Former NFL and Michigan State football player and local corporate executive Gene Washington, his family, and other former student-athletes have been battling with Michigan State University officials over a published book and a film project based on it that is full of falsehoods and plagiarism.
Washington and his daughter Maya have led the fight against an MSU Press publication, “Duffy Daugherty: A Man Ahead of His Time,” written by David Claerbaut in 2022, and a film titled “Black Spartans.” They immediately notified MSU that the book contained defamatory content and fabrications, and the “Black Spartans” screenplay was bad as well. They demanded a fact-check and plagiarism review of the book.
Mr. Washington and his daughter drafted a Notice of Publication Status and Integrity Concerns “to provide immediate clarification for readers seeking to ‘learn about Michigan State University (MSU) and its history, or the individuals whose names, images, and likenesses (NIL) appear on the cover or within the text,” says a released statement from Early, Sullivan, Wright, Gizer & McRae LLP Attorneys at Law. A cease-and-desist letter was also sent to all parties affiliated with the “Black Spartans” film project.
MSU Press did stop publishing Claerbaut’s book in August 2023, and the film has also stopped production. But her father has distanced himself from MSU as a result, and the entire ordeal has taken a toll on him, her, and her late mother before her death last year, said Maya Washington in an MSR phone interview last week.
MSU officials have avoided communication with her and her father for almost four years now, she pointed out. “What happened in these past four years really tested my personal impression of the university,” Maya admitted.
“It impacted my father’s relationship with the institution as well as my mother’s. She passed away in the summer of 2024 and continued to use her voice until she passed away.”
Gene Washington was among 20 Black players on the 1966 MSU team coached by Duffy Daugherty. His daughter in 2018 produced an award-winning film, “Through the Banks of the Red Cedar,” about her father and the desegregation of college football at the time he attended Michigan State.
That film later became a companion to her memoir, “Through the Banks of the Red Cedar: My Father and the Team that Changed the Game” (2022), and her film also was shown on PBS.
“I’m just trying to tell a story about my father and his history and his teammates, and do that with the highest of integrity and ethics,” explained Maya.
Then who is David Claerbaut?
“We’ve never met him, and he did not contact my father or my family to participate in his book. And neither did his stepson filmmaker,” continued Maya. “I was contacted by actors who were auditioning for the role of Gene Washington in this film project in the spring of 2022, but we had no affiliation or no awareness of who David Claerbaut is.”
The MSR did a Google search and found that Claerbaut is now deceased, but his book still is available on Barnes & Noble website but listed as “temporarily out of stock online.” Maya Washington in September wrote on Goodreads.com, warning readers that the book “contains factional inaccuracies and plagiarism.”
It is believed that nearly 400 copies of Claerbaut’s book were sold.
“I believe my film is important and my book is important,” Washington stressed. All she wants is for MSU to release its fact findings on Claerbaut’s book and publicly state that it’s not accurate.
Maya Washington spoke at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in September prior to the USC vs. State football game. She shared historical information about the 1965 and 1966 Spartans national champions squads, and her family’s recent battles with the school over her father and his teammates’ legacy.
Next: Maya Washington and her advocacy related to NIL for legacy athletes
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.