In 1970, Doug Nettles desegregated the football team at Vanderbilt University, before becoming the first Black player from the school to be drafted into the National Football League (NFL). Born in Panama City, Florida, in 1951, Nettles became a standout football player at Rutherford High School. By the start of his senior year in 1969, he had been recruited by practically every big-time football program in the country. Institutions from the University of Notre Dame and Duke University to the University of Southern California competed for Nettles, before he decided on Vanderbilt. He was helped by his high school counselor and an influential recruiting visit with Perry Wallace, the first Black athlete to desegregate the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and Vanderbilt basketball in 1967. For three seasons, Nettles starred for the Commodores as a defensive back and became one of the best cornerbacks at Vanderbilt and in the SEC in the...

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