Grambling's White Tiger

With new laws passed which seek to promote racial integration, a small black college in Louisiana is faced with an opportunity to increase desperately needed federal funding by offering a football scholarship to a white athlete from California by the name of "Jim Gregory" (Bruce Jenner). Unfortunately, there are several problems involved which makes things a bit more difficult than first realized. For starters, although he is a solid quarterback for the most part, the football team already has two better quarterbacks ahead of him with another good recruit possibly waiting in the wings as well. So his ability to actually play is problematic at best. But even more concerning is the overall racial animus in that particular part of the country which threatens to explode at a moment's notice-and the football team is far from being a safe haven. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a decent film from the standpoint that it served to highlight a national problem that had been ignored for much too long. On the other hand, the acting-especially on the part of the lead actor-was rather lackluster at best and this factor was evident throughout the course of the movie. That being said, while it certainly wasn't a great film by any means, from an historical perspective I suppose it was worth the time spent to watch it and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

This is the true story of Jim Gregory, Grambling University's first white football player. Back when Gregory was at Grambling, it had not been THAT many years since Blacks were allowed to play football at most Southern Schools. Since many of the players at Grambling felt heavily discriminated against, they naturally resented Gregory for encroaching on "their" school. Further resentment happened against Gregory because he played Quarterback, a position that in those days was considered reserved for Whites only. Grambling in those days sent more players to the NFL than any other school, largely because the opportunities were not there for many of the Black players to go to largely White Universities in the South. Gregory encounters discrimination on all sides. He is not liked by the Black football players because he is in their school. And hes not liked by Whites because he plays football for a Black school. As time goes on, however, Gregory's work ethic and personality wins over almost all of his teammates at Grambling. We learn a lot about race relations in those days, and how a proper attitude can overcome them. If there is a weakness, its the rather so-so acting of Bruce Jenner. He was a great athlete, but hes not much of an actor. Still, the story was so interesting that Jenner's performance really doesn't matter.