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On March 31, 1943 Joe Namath was born. In h.s. Namath turned down a $60K bonus fr. the Cubs. U. Iowa flew him in to work out w/ the basketball team w/ an eye towards a scholarship. Maryland brought him in during JFK's inauguration, mid-blizzard
Namath commits to Maryland. He lives in College Park several works during summer '61 to try to raise his college board scores to the university standards. If he'd played basketball at Iowa, Connie Hawkins & he would've been mates. And Don Nelson
When Namath visited 'Bama (he never qualified to enroll @ Maryland), he went up The Tower to speak w/ The Bear. He rocked a hound's tooth sportcoat- and Namath tans pretty good in the summer. An onlooker asked another "Who's that nigger sportswriter talking to Bear?"
When Namath was at 'Bama, some of his teammates wrote him referring to him as "Our nigger quarterback". Once he was showing them his h.s. yearbook, and the guys saw a pic of him & a Black classmate. Rumor circulated he'd dated her
The Tide had all manner of nicknames f/ Namath. They cringed when he told them Linwood Alford was his best friend back home, & that he grew up & played w/ bros. The entire "spatting his cleats" deal came fr. his admiration of Colts HB/FL Lenny Moore- who was called "Spats"
When Vivian Malone was finally able to register @ 'Bama & attend university, Joe befriended her, sometimes speaking w/ her in the dining hall, or lunching w/ her in full view of other students.
