WSSU Aims To Be First HBCU D-II Football Champ

Winston-Salem, NC -- If you're headed south at any point over the next few days and see some red and white streak past, it might belong to a Winston-Salem State University fan.

The Rams are playing in Saturday's NCAA Division II National Championship game in Florence, Ala., and they'll have plenty of support. Not only will WSSU fans being cheering them on, but the team is vying to become the first from a historically black college or university to win the D-II football title.

"Saturday, we had some CIAA teams that brought their football teams here to watch us play [in the semi-final game]," WSSU assistant athletic director for media relations Kevin Mann said. "They realized this was part of their history, not just our history."

The NCAA says only one other HBCU team has even made it to the D-II championship game: Central State of Ohio in 1983. That team lost 41-21 to North Dakota State.

"One thing about HBCUs," WSSU graduate student Aaron Lide said, is "although we compete against one another and we talk junk against one another, we're all a family at the end of the day.

"And we've been getting a lot of support from other HBCUs," Lide said. "A lot of them are rooting us on and encouraging us because they want to see a similar institution" win the title.





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