MSU football legend Bubba Smith dies, at 66.......RIP "Bubba"

[woody11769]

                                            Defensive end was one of most dominant Spartans in history
             

Shortly before the start of the 1965 season, Michigan State football coach Duffy Daugherty called out his defensive starters in a team meeting. Six of the names belonged to black players.

The significance was not lost on junior defensive end Charles "Bubba" Smith.
"I knew that was something that had never happened before," Smith told the State Journal in a 2005 interview. "I went to each man individually. I said, 'This is our chance. We've got to do this. If we don't do this, it will never happen again.' We had to show that we could be leaders, and winners."
That they did, going 19-1-1 in the next two seasons, winning two Big Ten championships and a share of two national championships. Those teams live on in MSU and college football lore, and Smith was their face, a two-time All-American with an enormous personality to match his 6-foot-7, 270-pound body.
Smith was found dead Wednesday at his Los Angeles home. He was 66 years old.
Authorities said Smith appeared to die of natural causes, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times, but an autopsy will be performed.
The news stunned those who knew Smith. Hank Bullough, his defensive coordinator at MSU, recently talked with Smith and confirmed that he would be back in East Lansing for MSU's Oct. 22 homecoming game against Wisconsin.
"It's real shocking," Bullough said. "He's a guy who did a lot of things to help people, he was a good guy."
"I don't know what to say, other than I'm grieving and I'm shocked and I'm so sorry he's left us," said Bob Apisa, an MSU teammate of Smith's and fellow Los Angeles resident.
And one of the most celebrated athletes in MSU history. MSU retired Smith's No. 95 in 2006. He is the only Spartan to be picked first in the NFL draft, going No. 1 to Baltimore in 1967.
In today's football, Smith's size and athleticism would make him a prototypical defensive end. In 1960s football, players with his size and athleticism did not exist.
"Huge, quick, fast, I mean you never saw people like that in those days," Apisa said. "He was an aberration, a freak. He was extraordinary, and I was very happy he was on my team."

Smith came from Beaumont, Texas, to play for Daugherty because there were no major college football opportunities for blacks in the South at the time.
He starred for the Spartans alongside several other black, Southern players -- including George Webster, Charlie "Mad Dog" Thornhill, Jimmy Raye, Ernie Pasteur and Gene Washington, who recently joined Smith and Webster in the College Football Hall of Fame and will be added to MSU's Ring of Fame before the Oct. 22 Wisconsin game.
Thornhill and Webster preceded Smith in death. Thornhill died Dec. 21, 2006 of a heart attack, and Webster passed away on April 19, 2007 after battling several health problems.
When they were together in East Lansing, they formed the nucleus of the most fearsome defense in school history. The 1965 team held Michigan to minus-39 yards rushing, Ohio State to minus-22 and Notre Dame to minus-12, routing all three.
"They spearheaded that defense," Apisa said. "Those guys brought Michigan State to the pinnacle."
In 1966, No. 1, unbeaten Notre Dame and No. 2, unbeaten MSU played in the "Game of the Century" at Spartan Stadium. Bullough moved Smith from end to nose guard for about 25 percent of the snaps and Smith had a huge day in the famous 10-10 tie.
"He had a hell of a day that day," Bullough recalled. "He was a guy who always played well in big games. He was an exceptional athlete. A big guy that could run. He was special.
"And I think his personality helped him a lot. He was kind of a happy-go-lucky guy. He enjoyed life. He didn't have many down days."
Smith and Bullough later won Super Bowl V together in 1970 with the Baltimore Colts. After football, Smith went on to an acting career that included the role of Moses Hightower in the "Police Academy" movies.
But as he said in 2005, there was nothing like his time with the Spartans, which was about breaking stereotypes as much as it was about winning championships.
"It was the greatest time of my life," he said.

[Jjay78]

i thought he was preaty good in the police academy movies too

[7387chevynut]

i thought he was preaty good in the police academy movies too

Yeah me too!!! I never knew he was a football player.

[woody11769]

One of the Greats when they played football because they loved it now for the money 

[bigblue81]

One of the Greats when they played football because they loved it now for the money