Local News
Massachusetts hasn’t held a football game between two HBCUs since 1971.
Saturday’s Essence HBCU Classic at Harvard Stadium between Johnson C. Smith University and Morehouse College is a moment for Boston. It will be the city’s largest sporting event involving Historically Black Colleges and Universities in five decades.
Massachusetts hasn’t held a football game between two HBCUs since 1971. Local leaders hope Saturday’s game (4 p.m., ESPN+) will create more visibility and accessibility for HBCUs.
“I think it is the beginning of a new wave of HBCU athletics in the Northeast, especially in Boston,” said John Borders IV, the city’s director of tourism, sports, and entertainment.
Borders and the city are working to create a narrative for HBCU education and sports that reflects Boston’s growth.
“When Howard played University of Maryland Eastern-Shore at Harvard in 1971, the city did not look like this,” he said. “There weren’t these restaurants, there weren’t these businesses, the population density did not look like this, there was not a woman in the corner office making decisions as mayor. There was not a Black woman as the AG, there was not a woman governor.”
From ribs fresh off the grill at tailgate parties to seeing the pageantry of the cheerleaders and marching bands, the HBCU Classic represents an opportunity to showcase not only the unique flavor of HBCU sports but also the city’s development.
Boston is catching up with the rest of the country in hosting out-of-state HBCU matchups. Neutral-site football games have been an instrumental part of HBCU sports.
New Orleans has the Bayou Classic, which is televised on NBC, at the Superdome. Atlanta has the Celebration Bowl, the de facto HBCU national championship game, featuring the champions of the MEAC and the SWAC conferences. Miami kicks off Labor Day weekend with the Orange Blossom Classic.
Now it’s Boston’s turn.
Tome Barros, the Celtics’ community engagement manager, believes the city is long overdue for its own classic.
“I think a lot of the times people forget Boston has a rich history,” he said. “To be the messengers of the importance of a Historically Black College, Boston’s a perfect place.”
Barros, an HBCU alumnus from Hampton University, has been a consistent advocate for Black higher education and led each of the Celtics’ HBCU Nights.
“This event is a living tribute to the scholars, the athletes, the musicians that play in the band, all the organizers that are trying to break barriers and really put athletics on a bigger platform,” Barros said.
There has been consistent growth for HBCU athletics in Boston in recent years. In 2022, Hampton and North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University joined the Coastal Athletic Association. The switch allowed the schools to compete against Northeastern in conference games. Harvard has completed a home-and-home series with Howard University and Morehouse in football and basketball recently.
Barros has attended each basketball game his alma mater has played against Northeastern the past two seasons, looking to grow the network across alumni and students and also bring HBCU sports to a higher light.
“I was in the stands and it was nice to just see folks with Hampton gear on in Boston — in Northeastern’s area,” he said.
From Olympian Alice Coachman from Tuskegee to Celtics legend Sam Jones from North Carolina Central, Barros believes HBCU athletes fly under the radar.
Deion Sanders made headlines when he became head football coach at Jackson State, bringing eventual Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter with him, before the pair left for Colorado.
NFL Pro Bowlers Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson, who were teammates with the Eagles, will coach against each other at Lincoln Financial Field on Oct. 30, when Norfolk State plays Delaware State. Numerous Pro Football Hall of Famers, including Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, and Michael Strahan, are HBCU alums.
Away from the line of scrimmage, Saturday’s game will bring a new level of exposure to a generation of Boston youth, said Tate Ross, the education coordinator at the Yawkey Boys & Girls Club of Roxbury.
They’ll get to see representation from Morehouse, the nation’s only historically Black private liberal arts college for men, whose alumni include Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
They’ll get a glimpse of Johnson C. Smith, which is North Carolina’s top private HBCU, according to U.S. News and World Report, all without having to head south.
“You never know the next time they’ll be on campus or at an event where an HBCU team shows up,” Ross said. “It’s that time now for them.”
Some local organizations, such as the Yawkey Club, organize bus tours giving students the chance to see such schools.
Chase English, a sophomore at Morgan State University who attended BC High, said he wished more opportunities to learn about HBCUs in Boston were available for him.
He found out about Morgan State through friends who attended. His decision to take a chance on a public HBCU in Baltimore was a relatively uncommon one for someone who went to a private high school in Boston.
“There was not really much introduction or showcasing, so I kind of had to find it on my own way,” English said.
