TSU rolls over Texas College for first win of season

Photos | Texas Southern 49, Texas College 6

Houston, TX - Texas Southern handled Texas College with ease to earn its first win, beating the NAIA program 49-6 Saturday night at Butler Stadium.

The Tigers (1-1) jumped out to a 28-0 lead in the first half and piled on more from there.

TSU torched Texas College's defense for 503 yards. Quarterback Riko Smalls filled in admirably for injured starter Dantavious Parker, throwing for 290 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for a score.



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Job turns to hobby for Texas College Carson‎

Ricky Carson, a former teammate of Jerry Rice at Mississippi Valley State, is now the head football coach and athletic director of NAIA Texas College.

NATCHEZ, MS — When Alcorn State University hired Rickey Carson as its first ever golf coach, there was one teeny-weeny problem. Carson had never played golf. When The Dart landed at Duncan Park Golf Course Friday afternoon, Carson was practicing his swing while wife Victoria and daughter Courtney looked on. “I had to find out about the rules. What’s a par? What’s a birdie? I didn’t even know what that was,” Carson said.

But Carson is well versed in the game now. But Carson is well versed in the game now. An assistant head coach and offensive coordinator for the ASU football team from 1998 to 2000, Carson studied the rules of golf at the library, and eventually applied his newfound knowledge at Duncan Park.

“I did bad my first time out. I tore up the golf course real bad,” Carson said. “I’m sure everyone was glad when I left that day.” Carson didn’t let his less than stellar debut deter him from the game. He continued to practice, and even gained pointers from his team, which finished sixth overall in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

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Legendary Coach from Illinois Blazed a Football Trail

The legendary Fred "Pops" Long overall record in 45 years as a head coach was 227-151-31. He wrote: "Race prejudice exists not only in the heart of the white man, but in the heart of the black man as well. It is due, on either side, to a misunderstanding of the other, and there is only one reasonable and hopeful way to get rid of this, and this is through education."

DECATUR, Ill. -- Millikin University recently uncovered even more reason to be proud of 1918 alumnus Fred Long, the school's first African-American graduate. During Millikin's Black History Month closing ceremonies next week, the Black Student Union will share with the rest of campus the newly found accomplishments of Long's historic life. The discovery started in November, when Millikin's archive and research associate, Todd Rudat, stumbled upon an announcement from the American Football Coaches Association.

Forty-three years after his death, the organization bestowed Long with the 2009 Trailblazers Award, an honor given once a year to the early leaders in football coaching at historically black colleges and universities.

Long's coaching career spanned five decades at four Texas colleges from 1921 until he suffered a heart attack in 1965. A second heart attack took his life in 1966. By then, he had become a national icon in the black community, earning him obituaries in national black publications including the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier.

Long was a highly esteemed football coach who spent most of his career at Wiley College in Marshall, where his team won the Black College Football Championship four times. He also coached at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas College in Tyler and Paul Quinn College in Dallas. "In his contemporary time, people recognized him as a legendary coach," Rudat said.

According to the NCAA, he was a part of the first recorded contest between two college coaches with 200 victories each. His Wiley team defeated a Southern University team coached by Arnett Mumford on Nov. 11, 1961.

"That was sort of a historical moment," Rudat said, pointing to one of many instances when Long set the bar for those who would come after him.

Through his research, Rudat was able to connect Long to those who were legends themselves, like Grambling football coach Eddie Robinson and poet and educator Melvin B. Tolson. Tolson was a professor at Wiley who was portrayed by Denzel Washington in the 2007 film, "The Great Debaters."

Millikin's history always has included Long's coaching career, but as Rudat dug deeper into Long's life, he discovered an entirely different accomplishment that stands on its own.

Long was one of the original members of the Negro National Baseball League in 1920.

Two years after graduating from Millikin, Long played professional baseball for the Detroit Stars during the league's first season. He also spent 1921 and 1926 with the Lions and 1925 with the Indianapolis ABCs. "He's constantly breaking down barriers that he recognizes as a young man, and sets about trying to bring about that change," Rudat said.

While at Millikin, Long played football and baseball and was a shot putter for the track team. According to Long's obituary from the Herald & Review, Millikin's 1916 football team was the first to go undefeated and the first to be called Big Blue, with the help of the 6-foot-2 Long playing center.

In additional to being a star athlete, Long was a commerce and finance student who earned a bachelor's degree after writing a thesis that took a sociological survey of the black population in his hometown, Decatur.

In his paper, he linked the idea of racial prejudice to a person's level of education. He wrote: "Race prejudice exists not only in the heart of the white man, but in the heart of the black man as well. It is due, on either side, to a misunderstanding of the other, and there is only one reasonable and hopeful way to get rid of this, and this is through education."

Millikin's effect on Long's development as a leader in the fight for equality was apparent in his life after college.

Long's first experience in the South came once he joined the Army after graduation. While stationed at Camp Greenleaf in Chickamaugua Park, Ga., he wrote to his brother Harry, who still was a Millikin student. He explained how he almost stopped to join in with a group of white men playing football but stopped when he realized he wouldn't be welcomed to join the game.

He asked his brother to give his regards to their white teammates still at Millikin who, he said, "made me feel as though I was a real man, and I'll remember that part they all played in my life."

Students accepted into Millikin's Long-Vanderberg scholar program, named after the school's first male and female African-American graduates, get a copy of that letter as part of their orientation each year.

"Millikin was progressive in many ways," said Latrina Denson, director of the Center for Multicultural Student Affairs. "And he saw that.

"Though I'm sure there was racism (at Millikin), I'm sure there were people here who were true supporters of Fred Long."

Jasmin Benavides, a sophomore and president of Millikin's Black Student Union, has learned a lot about Long while preparing for the closing ceremonies of Black History Month. "I appreciate everything that he's done before, during and after his time at Millikin," she said. "He just leaves a legacy at Millikin for us to follow."

Current Long-Vanderberg scholars have been recruited to help look through microfilm from articles about Long so the university can build a more complete history of his life.

"It's important to me to feel that even back then, Millikin had this family and welcoming atmosphere," Benavides said. "Even he could feel welcome at a university that was predominantly white."

By ASHLEY RUEFF - (Decatur) Herald & Review
LINK:http://www.herald-review.com


Fred "Pops" Long, Coaching Bio:

Long began his coaching career in 1921 at Paul Quinn (Texas) College. After recording just one victory in his inaugural campaign, Long guided Paul Quinn to a Southwestern Athletics Conference (SWAC) title in 1922. He was then hired away from Paul Quinn to take over the head coaching duties at Wiley College in 1923, which began his first of two stints as head coach at the Marshall, Texas, school. Long guided the Wildcats to nine SWAC titles from 1923-47, including four in a row from 1927 to 1930. He also led Wiley to four Black College National Championships in 1924, 1928, 1932 and 1945.

Long moved on to Prairie View A&M University in 1948 for one season, then spent the next seven years as head coach at Texas College (1949-55). He returned to Wiley College in 1956 and remained head coach until his retirement in 1965. He guided the Wildcats to another SWAC title in 1957, going 6-0 in league play. His overall record in 45 years as a head coach was 227-151-31. Long’s teams also played in three post-season bowl games, the Angel Bowl, the International Bowl and the Orange Blossom Classic, and 27 of his players were selected First Team All-America. He also coached basketball, baseball, track, tennis and golf at Wiley and won conference crowns in each sport.

In 1925, Long helped inaugurate the "State Fair Classic" matching his Wiley Wildcat team against Langston University each year until 1929 when Langston was replaced by Prairie View. The game was always on Negro Day of the state fair and soon was drawing in excess of 20,000 fans to the Cotton Bowl (stadium). During that same period he also served as Athletic Director for the colleges he worked for and often coached every sport those schools offered including track, baseball, basketball, tennis, and golf. He was elected to the presidency of the Southwestern Athletic Conference on three occasions.

On November 11, 1961, Long, with 215 coaching victories at the time, coached Wiley College against Southern University, coached by Ace Mumford who had 232 coaching victories, in the first known college football match-up in which both coaches had over 200 victories. Long's Wiley team won, 21-19. During his long tenure at Wiley College, Long also served as Athletic Director and the Fred Thomas Long Student Union building there is named in his honor.

In addition to receiving the 2009 Trailblazer award, Long has been inducted into the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame (1962), the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame in Dallas (1996), and the Southwestern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame (2001). The Trailblazer Award was presented posthumously to Long at the AFCA Kickoff Luncheon on January 11, at the 2010 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) convention in Orlando, Florida. Long passed away in 1966.

The AFCA Trailblazer Award was created to honor early leaders in the football coaching profession who coached at historically black colleges and universities. Past Trailblazer Award winners include Charles Williams of Hampton (2004), Cleve Abbott of Tuskegee (2005), Arnett Mumford of Southern (2006), Billy Nicks of Prairie View A&M University (2007) and Alonzo “Jake” Gaither of Florida A&M University (2008). The award is given each year to a person that coached in a particular decade ranging from 1920-1970.

In an article appearing in The Marshall News Messenger on November 30, 2001, about Long’s induction into the SWAC Hall of Fame, the late, great Eddie Robinson was quoted as saying, “Coach Long did some great things. Long is a legend in this sport and it is imperative that he and the other nominees are enshrined for their outstanding contributions to their schools and to the community that they represent.”

From: AFCA.com and other sources

Mississippi Valley 61, Texas College 6

MVSU Wins Homecoming

Paul Roberts threw five touchdown passes and Mississippi Valley State beat Texas College 61-6 on Saturday. Roberts passed for 329 yards and the Delta Devils (2-2) amassed 549 total yards of offense. Roberts, who is averaging 258 yards passing in the past three weeks, connected with Cameron Russ for touchdown passes of 4 and 23 yards in the first half. Stephen Robert scored on runs of 15 and 3 yards for the Delta Devils. MVSU had scored a total of 17 points in its first three games of the season. Texas College (0-4), an NAIA team, was led by X.Z. Bloodsaw, who scored on a 4-yard run. He was 20-for-32 for 137 yards and threw one interception.

Valley wins big

Mississippi Valley State got what it expected - and what it badly needed. MVSU saw its struggling offense finally get on track against a hapless Texas College team in a 61-6 homecoming victory in front of a sun-splashed crowd of 4,987 at Rice-Totten Stadium in Itta Bena Saturday. The Delta Devil offense had scored just 17 points in the team's first three games but found the going quite easy against the Steer defense, which came in allowing an average of 76 points a contest. Senior quarterback Paul Roberts carved up the Steers by completing 24-of-35 passes for 329 yards and five touchdowns with one interception in three quarters of play.

"We found some offensive continuity that we had been lacking, and that was good to see," Valley coach Willie Totten said. "Paul really played well and did a good job of distributing the ball." MVSU, which came in last in the SWAC in total offense and scoring offense, finished with 549 total yards. Totten knows things will get much tougher this week on the road against Alcorn, but he believes this win will be a confidence-booster for his guys."We can build off this. Hopefully, it will get us ready for Alcorn. That's a big game for us coming up," Totten said.Texas College, a NAIA team from Tyler, Texas, falls to 0-5 and has been outscored 348-12 so far this season.

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PVAMU Panthers routs Texas College 53-0 for second straight win

Game Statistics

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas- The Prairie View A&M Panthers scored early and often in a 53-0 rout of the Texas College Steers on Saturday, Sept. 6, at Blackshear Field. The win marks the Panthers largest margin of victory over an opponent since 1955.

The Panthers took a 19-0 advantage over the Steers into intermission before erupting for 34 second half points fueled by a relentless rushing attack and success via the airwaves. Defensive end Quinton Spears put the Panthers’ first points on the board in the second half on a 10-yard fumble recovery which he subsequently returned for a touchdown.

The Panthers defense would add more points to the scoreboard as defensive back Jason Fobbs returned a interception 48-yards for a touchdown. PVAMU quarterback Mark Spivey had another productive night behind center as he threw for 181 yards and one touchdown. Spivey’s TD pass was a 44-yard connection with wide receiver Shaun Stephens at the 8:10 mark of the third quarter.

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Attendance: 5562 (93%) @Blackshear Stadium, Prairie View, TX (Capacity: 6,000).