College Career
Cunningham was a letterman for University of Southern California's football team from 1970 through 1972 where he played fullback. He was named an All-American in 1972. He was a member of USC’s 1972 national championship team. In the 1973 Rose Bowl, he scored four touchdowns, which still stands as a modern-day Rose Bowl record. He was named Rose Bowl Player of the Game. He was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1992 and into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010.
He had a notable performance (135 yards, 2 touchdowns) against an all-white University of Alabama football team, as USC beat Alabama 42-21 in Birmingham on September 12, 1970. His performance in the game was reportedly a factor in convincing the University of Alabama and its fans to let Coach Bear Bryant integrate Southern football. Jerry Claiborne, a former Bryant assistant, said, "Sam Cunningham did more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King did in 20 years."
Despite the legend surrounding the story, Bryant had already taken a step toward integrating his team. Wilbur Jackson, the first African-American offered a scholarship by the University of Alabama, watched the game from the stands, ineligible to play as a freshman due to NCAA rules at the time.
Read more about this topic: Sam Cunningham
Famous quotes containing the words college and/or career:
“Placing too much importance on where a child goes rather than what he does there . . . doesn’t take into account the child’s needs or individuality, and this is true in college selection as well as kindergarten.”
—Norman Giddan (20th century)
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)