MSU football doc tackles racial division in American sports

If you’re a fan of Michigan State football, you know that the Spartans captured back-to-back titles in 1965 and 1966 under the leadership of the legendary coach Duffy Daugherty. But what you might not know is that Daugherty led the nation’s first fully racially integrated college football team. One of those players was Gene Washington — a wide receiver who would go on to play for the Minnesota Vikings and nab two Pro Bowl bids.

Washington’s daughter, Maya Washington, grew up to be a filmmaker. In 2018, she directed “Through the Banks of the Red Cedar," which captures the life of her father and chronicles his time on that historic MSU team and his experiences playing in the NFL. The film examines race relations in American football and will reach a wider audience when it airs on the Big Ten Network on Christmas Eve.

What inspired you to begin work on the documentary?

In 2011, my father’s teammate Bubba Smith passed away. I had the opportunity to attend the funeral service and spend some time with my dad and his teammates at Bubba’s home. I heard all of these amazing stories from their time at Michigan State in the ’60s and learned that it was Bubba Smith’s father who recommended my dad for the opportunity he was able to get at Michigan State.

They lived miles apart in Texas, Bubba Smith in Beaumont and my dad in La Porte. This was during segregation, so the idea that one family would recommend another family’s child for an opportunity to play football and track at Michigan State was unheard of. Most people are focused on finding places for their own kids in the college recruitment game. I had a desire to learn more about this amazing piece of history, but also to say thank you for what their simple gesture ultimately did for my life.

What did you learn about your father’s experience on Duffy Daugherty’s legendary teams? Did he know at the time that he was a part of a watershed moment in American sports history?

For my dad and the other Black players, their focus was achieving a better life for themselves through education. They were obviously aware of what was happening with the major civil rights movement as the political backdrop of what was happening at Michigan.

John Hannah, then president of the university, chaired the United States Civil Rights Commission. The climate at Michigan State was one that reflected the values of what was to come in the future of universities around the nation.

Along with civil rights legislation, it inspired others to abandon the segregation of the past that would have prevented Black players from attending those schools and participating in college athletics. I would say that players from those teams now understand their importance in history.

Segregation at the powerhouse football colleges of the South forced your father to play ball elsewhere. Did being ostracized from his home impact him emotionally?

You have to think about what it does to one’s sense of self to live under a law that says it’s OK to discriminate against you; it’s OK to limit what you can be and where you can physically go. My dad grew up in a time where you couldn’t go into a store, and if you were able to you had to enter through the back door. You couldn’t go outside the vicinity of your home after dark, for fear of violence and being accused of something you didn’t do. That was the reality that my dad in the South grew up in. So of course that impacts you emotionally.

That’s what my dad’s generation faced. The sad truth is until recently, many of them didn’t even have a platform to talk about the thing they endured. When you do talk to the men of that era, they don’t spend a lot of time talking about what it did to them psychologically, they focus on the way they preserved and how their Black educators taught them they could be the best.

Those mid-60̓s MSU teams are not just historically significant because of their racial integration — they were also dominant on the field. How did your father manage to perform so well despite the immense internal pressure?

The Black players had one option, let’s be real. If they didn’t perform at the highest level their position on the team would be in jeopardy and their future would be jeopardized as well. If you ask them, they felt like they didn’t have an option but to be great prove to everyone in the country that they were the best.

That’s what my dad and his teammates like Bubba Smith, Clinton Jones, George Webster and Charles Thornhill really understood. Even if they didn’t understand historically what they were doing at the time, they understood that failure wasn’t an option. Football was changing; you could watch a game from anywhere — the eyes of the world were on them. I haven’t met anyone who follows MSU football that hasn’t expressed excitement around these teams.

Based on the vitriolic treatment of Colin Kaepernick, who began a movement in the NFL of players kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police brutality, by President Trump and a prominent portion of the country, Americans still take issue with outspoken Black athletes. What did revisiting the past with your documentary tell you about how our country handles these issues today?

If you remember, the Kaepernick event really hit the fan in 2017, and I had been working on this film for almost 6 years at that point. I was just rounding the corner to finally release it in 2018, and — as someone who is a product of an NFL family — it was really difficult to watch that unfold.

People wielded opinions on both sides of the issue. Many threatened to boycott the NFL, and called the players “entitled millionaires” and “entitled athletes.” But there is real pain that Black Americans historically experience in this country when it comes to violence at the hands of the police.

John Mackey headed the Players’ Association’s effort to pursue anti-trust lawsuits against the NFL, and that made it possible for players like Kaepernick to have free agency. Kaepernick was able to stand up for himself and come to an agreement with the NFL to address the ways in which he was discriminated against because of his choice to kneel. To have the league come out in 2020 and take a firm stance in support of Black Americans and acknowledge the white supremacist structure that has harmed people in this country was a huge shift from where we were in 2017.

“Through the Banks of the Red Cedar” will be reaching a wider audience thanks to its upcoming screening on the Big Ten Network. How excited are you for this story to reach a wider audience? 

I am extremely excited and grateful. This was a long journey. The inspiration came in 2011, and I started working and got my first grant in 2012. I really struggled and I thought sports networks would be ready and excited to jump on this story. But that was not the case. I experienced obstacle after obstacle. I funded this project out of my own pocket and with grants and donations from people all over the country who believed in this story and wanted to talk about these issues.

For us to end a very difficult year for all people on Earth, especially Black Americans here in the United States, with the opportunity for a wider audience to see “Through the Banks of the Red Cedar” and enjoy a family-oriented film about football, perseverance and racial history in our country is so exciting. I am most grateful for the people who believed in this project and supported me as a Black woman filmmaker.

“Through the Banks of the Red Cedar”

Airs on the Big Ten Network

Thursday, Dec. 24, 4 p.m.

Learn more about the documentary at its official website:

throughthebanksoftheredcedar.com