Saturday, January 12, 2019

Former FAMU coach Billy Joe celebrates 50 years of Super Bowl glory

SIDE STORY: Boozer was a better NFL player than Billy Joe...Joe was Good! Boozer was Great!!

 Another member of this famous NY Jets Super Bowl III Team was Maryland State College (MSC) Hawks (now UMES) running back, Emerson Boozer.  Boozer, #32 played for the Jets from 1966-1975 and is in the Jets Ring of Honor, rushing for over 5,100 years and scoring 52 Touchdowns over this professional career.  Boozer was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010, joining his coach -- Vernon 'Skip" McCain (2006), Tackle Roger Brown (2009) and Offensive Tackle Art Shell (2013).  Boozer was twice an AFL All-Star and was selected All-AFL in 1968.   

 Super Bowl III between the NY Jets and Baltimore Colts, also had four alumni appearing in this game from UMES: Earl Christy (1961–1964), Johnny Sample (1954–1957), Emerson Boozer (1962–1965), and Charlie Stukes (1963–1967). This tied UMES with Florida State for the most alumni appearing in a single super bowl game.  Not bad for an HBCU with less than 1500 students in 1969.  

 Boozer's coach, Skip McCain was the only coach that Grambling's Eddie Robinson never beat in four meetings with the Hawks.  Maryland State College was a football powerhouse in the CIAA and HBCU football; and a founding member of the Division I Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in 1970.  All of MSC programs were systematically underfunded so that the University of Maryland College Park Terrapins could excel in football. The football program at UMES was ended in 1979, due to lack of funding by the University System of Maryland. In short, by termination of the MSC football program, the Terps hoped to reap the benefits of the future, exceptional African-American football players (without competition) that were historically attending Maryland State College under HOF coach Skip McCain.  

 I recommend you read the many articles and court documents on "Courts side with Maryland HBCUs in long-standing case over disparities in state higher education."  Sadly, an elite and successful HBCU football program was abolished for no other reason other than to execute the Jim Crow laws and attitudes that existed during this period.  

 Funny how paths are crossed -- Billy Joe ended up coaching at the University of Maryland College Park in 1971, as an assistant coach.  He was hired the following year at Cheyney State as the head football coach.  Boozer met his wife Enez at Maryland State College and the rest is history.

 (beepbeep)

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