On Thursday, Feb. 7, 1974, four days before Auburn’s first ever Black History Week, fourteen black athletes—all fourteen—staged a walkout of Auburn’s athletic dorm, threatened to not come back, quit their teams, the works. Because Auburn’s three black football players wanted to grow a mustache.
Shug said they totally could He was totally fine with that—he just wouldn’t let them play football. Or live in the dorm. Or keep their scholarships.
“I don’t object to to your mustache,” he told the Plainsman reporter interviewing him about the whole thing. “But if I paid your way through school I would.