Bill Collins made a courageous stand against racism at the 1969 Liberty Bowl, facing down an all-white Alabama team alone during the coin toss.
Deion Sanders has a personal connection to Collins through gospel singer Kirk Franklin, whose wife is Collins’ daughter.
Sanders talked about Collins, who died on July 31, during his Aug. 8 preseason news conference.
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders took some time out from his preseason news conference Friday Aug. 8 to honor a Black former Colorado player who made a courageous stand against an all-white Alabama team at the 1969 Liberty Bowl in Memphis.
That player was Bill Collins, who died July 31 in Dallas after a long battle with cancer. He was 76.
Collins played defensive tackle for the Buffaloes and was Colorado’s first Black captain for a full season. But what he’s best known for as a Buff is what he did before the Liberty Bowl at a time of heightened racial tension in the Deep South.
“He represented the Buffs at the pregame coin toss alone, and Alabama, yet to integrate, sent more than 40 players to the coin toss to try to intimidate him,” Sanders said. “And it didn’t work. CU won, 47-33.”
The university posted an obituary of Collins on Aug. 4 that described it as perhaps the “bravest moment in University of Colorado athletic history.”
Alabama had an all-white team back then and sent 40 white players to midfield for the pregame coin toss in Memphis, where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated the previous year.
The Buffs had seven Black players and a Black assistant coach. According to the obituary, Colorado’s other two team captains, Bobby Anderson and Mike Pruett, both white, walked with Collins toward midfield for the pregame coin toss but stopped a few yards short to let Collins take the last few steps to midfield by himself. They were making a statement against the Crimson Tide.
“Collins then approached the Tide horde solo to prove that he – and the Buffs – were not going to be intimidated by their racist, childish antics, starting with some Alabama fans spitting on the CU team as they took the field through a tunnel, and yelling the ‘N’ word at the CU bench and sideline, which lasted all game long,” the university obituary said.
Collins won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff, as captured on YouTube. Colorado won the game. Alabama didn’t racially integrate its team until two years later, in 1971.
Sanders was only 2 years old in 1969 but is linked to Collins not just as a Black coach at Colorado but also through a personal connection. He’s good friends with gospel singer Kirk Franklin, whose wife Tammy is Collins’ daughter.
“This is her father, so it’s a small world, small world,” Sanders said. “She called and told me about that, and before he passed, she said I was on the TV or something, and he stopped and said `Turn it up.’”
Sanders said he wants to honor Collins during a game this season, his third at Colorado. The Buffs open the season Aug. 29 at home against Georgia Tech.
Collins graduated from Colorado with a business degree and went to work for Xerox. He was the first Black player chosen by his teammates to be a team captain for the entire season.
HIs obituary in Dallas notes the moment.
‘If you want to learn more about his historic experiences during that time, you can research 1969 Liberty Bowl: Colorado’s Landmark Win,’ the obituary said. ‘He loved sharing that story as well as many others.’
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com