PITTSBURGH – Former Pitt standout Bobby Grier has many fond memories of the 1956 Sugar Bowl, which, in those days, was one of the most important college football games played in the South each year.
He also remembers how unfairly the game was officiated.
“The number of penalties is one thing that stands out, especially a pass-interference penalty against me down at the goal line that gave Georgia Tech the ball at the two [yard line],” said Grier, the first African-American to play in the Sugar Bowl game.
“The photo of that play shows me lying on the ground in front of the receiver and the ball two feet over his head—yet they said I pushed him. How could I push him when I was in front of him on the ground?”
That interference call gave Georgia Tech the ball at the two and led to the only score as the Panthers lost, 7-0.
Although that play and several others have been a sore subject for many years, Grier can laugh now when he tells it.
Tuesday, he, along with many other of Pitt’s African-American athletes, will have the opportunity to tell stories as they are celebrated at an event called “Athletics at Pitt: A Century at the Forefront of Change.”
