Maybe it’s time to reassess the pecking order in black college sports. I know most of us will argue until we’re blue in the face that it should be what I refer to as the “barber shop sports” of football and basketball. Those are the games folks talk about at the shop, as in, “My team is gonna stomp your alma mater, and we’ll smoke your band at halftime, too.” It makes for animated debates, but HBCUs, don’t produce hoops and football national champions, let alone a consistent pipeline of NBA or NFL talent any more. Track and field does.Saint Augustine’s College dominated the sprints to claim the NCAA Division II men’s track and field title last week at Johnson C. Smith University, the 31st national title in the school’s history. “The kids were on point,” Falcons head coach George Williams said. “Everything was just so smooth. We didn’t give up anything. I got good performance from all my kids. You don’t win championships with one guy, you win championships with everybody.”
That’s why black college track and field has been able to hold its own since southern white colleges were desegregated in the late 1960s while blue-chip football and basketball players opted for pro farm clubs in the ACC, SEC and Pac-10. Saint Augustine’s is the platinum standard and can hang with the best of Division I, but the Falcons have company. Lincoln University (Mo.) is a Division II national power; Lincoln University(Pa.) is one of the best programs in Division III and joins the CIAA next year. That league will be loaded, to say the least, with St. Aug’s and JCSU on the upswing.
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