‘College GameDay’ makes history by visiting HBCU

Kudos to ESPN’s “College GameDay.” The first appearance “GameDay” made for a game between two historically black colleges and universities was on Nov. 26, 2005, when they set up in Houston for the Bayou Classic game between Southern University and Grambling State University. The game was moved to the Houston location that year due to Hurricane Katrina.

While that was a history-making event, history was made again this past Saturday as Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard broadcast from Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Fla., their first broadcast on an HBCU campus.

On their Senior Day, the FAMU Rattlers prevailed against the struggling Hampton University Pirates 45-24. The win improves the Rattlers’ record to 8-3 overall and 4-3 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

The bold move by GameDay comes at a time when college football is hurting for black representation. The number of black coaches at major colleges is the lowest in 15 years. With the releases of Ty Willingham from Washington and Ron Prince from Kansas State, the number of black coaches in the FBS falls to four out of 119 schools.

This is an embarrassing statistic that needs to change, but that is subject enough for a whole other column.

As college football’s staple show, ESPN’s “College GameDay” is to be respected even more now, as it displayed a true unbiased showing by treating the FAMU fans like any other campus football fanatics.

As a matter of fact, if you stared long enough, you might have mistaken the enthusiastic crowd for a bunch of Miami Hurricanes fans as both FAMU and Miami have the same team colors.

While it was hard to keep their focus off the FAMU band, the crew opened the show by playing a flashback from 30 years ago when FAMU won the first Division 1-AA playoff. They showed a highlight of then-star running back Mike Solomon rumbling for three touchdowns against an overmatched Massachusetts team. They gave props to the HBCUs that have been playing football for more than a century among others who have eclipsed the 70-year mark.

They highlighted famous alumni of FAMU like Althea Gibson, the first black woman to win a grand slam title in tennis. They discussed “Bullet” Bob Hayes, a star in track and football who went on to be a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys. They also talked about longtime MLB stud Andre Dawson and R&B artist Common. They mentioned NFL greats from HBCUs such as Steve McNair, Jerry Rice, Doug Williams and Walter Payton.

The “GameDay” crew did not bring up too many touchy subjects such as the issue of black coaches, but they did profile Darryl Hill, who became the first black man ever to play at an academy when he enrolled at Navy for one season before becoming a Maryland wide receiver.

Then-coach Jim Tatum gave him the chance at Maryland. He ignored the current issues of race in the ACC and stood up for what he believed in, despite what others thought of him.

Being on an HBCU campus was a first for “GameDay,” but something tells me that it won’t be its last. In an ever-changing nation, sports can become a microcosm of society. We will soon have a black president for the first time, and that is the biggest change we can possibly make. So it is fitting that “GameDay” made a change by giving exposure to an HBCU.

Now, if only the rest of college football can follow suit.