Duffy Daugherty was a humorist, trailblazer, and, oh yeah, the MSU football coach

LANSING — Hugh Duffy Daugherty guided Michigan State University's football program to national prominence.

In a 19-year reign, from 1954 to 1972, he had a 109-69-5 record. 

As head coach, Daugherty’s two greatest teams were the 1965 and 1966 teams. Both squads went through undefeated 10-game regular season schedules, won Big Ten championships and gained top national recognition.

Daugherty coached 22 first team All-Americans and 51 first team All-Big Ten selections.

But probably more rewarding to him was the fact he recruited 59 black players to play football at MSU during a time when they could not play for powerhouse schools in the South.

Author David Claerbaut has written a new book about Daugherty: "Duffy Daugherty: A Man Ahead of His Time," published by Michigan State University Press.

In it, he writes about the 1966 "Game of the Century" and other highlights of Daugherty's life.

Claerbaut has written a number of sports books, about the Chicago Cubs under Leo Durocher and Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr and college football recruiting and other topics, as well.

Claerbaut's editor, Mike Emmerich, was an MSU grad, and "he was on fire for Michigan State," Claerbaut said. "He said, 'Somebody should write a book about Duffy Daugherty.' So he gives me a contract and I write the book. This goes back maybe 15, 16 years.

"I started researching it, and I found him unbelievably fascinating, Duffy Daugherty. So it was easy to really get into it once I started writing it."

But the publishing house Emmerich worked for,  Rowman & Littlefield, turned it down, Claerbaut said, because they weren't sure they'd be able to sell enough books.

"I’m now stuck with a manuscript that’s done. I went to Michigan State University Press recently, and they were very happy to get it. From there, the book took off."

The Historical Society of Greater Lansing and MSU Press are bringing Claerbaut to Lansing for a free event to talk about and sign his new book at 7 p.m. Oct. 25, at the Library of Michigan.

"Duffy wrote an autobiography 1972, and I thought 'maybe that’s all you need,' but after I read this, this was a lot more entertaining," said Bill Castanier, president of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing. "It gives you a real insight into Duffy Daugherty’s personality. He was a funny, funny, guy.

"This book takes the entire career, puts it into perspective and it shows more of Duffy the man, more than the football coach, I think."

What did you learn about Duffy that you didn’t know that people should know about him?

I remember well, his great teams in 1965 and 1966. I remember how quotable he was. He was always kind of the face and the personality of Michigan State football.

I went to Calvin College in the mid-1960s, which is in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and only an hour away. So I wasn’t far from the drumbeat of those great years. Obviously I was surrounded with the glamour of Michigan State football. So in that respect I was caught up in it too and actually went  to a few games. They were just dominating.

When I started studying Duffy more, and I got into what an incredible humorist he was, and how bright he was, but also how insightful he was as a coach and then how much of a trailblazer he was in the issue of race, it just became more and more compelling to write his story.

Why do you think Duffy recruited so many black players when others wouldn’t?

Duffy was recruiting players from the South, not from the North. And a lot of these kids, were really good players. Some of the well-known coaches in the south, like Bear Bryant, were coaching at places like the University of Alabama, that still had very tight segregationist policies in almost every area of the school, certainly in sports.

Some of these coaches, who were really well-known, and were successful as was Duffy, would literally give Duffy the names of these kids and say, 'Look, you should check this kid out in South Carolina, or in Alabama, or in Texas, because he could really play for you.' And that really got Duffy going. He brought the kids north and, to the best of my knowledge, they graduated because he was very careful in protecting them from things that would distract them. And so, as a result, it turned out to be a very much of a win-win situation.

I heard, read, saw, almost no push back from any of these players, retrospectively, against Duffy. So apparently he was really a man of his word.

How did the recruitment of so many black players resonate with other colleges?

At that time, there was still a dearth of black athletes in universities North and South. So  he had probably two and three times the number of black players than most universities in the North had. And he had some highly talented kids there. He may have very quickly vaulted to the top in terms of talent in the Big Ten.

I can remember that time. You might see two or three black players on each Big Ten team. I don’t mean there weren’t more, but as far as players you really would hear of, that would be star players, there’d only be maybe two or three because there was so much racism. The attitude would be, 'Hey, I don’t want to bring too many blacks and turn off my white fans, so the ones that were out there were usually really good players.' Duffy had far more than most and took a lot of heat for that.

In the book, there’s one place where he meets with a group of Notre Dame fans, and one of the first questions was someone using the "N" word. They asked, "How many...are you gonna have on this year’s team?" They asked this publicly. I don’t remember his exact words, but it was a very dismissive answer. He was insulted at the question. He said "As many as are good enough to play for this team will be on the team."

What are your memories of the 'Game of the Century'?

I was in college at that time and almost from the beginning of the football season, we were counting down the weeks before Michigan State met Notre Dame in the final game of the regular season for Michigan State. It was Nov. 19, 1966.

People could see at the beginning of the year they were two dominant teams, and they’re probably both going to be undefeated when they met at the end and, of course, that's what happened. The buildup was almost 2 ½ to 3 months long to that game.

The game was played, and it winds up being so tight, so close, only to discover in the last two minutes, that Notre Dame abandons all hope of winning and simply runs out the clock.

I watched it on TV. With about two minutes left, Notre Dame stopped trying to score. And just simply ran out the clock. And it took me about, like probably millions of other fans, about maybe a minute or two, to come to grips with the fact that this team is not playing to win. They’re literally playing to tie.

It was one of the most eerie experiences that I’ve had in all of the years I’ve followed sports.

Duffy Daugherty: A Man Ahead of His Time

Discussion and book signing with author David Claerbaut

7 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Library of Michigan,  702 W. Kalamazoo St., Lansing; free.

The book may be purchased from MSU Press, Schuler Books & Music, Barnes & Noble and at the signing event.

More:From the Archives: 'Game of the Century'

From the Archives: MSU vs U-M football rivalry

Contact Vickki Dozier at (517) 267-1342 or vdozier@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @vickkiD.