Penalty Costs Eagles, Gives Grambling Celebration Bowl

Grambling State came out on top of North Carolina Central 10-9 to bring an end to the HBCU college football season but the love carries on.

From the tat of the snare to the flip of the dance team’s hair, Black College Football continues to be as tight-knit as it ever was. This is where culture and sports intertwine at the root.

In fourteen days, the Georgia Dome will again host a bowl game. At that time, the University of Alabama and the University of Washington will play in the NCAA’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl semi-final game. Counting the payout, television revenue, and ticket prices for the game, the stage doesn’t get any bigger. But for as big as the game will seem, it won’t be family for the roughly 100 African Americans playing for the Crimson Tide and Huskies.

African Americans didn’t arrive in Tuscaloosa until 1971 when John Mitchell and Wilbur Jackson became the first to play for Alabama under legendary coach Paul Bear Bryant. The history of African Americans at UW goes much farther back but according to an article by Jon Marmor “In Living Color: African American Alumni Remember, the welcome mat didn’t apply to black students. https://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/top10/color.html

For years, HBCU football games have packed stadiums from New York to Florida to Louisiana and all stops in between. The Florida Classic, Magic City Classic, and Bayou Classic are long-running games with weekly events leading up to crowds as large as any major bowl game. Black colleges in the historically black Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, continue to lead the NCAA Division II in attendance.

Unlike the players on the Grambling State Tigers and North Carolina Central Eagles, when the African American players from Alabama and Washington rush out onto the field surrounded by 70,000 plus fans they will be hard-pressed to find many faces that look like theirs on the sidelines, in the media, or in the stands.

While these largely white audiences may cheer and root for these largely African-American-led teams, their silence on the social injustices that affect these athletes’ communities is deafening.

At HBCUs, on the other hand, the number of white students participating in athletics mirrors the population whereas at traditionally white universities finding are person of color off the field of play is slim pickings at best.

UA’s African American enrollment has been declining despite an enrollment that doubled over the last 13 years. A decline that isn’t shared by the Tide football team which has 76 African American players on a roster of 113. http://www.cw.ua.edu/article/2016/10/ua-recruitment-falls-short-in-diversity-inclusivity Maybe the recruiting office should consult Nick Saban on how to recruit African Americans.

According to Forbes (www.forbes.com/colleges/university-of-washington-seattle-campus/ ), Washington’s student demographics almost make Alabama look like Alabama State. Washington’s African American student population of 45,000 is 2.5% compared to the 46 (38.6%) African American players on the 125-man roster.

The desegregation or integration of these two universities appears limited to those who generate revenue on the field of sports. It is a poorly constructed illusion of inclusion for others of the African American community matriculating at either of these campuses.

It is also why the social experience for players at Grambling State and North Carolina Central mirrors the success they experience on the field and in the classroom. When the teams took the field today, the cheers that welcomed them were from the entire community not just those fortunate enough to be related to a player on the team.

In addition to the fans from the competing schools, there was Howard, Morgan State, Morris Brown, Clark Atlanta, Prairie View, Alabama State, Florida A&M, North Carolina A&T, South Carolina State, Jackson State, and more. Of course, the Aggies couldn’t necessarily cheer for the Eagles being arch-rivals and all, but they were there to support the game.

The fledgling Celebration Bowl isn’t an altruistic venture. It is rooted in the 25-plus-year success of the 100 Black Men of Atlanta’s Atlanta Football Classic. Moving the AFC to December as an authentic Black College Championship removes the once popular “mythical” nomenclature from the title once decided by a group of journalists that were unknown to many in the community.

Building on the success of the North Carolina A&T vs Alcorn State game in 2015, the Celebration Bowl added many of the pre-game events that are built around the other bowl games. New this year, a visit to a STEM robotics competition that took place at Atlanta Metropolitan College in the African American community.

After sharing the host city for four days both teams were anxious to get the game underway. Although billed as a matchup between two offensive juggernauts, defense ruled the day. The Eagles and Tigers who each averaged over 4 touchdowns per game combined to score just two.

NC Central’s Alden McClellon ended Grambling’s opening drive intercepting Devante Kincade’s pass to senior wide receiver Dominique Leake in the end zone. Sophomore defensive back Jaquell Taylor was deeper than Leake but was only able to bat the ball in the direction of McClellon.

The Eagles took the turnover on a 74-yard ride to the Grambling 6. Grambling dodged a bullet when Quentin Atkinson dropped a pass in the endzone on third and three from the three. (_BOW6341) Brandon McLaren split the uprights from 23 yards out to give NC Central its only lead of the game.

Grambling responded with a long drive to the eight of the Eagles. After a false start -penalties haunted both teams all day- Kincade floated a pass to senior receiver Chad Williams who made a tremendous leaping twisting grab for an apparent touchdown that sent the Grambling stands into a tizzy. The tizzy turned to disappointed groans when the officials overturned the play on review ruling the receiver landed out of bounds and therefore incomplete.

Things only got worse as Jonathan Wallace’s 30-yard field goal attempt fell woefully short of the crossbar.

A second potential Eagles scoring drive was shut down in the second quarter when Deaumante Johns broke inside of NC Central junior wide receiver David Miller and picked off Bell at the 8.

In a game of missed opportunities, NC Central was king. On their last possession of the first half, the Eagles drive stalled at the Tigers 17 and McLaren missed the 34-yard field goal attempt. The miss would come back to haunt them later.

Out of halftime, which by the way was superbly entertaining, Grambling dropped a touchdown and a field goal to take a 10-3 lead. Martez Carter’s dazzling 32-yard run capped an 8-play 70-yard drive and gave the Tigers a 7-3.

Tigers linebacker Arkez Cooper stripped Bell while sacking the quarterback inside the Eagles 30. Malcolm William recovered the ball for the Tigers at the Eagles 25. Despite the stellar field position and a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty, the Tigers offense had to settle for a Wallace field goal.

Thanks to great special teams play by the Tigers, the Eagles started three of their fourth-quarter offensive series from inside the 10. Two of those drives ended with punts and the third was cut short by another interception.

A poor 24-yard punt by Derrick Dixon gave the Eagles their best field position of the quarter. Bell didn’t waste the opportunity finding sophomore receiver Jalen Wilkes for a 15-yard gain. Under pressure, Bell rolled to his left and fired a 39-yard strike to Atkinson in the back of the endzone for a touchdown.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, Atkinson’s post-touchdown celebration was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that added 5 yards to the point-after attempt. The officials calling the game were from the Mountain West Conference and were unfamiliar with the depth of meaning to the game. They also were not very good considering the game lasted nearly 4 hours.

The missed field goal at the end of the second quarter sure would have come in handy because Tigers defensive back Joseph McWilliams got off the corner clean and blocked McLaren’s field goal. Heartbreak and disbelief passed over the NCCU fans like a tsunami wave.

There would be no more chances as the Tigers ran the clock out and celebrated their first Celebration Bowl Championship.

When the horn sounded not one player had to search for a familiar face to connect with. Everyone has a familiar face because at HBCUs the entire community is invited to celebrate the accomplishments of their family and friends. Everyone except the Aggies and Eagles that is. LOL. Rivalries die hard in the Tar Heel State.