Customer Reviews

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

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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.

As an alumni (Class of 2008) of the birthplace of Black College Football also known as Livingstone College, this book is a great historical book for not only sports and African American historians but also U.S. historians. The story of the first football game between LC and Biddle Institute (now Johnson C. Smith University)not only started football programs for both schools and other HBCUs but it also established a hundred some odd year rilvary between the two institutions that is still going on to ths very day. Go Blue Bears!!

Black college football - football at Historically-Black Colleges - existed in a parallel universe to what most people think of as "college football," and as a result its players and coaches went largely unnoticed by the vast majority of football fans. This book doesn't dwell on the obvious social injustices that made it necessary -instead, it deals with football for football's sake, filling in the blanks for those of us who never had a chance to know those men.