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I've always heard that it was Sam Cunningham who sped up the integration process of the SEC.  It's good to know that the wheels of progress were already starting to turn by the time that game happened in the early 70s.

The Bear was certainly open-minded for his day, but being one man he was still no match for the big-time Alabama alumni and boosters (many of whom exerted significant influence on state-level politics, and certainly had prejudiced views).  The integration process was going to be a slow and gradual one, and he was shrewd enough to accept that.

Coach Bryant was extremely shrewd. He foresaw the conference(s) expansion(s) and the big TV contracts. Proof of that was, despite his extreme dislike of Furman Bisher, the AJC, and the City of Atlanta, he offered to sponsor Georgia Tech's request to rejoin the SEC when Bobby Dodd realized that being Independent was not in their best interests.
Coach Bryant was well aware that the Atlanta TV market was larger than the rest of the SEC combined. His sponsorship motion did not even receive a seconding. Whatever the University of Alabama is for, the rest of the SEC is against. Always has been, always will be. Just like the current 13-1 vote against increasing the number of conference football games to nine. Needless to say who cast the lone vote for increasing to nine.

As we celebrate Black History Month in February, stories from former Husker black student athletes, like Brown, are valuable reminders and lessons.

Brown, 77, lives in Cleveland. The All-American guard is a member of the College Football of Fame, and his No. 64 Nebraska jersey is retired. A second-round pick in the NFL Draft, he played for the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Rams and Oakland Raiders. He played in six Pro Bowls, and he is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Brown distinctly remembers life on the Nebraska campus in the early 1960s. He’d grown up in an all-black community, had just turned 18 and faced culture shock more than he’d imagined.

“I had never been around, or associated with at any level, whites,” Brown said. “And now all of the sudden I’m thrust in the middle of this white community and very few of my brethren there.”

http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=211791889