think. I remember Solomon would bust at least two long runs every game from the QB position and then had the great career at Miami. Much like Nat Moore.
 

Frozen Gator

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Good remembering 65. McQay was a stud and played his whole NFL career in the frozen north I believe. Matuszack eventually killed himself with steroids I think. I remember Solomon would bust at least two long runs every game from the QB position and then had the great career at Miami. Much like Nat Moore.
I think McQuay played in Canada but I could be mistaken.
 

AlexDaGator

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Fifty Years On, Remembering The Tampa Football Game That Broke Racial Barriers



I remember the Tampa college team well. A few years later they had Freddie Solomon at QB and he was unreal. Always had some great players. The QB in this (for Tampa) game was the backup QB at Miami when they won those Super Bowls. I never heard this story before. Fran Curci went up in my mind from this. We called him Fran Cursed when he pitched that fit over the game Reaves broke the yardage record against scUM.

Who are you thinking of Coach?

The Miami back-up QB for the Superbowl winning '72 and '73 seasons was Earl Morrall who played college ball at Michigan State. Bob Griese broke his leg early in the perfect '72 season and Morrall came off the bench and led Miami to most of those wins (and by "led" I mean he turned around and handed the ball to Csonka, Kiiick, and Morris). I believe Griese came back during the AFC Championship game at Pittsburgh (yes, an undefeated Miami team had to go on the road in the playoffs, different rules then). There was some question as to who would start the Super Bowl, Morrall or Griese.

It couldn't have been Earl Morrall so you must be thinking of somebody else?


Alex.
 

AlexDaGator

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Good remembering 65. McQay was a stud and played his whole NFL career in the frozen north I believe. Matuszack eventually killed himself with steroids I think. I remember Solomon would bust at least two long runs every game from the QB position and then had the great career at Miami. Much like Nat Moore.

Painkillers. Darvocet.

He got into acting after his football career. He played Sloth in the Goonies.


Alex.
 

stephenPE

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Who are you thinking of Coach?

The Miami back-up QB for the Superbowl winning '72 and '73 seasons was Earl Morrall who played college ball at Michigan
In Del Gaizo's rookie season (his second season although his first one on an active roster), he was the backup quarterback in four appearances during the Dolphins' undefeated 17–0 season in 1972 that culminated in a victory in Super Bowl VII. Del Gaizo completed 5 of 9 passes for two touchdowns and one interception; he also lost one fumble.

After playing college football at both Syracuse and Tampa, Del Gaizo went unselected in the 1971 NFL Draft, which had only three quarterbacks taken in the first six rounds and only seventeen selected over the entire seventeen rounds. He is one of only two quarterbacks ever to play at Tampa who appeared in the NFL.
Jim Del Gaizo - Wikipedia
 

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