Bubba's Dad, Duffy and College Football's Underground Railroad

by Tom Shanahan

Michigan State's Underground Railroad led college football integration in the 1960s. The chief engineer was Willie Ray Smith Sr., a Texas high school coach and father of Bubba Smith, Michigan State's College Football Hall of Fame player. Willie Ray Smith drives the Underground Railroad, winding through the segregated South as he picks up players for Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty.