LETS GO WAAAAAAAAAAY BACK
Let's start from State's rise into the Big Ten. In the 1930's and 40's, MSU began to make a name for itself as an independent team. Another independent team, Notre Dame, started playing MSU every year, in part to help Michigan State develop a national reputation. Although the rivalry with ND stands today, it's important to remember that their actions directly helped MSU get into the Big Ten.
In 1946, when the U of Chicago withdrew from the Big Ten, Michigan State sought to take its place. In 1949, the Big Ten teams voted for the Spartans to join the Big Ten, by a vote of 8-1. Can you guess what school voted no? Just to be sure they deserved it, MSU went a combined 18-0 in 1951-52, earning a national championship in '52.
The legendary Duffy Daugherty started coaching MSU in 1954. His biggest claims to fame are 2 national championships in 1961 and 1962. However, in realm of history, his biggest accomplishment was heavily recruiting black athletes - at that time, heavy racism didn't allow for many black athletes to join major teams. Duffy was helped with this by the coach of Alabama who recommended to black players who wanted to play for the Crimson Tide to join the Spartans, instead - the administration and culture in the south didn't make it easy for him to have black players, even though he wanted them. That coach was none other than Paul "Bear" Bryant.
Duffy and his team certainly embraced the Michigan rivalry, making it the biggest game every year. He had his hands full, however - some guy named Bo Schembechler took over in 1969. There's quite a few stories of MSU lore that came out of Duffy's tenure. Here's a great one, from his autobiography:
I remember a fine young quarterback named Pete Smith, and he became our quarterback by accident. He had been a pretty good high school player at Ecorse, Michigan, but he wasn't the type of kid you'd go out and beg on your hands and knees to come to Michigan State. Pete was what we call a walk-on. He didn't come to school on an athletic scholarship. More often than not, a walk-on walks out unnoticed three or four days after walking on.
But Pete became very important to us. We had recruited two good quarterbacks the year before, but both of them got big bonus contracts in baseball and that left our freshman team without a recruited quarterback. So Pete was it. He weighed 165 pounds and he didn't have intimidating strength. At a banquet, you might mistake him for a bus boy.
So Pete started the first game of his junior year simply because we didn't have anybody else. We beat Wisconsin 20-0. The next week, we defeated Stanford rather handily, but in the middle of the game, Pete's father died. He was in the stands in East Lansing. The funeral was scheduled for the following Thursday so, naturally, Pete went home for the entire week. It was prior to our all-important game against Michigan, and I cannot describe the mood of our practices that week. Hardly anyone spoke. Pete had said he would be back on Thursday following the services, so we held the start of practice up half an hour. We had been working quite a while when Pete came onto the field. Everyone saw him, and the young quarterback who had been running the first string offense in Pete's absence simply trotted over to the other side, as if to say, "O.K., Pete, here's your job back."
The players still were quiet when Pete went into the huddle. When he finally looked at them, all he said was, "I didn't come back here to lose to Michigan."
Pete played the most inspired game I've ever seen anyone play. He did nothing you could call spectacular, but here was a young man with what you'd honestly have to call ordinary ability, and he reached deep down within himself that afternoon on Michigan's field before 103,198 fans and led the Spartans to a 28-0 victory.
But Pete became very important to us. We had recruited two good quarterbacks the year before, but both of them got big bonus contracts in baseball and that left our freshman team without a recruited quarterback. So Pete was it. He weighed 165 pounds and he didn't have intimidating strength. At a banquet, you might mistake him for a bus boy.
So Pete started the first game of his junior year simply because we didn't have anybody else. We beat Wisconsin 20-0. The next week, we defeated Stanford rather handily, but in the middle of the game, Pete's father died. He was in the stands in East Lansing. The funeral was scheduled for the following Thursday so, naturally, Pete went home for the entire week. It was prior to our all-important game against Michigan, and I cannot describe the mood of our practices that week. Hardly anyone spoke. Pete had said he would be back on Thursday following the services, so we held the start of practice up half an hour. We had been working quite a while when Pete came onto the field. Everyone saw him, and the young quarterback who had been running the first string offense in Pete's absence simply trotted over to the other side, as if to say, "O.K., Pete, here's your job back."
The players still were quiet when Pete went into the huddle. When he finally looked at them, all he said was, "I didn't come back here to lose to Michigan."
Pete played the most inspired game I've ever seen anyone play. He did nothing you could call spectacular, but here was a young man with what you'd honestly have to call ordinary ability, and he reached deep down within himself that afternoon on Michigan's field before 103,198 fans and led the Spartans to a 28-0 victory.
The year after Duffy retired, 1973, MSU made one hell of a dig at the Wolverines. In the final game of their season, Michigan tied Ohio State, 10-10. However, UM clearly looked like the better team and most likely didn't win because their starting QB broke his collarbone. As was the practice back then, the AD's of the Big Ten voted whether to send UM of OSU to the Rose Bowl. MSU Athletic Director Jack Breslin and UM's AD, Don Canham, were as far from friends as you can be. Breslin voted against UM and the Buckeyes went to Pasadena. Bo Schembechler was clearly not a fan of the decision, as his team proceed to win 11 out of the next 13 games against the Spartans.
So there's a brief history lesson about the Duffy Daugherty era in MSU history. I leave you with this...because it's entertaining:
