After a year and half of reading assigned books for my Master’s program and sermon preparation, I finally was able to read books by choice while on vacation this week.   One of the books read was Turning of the Tide: How One Game Changed the South by Don Yeager.

When USC played Alabama in Birmingham in 197o, the Crimson Tide still only had white players.   The Trojans were integrated on their roster, and they dominated the football game.   Yeager proposes that this game was a key turning point for change in attitudes and practices in integration across the Deep South.

This was an important book to read, though it did get redundant.   As someone who loves college football, I find this book as an important snap shot on what the game was like forty years ago.

It’s amazing to me who much has changed since 1970 in society as a whole.   Sports can play an important role in being a mirror on what is happening in the larger society.