Atlanta Premiere of the HBO Sport s Documentary 'BREAKING THE HUDDLE: THE INTEGRATION OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL' on Tuesday, December 2

HBO Sports, the Chick-fil-A Bowl and the Atlanta Sports Council to Host Atlanta Premiere of the HBO Sports Documentary 'BREAKING THE HUDDLE: THE INTEGRATION OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL' on Tuesday, December 2 at Georgia State's Rialto Center

PRNewswire/ -- HBO has partnered with the Chick-fil-A Bowl and the Atlanta Sports Council to host the invitation-only screening of the HBO Sports Documentary BREAKING THE HUDDLE: THE INTEGRATION OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL on Tuesday, December 2 at 7:30 pm at the Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University. Jerry LeVias, the first African-American football scholarship athlete in the Southwest Conference, and the film's producer, Joe Lavine, will attend.

While America celebrates the historic election of its first African-American president, HBO Sports revisits a moment in time when black athletes blazed a trail through the South. In BREAKING THE HUDDLE: THE INTEGRATION OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL, HBO's award-winning documentary unit chronicles the compelling stories of the young men who leveled the playing field in the major conferences of the South against the backdrop of the civil rights movement.

Focusing on football programs in the Southeastern, Southwest and Atlantic Coast Conferences, BREAKING THE HUDDLE: THE INTEGRATION OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL chronicles the heyday of football programs at historically black colleges and universities, and explores the profound effect of the Civil Rights movement of the '60s on the racial status quo of college athletics. The story culminates with the Sept. 1970 game played in Birmingham between the University of Southern California, featuring star African-American running back Sam "Bam" Cunningham, and the University of Alabama team of legendary Crimson Tide head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.

"We strive to uncover sports stories such as this which display tremendous struggle, pain and triumph," says Joe Lavine, the film's producer. "BREAKING THE HUDDLE will make you laugh, make you cry and make you see just how resilient people can be -- even at very young ages."

Among those interviewed are college football trailblazers Thom Gossom, Darryl Hill, Jerry LeVias, Willie Lanier, John Mitchell, Bubba Smith, Wilbur Hackett, Jr., Jimmy Jones and Sam Cunningham; journalists Jeff Prugh, Howell Raines, Ed Krzemienski and Keith Dunnavant; and George Wallace, Jr.

HBO Sports' documentary division has produced 56 documentaries since 1991, capturing seven Peabody Awards and 27 Sports Emmy(R) Awards.

The executive producers of BREAKING THE HUDDLE: THE INTEGRATION OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL are Ross Greenburg and Rick Bernstein; Joe Lavine produces; William C. Rhoden is the writer; music composed by Joel Goodman; edited by Bill McCullough; Liev Schreiber narrates.

BREAKING THE HUDDLE: THE INTEGRATION OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL, chronicling the integration of college football in the South, debuts TUESDAY, DEC. 16 (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), the eve of college bowl season, exclusively on HBO.

-----
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page