The Celebration Bowl is more than a great matchup. It’s 125 years of HBCU football.

ATLANTA, Georgia -- Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium looks futuristic enough that it wouldn’t come as a 100 percent shock if it lifted off and began zipping around the Milky Way. On Saturday around midday, that look will become evocative for anyone who juxtaposes it with what happened 125 years ago.

Three weeks and two days before it stages the College Football Playoff national championship game, the four-month-old wonder with its otherworldly video board and gargantuan windows on the downtown skyline will stage the third Celebration Bowl, which christens the bowl season and throws back all at once. Per custom, it will pit the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion (North Carolina A&T) against the Southwestern Athletic Conference champion (Grambling), and it will sort out a national champion among historically black colleges and universities. ABC will air it at noon.



[This being almost 2018, the game will have “high-tech uniforms and cleats and more footballs than you know what to do with,” said John Grant, the bowl’s executive director. It also will come almost precisely 125 years since that game with one waterlogged football, when Biddle University of Charlotte traveled 43 miles to Livingstone College of Salisbury, N.C., when 43 miles was so much longer than today.

That game, in snowfall on Livingstone’s front lawn Dec. 27, 1892, became the first between historically black colleges, and Grant thinks of it repeatedly. He thinks of the “fans who came by wagons, who walked, who came on horseback.” He thinks of the fans who “came and stood around the field in snow to watch this game that they had never seen people like them play.” He said, “They had to be cold and wet.”

CONTINUE READING

Grambling vs. N.C. A&T is Celebration Bowl many wanted

ATLANTA, Georgia -- North Carolina A&T coach Rod Broadway points out to his players how the windshield in a car dwarfs the size of the rear-view mirror.

"Why is that?" Broadway said. "Because they don't want you looking back too much because you might run into something."

The Aggies, the 11-0 champs of the MEAC, will have had four weeks to bask in the best regular season in program history when they take on SWAC champ Grambling State (11-1) in the third annual Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta (noon ET, ABC).

Yet, Broadway says the Aggies can only look forward. They have a shot at history - a perfect season that would be capped with winning the black college national championship.

The matchup so many wanted all season - N.C. A&T ended the regular season ranked seventh in the FCS and Grambling was 13th, losing only to Tulane - will bring the curtain down on the 125th year of football between the nation's historically black colleges and universities.

CONTINUE READING

Grambling's Broderick Fobbs in the mix at UL Lafayette

LAFAYETTE, Louisiana -- Grambling State head football coach Broderick Fobbs has been rumored as a candidate for the open head coaching position at UL Lafayette.

Footballscoop.com reported last week that Fobbs' name was on the initial list of potential successors of former Ragin' Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth, who was fired on Dec. 3 after seven seasons, along with other FCS coaches Tim Rebowe at Nicholls State and Lance Guidry at McNeese State. Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry is on the list, too.



Sports Illustrated’s Bruce Feldman has reported that Pry looks to be at the top of UL Lafayette’s list and after 11 days into the school’s search, sources have told Footballscoop.com that Pry and Arizona State offensive coordinator Bill Napier had interviews, while Rebowe and Fobbs have both “had discussions and should not be ruled out of consideration” at this point.

Grambling State (11-1) faces off with North Carolina A&T (11-0) Saturday for an HBCU national championship at the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Fobbs guided the G-Men to a national title last year, defeating North Carolina Central, 10-9, and back-to-back SWAC championships in three straight conference title game appearances. Since the head coach took over his alma mater in 2014, Grambling has gone 38-9 and have won 25 straight regular season SWAC contests.

CONTINUE READING

Privateers open strongly, snap Nuggets' win streak

NEW ORLEANS — The University of New Orleans outscored Xavier University of Louisiana by 24 points in the first quarter and rolled to an 85-50 women's basketball victory Thursday at UNO's Lakefront Arena.

The Privateers (2-7) of NCAA Division I ended their six-game losing streak and snapped the five-game win streak of the NAIA-member Gold Nuggets (5-3). It was the city rivals' first meeting since 2004, when XULA prevailed 69-53.

UNO led 11-0 through four minutes and 24-2 after Kayla Mundy's 3-pointer at 1:33. The Privateers led 29-5 after one quarter, and as a result the Gold Nuggets set school records for points allowed in a first quarter and largest scoring deficit in any quarter. They tied the XULA mark for fewest points scored in a first quarter.

"It was just like the Loyola game," XULA coach Bo Browder said. "We came out of the locker room with three straight turnovers, they scored and that was it."

Randi Brown scored 29 points, 23 in the first half, for UNO. Mundy had 18 points and eight rebounds, and Shania Woods scored 16. Mariah Wright had nine assists and four steals.

Essence Wells scored 12 points and Mikayla Bates 11 for XULA, which had not lost since its home opener Oct. 29.

UNO led 50-18 at halftime. XULA allowed 50 points in a half for the first time since Dec. 28, 2009, and 50 in a first half for the first time since Nov. 21, 1992. The halftime deficit was the Gold Nuggets' largest since Nov. 29, 1977, and their second worst all-time.

UNO outshot the Gold Nuggets 62.3 to 26.2 percent from the floor and outrebounded them 40-32. The teams made seven 3-pointers apiece, although UNO attempted only two and made one in the second half.

The losing margin was XULA's widest since an 86-48 defeat against Oklahoma City on Dec. 20, 2011.

XULA will play Virgin Islands at 7 p.m. Sunday and NAIA No. 9 Lindsey Wilson at 5 p.m. Monday in its Xavier Classic at the Convocation Center. That event will include men's games; XULA's Gold Rush will play Virgin Islands at 5 p.m. Sunday and Rust at 7 p.m. Monday.

BOX SCORE

Ed Cassiere, Assistant Athletic Director for Communications
XULAgold.com
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
twitter.com/xulagold
www.facebook.com/xulagold 

Greg Ruffin Officially Introduced As Edward Waters Tigers Head Football Coach

JACKSONVILLE, Florida -- In front of a crowd filled with supporters, alumni, members of the local media, and his first crop of football players, Greg Ruffin was officially introduced as the 14th head football coach in the history of the Edward Waters football program during a press conference on Thursday morning at the Adams-Jenkins Community Sports & Music Center.

Ruffin comes to Edward Waters from Bethune-Cookman University of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), where he spent this past season (2017) as Tight Ends Coach. Prior to his time at BCU, he spent one season as head coach at Texas College in 2016.

Ruffin's experience in building programs from the ground up made him the right choice to lead the Tiger football program as he was named head coach at Paine College in the school's resurgence of football in 2013, after the program was dormant for more than 50 years. At 29 years old, Ruffin was also selected as head football coach at Shaw University in 2002 where he revived that program after a 23-year hiatus, guiding the Bears to a 7-3 record in his lone season in Raleigh, N. C.

During Thursday's press conference, Ruffin emphasized the importance of finding "O. K. G.'s" or "Our Kind of Guys" to help the program get back to the level of success it saw in the 50's & 60's when it was one of the most feared programs in all of Black College Football.

"We want to tell people what our message is and what our core values are," said Ruffin. "We don't want kids coming here and being surprised. This is what we are. We want kids to embrace that and once they do, they will understand that we will take off." Ruffin also stated that "We're gonna take this program and enhance it in order to move it forward. This is the right place for me and I look forward to the challenge of taking this program to the next level."

Ruffin also spoke of his time as a player at his alma mater, Lane College and about how he was a part of the turnaround of that program. At Lane in 1989, they hadn't won a game in six years. They lost 103-0 to Central State when they had Coach Billy Joe and had to stop the game in the third quarter. When I left in 1995 as a senior, we went 9-1 and beat North Carolina A&T with just nine scholarships." Ruffin reiterated the point that "Great things can and will happen here."

Ruffin addressed his players in a meeting following the press conference and told them the importance of taking pride and ownership in their football program. "At the end of the day gentlemen, I want you to be proud of where you are and represent this program to the utmost." Ruffin said during the meeting. "If we do that and we pay attention to the little things, success will come after that."

Following the holiday break, Ruffin will begin to put together his coachin
g staff and immediately start recruiting for the 2018 season as well as installing his offseason plan in order to be prepared for spring football practice.

EDWARD WATERS COLLEGE SPORTS INFORMATION

Quincy native, PVAMU offensive coordinator Alex Jackson to be OC at FAMU

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- New Florida A&M head coach Willie Simmons has hit the ground running, and already has his offensive coordinator lined up.

Quincy Native and fellow James. A Shanks graduate Alex Jackson, Simmons' offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Prairie View A&M, will join Simmons at FAMU as the team's offensive coordinator.

Jackson will officially start in the new year.



Simmons and Jackson formed a formidable coaching duo at Prairie View. With Simmons as the head coach and Jackson as the team's offensive coordinator, the Panthers' offense dominated.

Prairie View's offense was was third or better in scoring in each of the three seasons the two were there. In their first season together, the Panthers went 8-2 and were a loss to Grambling State away from reaching the Southwestern Athletic Conference title game.

The Panthers were No. 1 in the SWAC in both scoring and total offense in 2015.

CONTINUE READING 

Benjamin “Tre” Williams Late Free Throw Lifts Claflin to Win Over Limestone

GAFFNEY, South Carolina -- Benjamin "Tre" Williams hit three free throws in the final 45 seconds in lifting the Claflin University Panthers past Limestone College, 70-67, in an NCAA Division II non-conference basketball game Wednesday.

With its 10th straight win, Claflin improved to 11-1 on the season. The last time the Panthers suffered a loss was against the University of Montevallo 61-52 (Nov. 11) in the second game of the season.

The victory was also the Panthers fifth straight over Limestone, which fell to 6-5.

"Tre" Williams finished the game as the Panthers leading scorer with 19 points and seven rebounds. He was also 6-of-7 from the free throw line.

The only other player in double-figures for Claflin was Jordan Jones with 12 points that included a pair of three-point baskets.

Austin Lawton and Jaleel Charles contributed eight points each. Charles also led the Panthers in rebounds with eight rebounds before fouling out with 2:57 left in the game.

Kenny Hairston led Limestone with a game-high 30 points.

It was "Tre" Williams' three-pointer with 1:41 left in the game that broke a 64-64. Hairston tied the contest (67-67) just19 seconds later with his eighth three-point basket of the game.

"Tre' Williams later gave Claflin the lead for good, hitting a pair of free throws with 45 seasons for a 69-67 lead.

After Hairston missed three-pointer, "Tre" Williams rebound the shot and was fouled with 17 seconds left.

He hit 1-of-2 free three throws as Claflin held on and remained perfect on the road at 8-0.

The Panthers had to fight back from 11 down with just over 13 minutes remaining in the first half, that saw two ties and two lead changes. The Panthers took its first lead since the opening basket with just 55 seconds remaining in the half, 32-31.

Neither team would score in the remaining seconds with the Panthers owning the one-point lead at the half.

Claflin will return to SIAC action Saturday at home against Spring Hill College. The contest will follow the women's contest at 3:30 p.m.


BOX SCORE

CLAFLIN UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION