Posted on 09/07/2021 7:14:30 PM PDT by massmike
Sam "Bam" Cunningham, a member of the New England Patriots Hall of Fame and a legendary college player at USC, has died at age 71.
USC announced Cunningham passed away Tuesday in Inglewood, California. The cause of death is still pending.
Cunningham was the 11th overall pick of the 1973 NFL draft and went on to play nine seasons with the club, and remains the Patriots' all-time leading rusher with 5,453 yards. After rushing for a career-high 1,015 yards in 1977, Cunningham earned a Pro Bowl nod in 1978 as part of a rushing attack that set an NFL record for team rushing yards (3,165), a standard that stood until the Baltimore Ravens broke it with 3,296 yards in 2019.
Cunningham was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame in 2010, as well as the College Football Hall of Fame.
Cunningham was the older brother of former Philadelphia Eagles star quarterback Randall Cunningham.
(Excerpt) Read more at nfl.com ...
RIP, Sam, and prayers for your loved ones. Thanks for the memories.
Cunnigham was somewhat responsible for Alabama finally giving into Bear Bryant’s request to integrate the Alabama football team after he ran all over Bama’s defense in 1970.
RIP.
The Trojans? That was the name of their team?
Oh well. How could they know that would become a brand name.
Cunningham was also a star player on the 1972 Trojan team that began the season at #1, went undefeated and won the National Championship by beating Ohio State 42-17 in the Rose Bowl. He was especially effective on short yardage plays.
Those were great USC teams. Anthony Davis, too. Never forget the Notre Dame game when they were down 24-0 and came back to score 55 unanswered points.
Jerry Claiborne, a former Bryant assistant, said, “Sam Cunningham did more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King did in 20 years.”
I played high school football and faced Sam on the opposing side of the field 2 years in a row. He was unstoppable. Also ran track against him. In 1968 Sam’s SBHS 440 yard relay team ran the fastest time in the nation that year.
Mosi Tatupu played a long time for the Patriots as well.
I lived in Hawaii then, and he was the most famous person in Hawaii when he played at USC. Everybody in Hawaii rooted for USC then.
When Tommy Prothro was coach at UCLA he was known for using unusual but legal plays. One of the buttons ucla fans wore ( remember those?)...stated “ prothro tactics are better than Trojans”...another one was “Trojans pop under pressure”...
Now...the fans just say....”eff so and so”...no class..
The usc students would wave dollar bills and chant...”we will buy you”...good, fun, childish, high spirited rivalry...
PS...I went to both schools...
So they were already aware of the joke potential.
saw cal play usc there was a hundred card section in the stands,before a big play they flipped the cards to read trojans burst under pressure . usc won a close one.
Well at least they didn’t use the term “Sissy Blue”.
probably the best college game I have ever seen.. Anthony Davis was on another level from anyone else
Sam was underrated as a pro. He was a fierce runner.
One of the best college games for signs was when the Gamecocks played the Trojans.....the camera panned to a sign in the crowd (only for a moment)
“Our Trojans will cover your Cocks”
Even the TV announcers couldn’t catch their breath for a minute.....
OMG!! That was one time when the ‘Color Annoucers’ became a whiter shade of pale in their shock.
Sheet poster hung from the women’s dorm at Norte Dame in the late ‘70s when the Fighting Irish played USC followed by Navy the following week:
“Burst the Trojans and bring on the Seamen.”
Good times.
College football is the best......
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