Black College Football, 1892-1992: One Hundred Years of History, Education, & Pride

By Michael Hurd

In 1892, the men of Biddle University met their counterparts form nearby Livingstone College for a "match game of ball" on a snow-covered field in Salisbury, North Carolina, 23 years after Princeton and Rutgers had inaugurated college football. The Biddle and Livingstone players had no idea they were pioneering the sport for black colleges, yet that's exactly what they did on December 27 of that year. Biddle took a controversial 4-0 decision and football at black colleges was off and running. This book documents the players, coaches, schools, and other entitles which have participated in this rich athletic history which recently celebrated its centennial.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898658829
• ISBN13: 9780898658828
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Schiffer
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 2.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.3" x 0.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

American History Through Sports

I understand that when Michael Hurd was putting together this book and calling historically black colleges to talk to them about their long-gone football programs, some college employees responded with, "We used to have a football program?" This is not a book of just names, dates and places -- it describes a unique time and the very unique culture that surrounded football at historically black colleges, and programs that, at the time, were storied and exhaulted. This peek into the past should prove interesting to anyone interested in the cultural aspects of American history, not just people who like American football (which I don't, by the way). For what it is -- a very targeted history book about a very particular period and practice -- I give it four stars. Obviously a labor of love by the author.