⏩ Sam ‘Bam’ Cunningham: Former USC running back dies.
LOS ANGELES — Sam “Bam” Cunningham, the Hall of Fame running back from USC credited with helping integrate college football in the early 1970s, died Tuesday. He was 71.
Cunningham was widely known for leading an integrated Trojans squad into Birmingham, Ala., in September 1970 and scoring two touchdowns in a lopsided win over all-white Alabama. That afternoon became part of legend and, though often embellished in the retelling, served as a crucial moment for a sport that had, in some parts of the country, clung stubbornly to segregation.
“I’m just proud to be a part of it,” Cunningham told the Los Angeles Times in 2016. “Because it was such a special game.”
Born in Santa Barbara in 1950, Cunningham played fullback at USC, using his size and strength to earn that nickname with bruising goal-line dives. He was an All-American in 1972, a season in which he scored four touchdowns in the Rose Bowl and the Trojans went undefeated to win the national championship.
The New England Patriots selected Cunningham in the first round of the 1973 NFL draft, the start of a nine-year pro career from which he retired with a team-record 5,453 yards and Pro Bowl honors in 1978.
Still, in the years after his retirement, it was the Alabama game that people seemed to remember most.
In truth, Crimson Tide head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant did not schedule USC in hopes of losing and quieting the segregationists, as often has been said. Nor did he march Cunningham into his locker room afterward to announce: “This is what a football player looks like!”
It was also urban myth that the 42-21 USC victory caused Alabama to recruit its first Black player; the team already had a Black freshman — freshmen were ineligible at that time — on the roster.
As a sophomore in 1970, Cunningham was part of USC’s all-Black backfield, along with quarterback Jimmy Jones and running back Clarence Davis, which was the first of its kind in Division I.
Working as a landscape contractor after football, Cunningham died in Inglewood (Los Angeles County). He is survived by his wife, Cine, and daughter, Samahndi. His brother, Randall, spent 16 seasons as an NFL quarterback.
In his later years, Sam Cunningham dismissed any talk of him and his team as heroes.
“We’re just regular people,” he said. “I didn’t do anything more than what I was asked to do. Run the ball. If there’s a hole, run through it. If you can score a touchdown, score a touchdown. Bam. Pretty simple to me.”