The Pride of the SWAC

HOUSTON, Texas  -- The bands play with pride and purpose. The bands have histories, just as their schools do. The bands have nicknames. The Prairie View A&M Marching Storm. The Texas Southern Ocean of Soul. And the Southern University Human Jukebox. The bands have nicknames because the bands deserve nicknames, and if you understand only one thing about the Southwestern Athletic Conference, then understand that. There are pride and purpose and history to these schools — a different history, and a decidedly less pleasant one, than the history that attends most of the other teams represented in this year’s NCAA tournament.

These schools are in many ways proud and stubborn reminders of this country’s broken promises. They were for many years orphan schools and first came together in Houston in 1920, as a league of six Texas colleges, which now extends from Prairie View in Texas to Huntsville in Alabama. They were orphan schools in an orphan league. They are now known as “historically black colleges and universities,” and their futures are perilous and uncertain, just as they’ve always been. That is their history and that is their legacy.

On Saturday in Houston, Texas Southern beat Prairie View, 78-73, in a ragged, wonderful basketball game to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first ...

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