Good morning Prag Obots!
Today we take a look at the first college football game played by two historically black colleges.
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER – A college football tailgate is a pretty standard tradition every Saturday in the fall, but at Memorial Stadium in Charlotte there was something more to celebrate–history.
Livingstone College and Johnson C. Smith alumni, students and faculty came together Saturday before the second annual Commemorative Classic football game between the two historically black colleges. The schools’ bands pumped up the crowd while they filled their stomachs with barbecue and fried fish. With the sun shining and the chill of fall in the air, the stage was set for the noteworthy match up.
It’s a historical rivalry that began 118 years ago.
On Dec. 27, 1892, Livingstone College and Biddle University, now JCSU, played the first black college football game on Livingstone’s front lawn in Salisbury. Biddle beat Livingstone 5-0, but the real story would play out years later as the tradition took hold.
“It’s the birth of black football,” said Dr. Ronald L. Carter, the 13th president of JCSU. “These were the humble beginnings. It’s given birth to something powerful.”
Besides the popularity of college football, the game means something more to the schools’ alumni. “Everyday I walk on campus, on the front lawn, I’m walking on history,” said Johnson. “We made history. No one else can say that.”
Because of that rich tradition, she said Livingstone is truly a family. “What they put into me so willingly and effortlessly, you can’t even put that in monetary value,” said Johnson. “I want to give back and be loyal.”
Walter DeWalt, a co-chair of the membership committee for the 100 Club, JCSU’s athletic booster club, said the rivalry between the Golden Bulls and the Blue Bears is truly the original football classic but is sometimes overlooked and forgotten. Carter echoed that same sentiment. “People don’t really appreciate it,” he said. “But this is the beginning.”
DeWalt said he hopes that will change. “When I went to school, we packed the stadium,” he said. “We’ll be lucky if we get 10,000 here today.” Getting the city of Charlotte involved, he said, is crucial to bringing the rivalry back to what he called its “glory days.”
