It's the summer of 1970.

Sam Cunningham, he's the older brother, Randall Cunningham.

He's looking forward to his first season as a fullback at USC.

And there's a date on the schedule that jumps out right away.

September 12th, 1970, first game of the year, first time in 24 years the two big-time programs,

USC, where he plays, and Alabama, are going to play each other.

Sam Borden is a senior writer for ESPN.

What makes it especially interesting to Sam, though, isn't just Alabama.

It's where the game is going to be played in Birmingham. Now, at that time, 1970, any black

player will tell you the prospect of going to Alabama and playing a game there is a very fraught proposition.

Remember, we're only two years removed from the assassination of Martin Luther King.

So Sam goes to his parents and he says, got any advice about me going down to Alabama?

My dad, I asked him about what I should do and how I should act.

And he didn't say anything for about 10 minutes.

So I looked at him, I said, man, did you hear what I said?

He says, yeah, I heard what you said. And he looked at me and he said, did you hear what I said? He says, yeah, I heard what you said.

And he looked at me and he said, don't do anything stupid.

It was 50 years ago that the Alabama Crimson Tide made up entirely of white players.

Hosted the U.S.E. Trojans, a racially integrated team with an all-black backfield.

The game became legendary for moving the needle on racial equality in sports.

But the half-century mark of this matchup falls in a time that's historic in its own right, with renewed debate on racial justice and police violence and college athletes speaking out. Today, four players who took the

field in Birmingham in 1970 share their story and measure the progress that's been made

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