Daugherty bio leads MSU Press to crack down on plagiarism

MSU Press has begun checking all manuscripts for plagiarism in light of complaints by the daughter of Michigan State University football legend Gene Washington, a school spokesperson said.

The action comes after claims that David Claerbaut, the author of “Duffy Daugherty: A Man Ahead of His Time,”  plagiarized and or failed to cite sources in the 2018 book, which tells the story of how the late MSU football coach Duffy Daugherty created a pipeline to recruit Southern Black players to his championship teams in the 1960s.

Washington’s daughter, Maya Washington, sent the complaints to the university last year. Her father was an All-American receiver for Daughterty in the mid-‘60s.

Maya Washington has written a book, “Through the Banks of the Red Cedar: My Father and the Team That Changed the Game,” and produced a documentary, “Through the Banks of the Red Cedar,” that was shown on PBS and is partially based on her father’s experience with those teams.

Maya Washington provided numerous examples of plagiarism, including a direct quote from Daugherty’s autobiography about a drunk at a golf outing yelling, “Hey Duff, how many n…..s are you going to start this season?” that ended up in Claerbaut’s book. Another example was a quote from team member Clinton Jones about his work with Big Brothers of America that was taken in its entirety from Sports Illustrated magazine.

MSU spokesperson Dan Olsen said by email, “After reviewing the book for plagiarism, there were some instances in which the author paraphrased and writing closely aligned with former sports articles (like the Sports Illustrated citations).

 “This is something we would have addressed directly with the author to correct and reissue the book. However, since the author is now deceased, we felt it was best to return the rights to the estate.”

That action was taken in September 2023. The book had been temporarily pulled from sales in July 2023, more than one year after the complaints from Washington.

Olsen said, “To my knowledge, this is the first time concerns were raised about a book printed with the Greenstone imprint (a non-academic subsidiary of MSU Press).”

Olsen said manuscripts will be run through software designed to detect possible plagiarism.

Rita Claerbaut, the author’s widow, expressed surprise at the controversy. She said her late husband, who was a prolific writer, had never been accused of plagiarism.

Another author, Tom Shanahan, who wrote the book “Raye of Light” about Jimmy Raye, the quarterback of MSU’s 1966 championship team and a National Football League executive, said the Daugherty book also quoted information from his book.

Maya Washington said she and her family first heard of the book when they learned a script had been written based on its contents for a film called “Black Spartans” that was already in production.

She said she went through the book carefully and documented citations that she typed into Google since she lacked a digital copy and discovered many direct uses of information from previously printed sources, including the Lansing State Journal, Sports Illustrated and Daugherty’s autobiography.

After submitting her findings to MSU, she said she waited for a response. But when none was forthcoming, she and her family were able to schedule a Zoom conversation with acting MSU President Teresa Woodruff in April 2023. That seemed to do the trick, and the book was removed from MSU’s catalog after selling 633 copies.

The movie also has not made it into distribution. MSU legal counsel sent a letter to the movie-makers saying, basically, that the school would not cooperate in any way with the project. In addition, a group of MSU players from the 1965 and 1966 teams hired counsel, which sent a cease-and-desist order to the producers in an attempt to prevent the film from going forward.

Shanahan said that the real story of Daugherty’s football underground railroad still hasn’t been told properly or accurately, and he has two books in process that will help tell that amazing story. One is a children’s picture book, and the other is about the Hawaiian connection to MSU football. He also said there is a full-length documentary working its way to production.

During the 1966 season, 20 Black players were on the MSU team roster, including 11 starters, three of whom, George Webster, Bubba Smith and Washington, were named All-Americans.

“Duffy opened the floodgates” for teams across the country, Shanahan said.