From the hit Brad Pitt movie “Fight Club” to TV shows like “In the Heat of the Night” and “Boston Legal,” actor Thom Gossom Jr. has carved out a successful career in Hollywood. But it’s what he did earlier in life that has really made a mark on the world.

In 1975, he became the very first African-American athlete to graduate from Auburn University. In fact, he was one of the first black football players to graduate from any major state university in the Deep South.

Thom writes about it all in a moving memoir about the true story of desegregation in college athletics. The book’s called, “Walk-On: My Reluctant Journey to Integration at Auburn University.”

Unlike Jackie Robinson who was hand-picked to break baseball’s color barrier, nobody saw Thom coming; he came out of nowhere as a walk on.

He gives the real story of what it was like to survive and thrive during one of our country’s most difficult and painful periods.