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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& #39;s inauguration, mid-blizzard
Namath commits to Maryland. He lives in College Park several works during summer & #39;61 to try to raise his college board scores to the university standards. If he& #39;d played basketball at Iowa, Connie Hawkins & he would& #39;ve been mates. And Don Nelson
When Namath visited & #39;Bama (he never qualified to enroll @ Maryland), he went up The Tower to speak w/ The Bear. He rocked a hound& #39;s tooth sportcoat- and Namath tans pretty good in the summer. An onlooker asked another "Who& #39;s that nigger sportswriter talking to Bear?"
When Namath was at & #39;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& #39;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 @ & #39;Bama & attend university, Joe befriended her, sometimes speaking w/ her in the dining hall, or lunching w/ her in full view of other students.
